Dwelley was born on the Bayou at Midway Cafe on Saturday, 13 January 2024.

XO, Sweet Nothings, and GhostGuard see the rain in the opening slots.

It’s become a minor tradition in Midway Cafe writeups to lead off the piece with a mini-profile of a local kickass business that adds color to the neighborhood.

How about Chilacates, the Mexican food place?

Yes, yes – it’s a chain, which steals some of its luster. You want a tipoff to some hole-in-the-wall, Mom & Pop shop that nobody has ever heard of. But sometimes the good stuff is right in front of your nose, and we don’t need to be so precious about revering the obscure for the sake of obscurity.

Chilacates has a satisfying formula: a menu that is tight, trim, quick to prepare, and tasty to put down. Not much dine-in space, but the operation is built to pump out deliveries and takeout service.

The menu has all the essentials, plus a few outliers like the beef tongue for burritos, tacos, and so forth. Let’s be honest – people don’t really like beef tongue, so much respect for saying “fuck you” and putting it on the menu anyway. Why not calf’s brain to boot?

The only question mark that might stamp itself on your forehead is the nomenclature for burrito sizes. There’s Guey and Patron. What’s that all about? Who can say… We did some light Wikipedia research and still couldn’t puzzle the pieces together.

Suffice to say, Guey is small and Patron is large.

There’s a location at 224 Amory Street. Right by the Stony Brook orange line stop, if you’re coming by train. Grab some takeout and wash it down with a beer at Midway Cafe.

That’s a chill Hump Night.

GhostGuard

Is this normally a three- or four-piece? GhostGuard fielded just two acoustic guitars on Saturday night. At least one Foo Fighters cover. Was is driving, high energy, catchy, and evocative of British and US -alternative rock of the 1990's and 2000's? Some would say. But with two folky six-stringers, it was more of a coffee house vibe than night club. Sounds like they’ve got another gig at Cantab Lounge in March with the full band.

Sweet Nothings

A four-piece rock n roll ensemble straight outta Quincy. It’s Sweet Nothings, which should be a perfect emo band name. But this rocked harder and seemed more well-adjusted. The songs rollicked and rollercoastered, while the drummer attacked the skins so intensely he upended the crash. A mix of originals and covers, including a cut from Led Zeppelin.

XO

The perfect transition here would be the line: “From south of Boston to north of Boston, with Portland’s XO.” But the Portland we’re talking about must not be in Maine because XO’s Bandcamp lists them as a Los Angeles band...

So are we talking about a west coast band that migrated along the Pacific Ocean to the City of Angels, or are we talking about an east coast band that followed the setting sun until they ran out of land underfoot?

Looks like the core of the band consists of the Turner brothers, Jeff and Jake, who are credited with all the sound & visual credits you can find online. On Saturday night, though, XO performed as a four-piece with your classic outfitting of two electric guitars, bass, and drums.

The music was hazey, gazey, and the quartet clearly enjoyed a good feedback trill or squawk as the situation demanded. Think: shoegaze textures and britpop structures. A little bit of Gin Blossoms with less shag and a few post-emo hangups.

Dwelley

Extra points straight out of the gate for Dwelley.

Why? Four mics for four musicians. This is a band that likes to chirp, kicking out some nice vocal layers.

Vocals are super underused in a lot of bands playing out these days. Which seems crazy. All the money you pay for instruments and accessories… Your voice is free. Sure, you’ve got to mic it, but still, your voice is free.

It can be hard, though, to sing and play at the same time. Like walking and chewing gum. Dwelley pulled it off just fine. This seems like one of those bands where each member could put on the bandleader hat for a song, then trade it off down the line.

Saw the same thing recently at another Midway Cafe show with Float Stanley. A band without a cut-and-dry fronter has strange and awesome powers, like a worm that can be cut in four pieces that will carry on as four new worms.

What’s Dwelley’s sound like? Let’s call it swamp altcore.

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