Lobohombre rounds out the matinee at Midway Cafe on Sunday, 25 February 2024.

The Pint Killers, The Hagglers, and Shuriken kick off the festivities in the opening slots.

RIP Turtle Swamp Brewing.

The independent brewery, just a few blocks from Midway Cafe, poured its last pint last August. It was a beautiful contribution to the Jamaica Plain neighborhood, with a great selection and regular community events.

The two operators John & Nik were always close at hand, willing to drop everything to chat with customers about everything from Herman Melville to bicycles to the aromatic nuances of their latest brew.

Beer is a tough business. Competition is fierce among the smaller breweries fighting for the scraps left by the Big Domestics. Turtle Swamp isn’t the only brewery that struggled to navigate the pandemic, it happened all over. But it was Jamaica Plain’s brewpub, and the neighborhood is poorer for its absence.

Around the time that Turtle Swamp announced it was closing shop, a new brewery was scheduled to open just down the street, Drawdown Brewery. Were the two facts connected? If Turtle Swamp was struggling after the pandemic, maybe the prognosis became all the more dire with new local competition.

So what of Drawdown Brewery? The new brewpub is located in the first floor retail spot of the brooding yuppie apartment complex at 3200 Washington St. You know the type of place. The units are significantly overpriced, but what you’re really paying for is the grandiose foyer guarded by a guy at a desk so that no one who’s actually from the neighborhood wanders in by accident. Or on purpose. Rich parents are willing to pay extra on behalf of their rich children for such amenities.

That’s no reflection on the brewery, which is a more modest operation than Turtle Swamp judging from the size of the beer vats. The interior space is the size of a nail salon and sports the aesthetic of a basement rec room waiting to be decorated. You never get the sense that you’re enjoying your beer in the midst of an active brewery operation for better or worse. Some people like that rustic and rough-edged industrial workplace vibe, some people don’t.

But let’s get down to it: how’s the beer?

Pretty good. The menu at a recent visit was a good mix of easy drinkers and meatier fare. They don’t go crazy with IPAs. And they don’t seem to attract the kind of crowd that gets torqued up about IPAs either. Which seems like a positive thing.

Based on the location alone, Drawdown will never be Turtle Swamp. On the basis of beer, though, worth a visit.

Old time rock n roll, delivered with a punk edge, straight outta Connecticut. It’s Shuriken! What the heck does ‘Shuriken’ mean? Does it mean ‘a Japanese concealed weapon used by samurai or ninja or in martial arts as a hidden dagger or metsubushi to distract or misdirect?’ Maybe so, maybe not. Hey, there’s a Shuriken from Brisbane, Australia too. But their last release was in 2011 so maybe they’re defunct.

A punk four-piece with three- and four-chord blitzes, plus a few vocal harmonies. It’s The Hagglers! One of the guitarist announced that he “only knows three fucking songs” and his bandmates advised him not to “fuck it up.”

Another punk four-piece, but The Pint Killers was fronted by a dedicated vocalist. Which is a whole other look for a punk band. When you’re not doing double duty with vox & instrument, you can really lean into the performative aspect of singing. The frontman was bouncing all over the place, at one point half-falling, half-jumping into the pit. Joining him in the pit? A toddler with noise canceling headphones who was running riot during the third set. A matinee show is a family affair.

The three-piece Spanish-language punk rock band Lobohombre closed out the bill with oldies like “Soy Feliz,” deep dives down the Wolfman mythology rabbit hole, and maybe a new band member? Maybe named Eric? That’s some Sunday reporting for you on a Hump Day’s afternoon. Crack another ‘Gansett.

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