Mingko and Lane bookended a bill at O’Brien’s Pub on Friday, January 6 2023.

New Haven’s Them Airs and late add Champagne Charlie filled out the meaty middle.

After a shared December date at a consignment store gig fell through, local rockers Mingko and Lane found each other in the New Year at O’Brien’s Pub.

It was a four-stack bill to while away the hours as Congress was still gator wrestling for a new Speaker of the House. Is it always a moment of political ferment or general chaos when bands take the stage at the Allston spot, the armpit of Boston rock n roll, or does it just feel like it?

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R) would have horse-traded all the pork barrels in the world to secure the Speaker position, which he’s been pining for since 2015, in time to cool off, chill out, and catch the artrock, postpunk mashup onstage with the rest of the Allston rats. With a D- grade from NORML, though, the conservative crust-zaddy from California would likely pass on the dutchie from the left aisle side. Give the man a ‘Gansett and a slap on the back.

Mingko

Mingko performed as a four-piece, with two fill-in members. The last minute add, whether band or band members, was a major theme of the night. Which is a great thing – it’s a sign of a healthy music scene when there’s enough talent, familiarity, camaraderie to mix and match depending on circumstance.

The reshuffled roster ably delivered on the art-damaged rock, jazz-inflected vision of fronter Abigail Zachko, pride of Hoboken.

Shades of Mamalarky, a genre kaleidoscope that navigated precious compositions with precision chops.

Champagne Charlie

Champagne Charlie introduced a jam band twist. The four-piece from Boston celebrated expansive guitar exploration on a night that was otherwise devoted to terse, intentional melodic phrasing. Their roster also played host to a fill-in, but the newly-arrived bassist didn’t miss a beat.

You will rarely be disappointed by a band whose rhythm section is enjoying itself as much as Champagne Charlie’s was on Friday night. The drummer and bassist were trading nods and grins and winks the whole set as the fill-in felt his way through the songs.

Fill-in or not, the bassist kept pace with the lead guitar on a memorable guitar duel later in the set. On top of the rhythm section the lead singer and lead guitarist charted jammy, vintage rock waters. In fact, the look of most of the band could have been peeled off the pages of a 1970’s issue of Creem.

Them Airs

New Haven’s Them Airs kicked off their set with a self-deprecating swipe at their home state.

Connecticut’s an easy target, kind of a satellite state feeding off the cultural vibrations of its neighbors. But it’s too easy of a target. The rambunctious postpunkery of Them Airs is proof enough that the “Land of Steady Habits” doesn’t have to apologize to anyone.

The five-piece traded vocal duties between the drummer and guitarist. Shades of emo and pop punk in the songwriting, but the layers of guitar and tight delivery elevated the attack into more compelling territory. Shades of The Dreamtoday, or maybe a Square Loop.

Them Airs’ stage presence plays like a punk show, which might make sense if you’re a band looking for steady gigs in the middle of Connecticut. The punk circuit is probably the most reliable and regular opportunity for gigs for enterprising bands, whether you’re a punker or not. It's a long haul to more club-rich destinations like New York, Boston, or Bangor, Maine.

Them Airs ended with a bratty flourish, howling feedback, while they decorated one of their bandmates with live guitars like a Jackass Xmas tree. Shout out to Der Tannenbaum sporting the O’Brien’s Pub t-shirt that looked like it had been hastily screenprinted by an Irish freedom fighter at some point in the mid-80s.

Lane

On any given night Lane can sound like very different bands, but there are at least two directions that their horses seem to usually pull: (1) a kind of hurky-jurky New Wave-style of artpop, and (2) a kraut-jazz inflected prog minimalism.

We heard more of the former from the four-piece on Friday night, a night which offered a slightly different lineup than their set at Midway Cafe in mid-November.

Shout out to the drummer for looking like a younger version of American philosopher Andrew Cutrofello, one of the leading postmodern readers and thinkers of the legacy of German philosopher Immanuel Kant.

Kant is not the most quotable philosopher, but the following is fairly typical: “Nothing is divine but what is agreeable to reason.” There’s a little bit of the über-rational in the mathy gyrations of Lane’s songs. Maybe a kind of Positivist stare down with musical notes that rarely rests on the easy chair of shopworn melodies. At their best Lane creates enervating and fresh pop constructs that bloom in the air like invisible spirographs. Good stuff.

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