Rick Maguire strums solo at Deep Cuts on Saturday, 15 June 2024.

Landowner, Yuvees, and Paper Jays jam for Mark Erdody in the opening slots.

The night of music served as a medical benefit concert to raise funds for Mark Erdody, a longtime local musician in the area who is going through a course of treatment and recovery from Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Everything is expensive, especially medical bills. Help if you can.

Hump Nights

Nov 22

Cortez / Worshipper / Curse The Son

Nov 30

WORM | Presidential Disgrace | Screw Cart | Neponset Monastary

Dec 3

ONCE Presents: Ezra Furman Doing What She Wants

Dec 4

The Ladybug Transistor / Lightheaded / Mark Robinson (of Cotton Candy)

Dec 7

The Lotusheads / The Dead Flowers / Music Farm / The Pretty Fears

Dec 13

The 4th Wall: Nectarine Girl, Special Guest, Exit 18, Wulfer

Dec 13

Big Ol’ Dirty Bucket / Funk Safari

Dec 14

ONCE Presents: Scream Along Blue Xmas w/ Billy Hough

$Fat Togue Holiday Bash: Give Up!, Love City Dirt, BAD\\VERB$

Dec 16

Fat Togue Holiday Bash: Give Up!, Love City Dirt, BAD\\VERB

Dec 26

Bohemian Rhapsody Sing-Along

Dec 31

Bohemian Rhapsody Sing-Along

The three-piece Paper Jays flashed moments of afro folk flavor with rhythmic and repetitive droning guitar. The real star of the show, though, was all the percussive madness centerstage. Along with the more conventional congas, maracas, and gourds, the percussionist was playing around with what looked like chunky, multi-colored, Mardi Gras beads. Whatever it takes.

The four-piece from Brooklyn Yuvees traded around vocal duties during a heavy pop set with some artrock notes. One of the guitarists snapped his third string in the middle of a song. He rolled with it for a while, but ultimately had to switch it up. It’s hard to play any type of chord, conventional or otherwise, with the third string missing – that string is plum in the meaty middle of all the action.

Yuvee was missing a guitar string, and Landowner was missing a guitarist. The band out of Holyoke performed as a three-piece, assigning some extra six-string duties to the lead vocalist. Why not? It didn’t feel like a version of the band that could play every song in their catalog, but there was more than enough material to play a medical benefit in Medford.

If you keep your eyes open, you’ll see Rick Maguire (of Pile) pop up on bills to play solo sets around town. All the pathos of Pile, with just a third of the calories. Maguire’s songcraft would prove overpowered for a cafe joint, but a black box stage wired for louder electric sounds, like Deep Cuts, can accommodate the power and the glory.