Still Life Sounds closed a four-stack bill at O’Brien’s Pub on a sleepy Sunday, 19 February 2023.

Locals Husbands and Christian Pace sandwiched a set by New York’s Plight.

How bright is too bright for a night club looking for a little ambience? There is no single answer to the question. The 70-year old co-owner of Arlington’s Regent Theatre Rick Stavros maintains that a venue’s lighting should be dimmed between seven and eight o’clock in the evening, but different venues have different needs.

A 24-hour diner, for example, will never hit the dimmer. Customers come expecting a clean, well-lit place whether it’s three in the afternoon or three in the morning. While the fluorescent illumination may not prove the most flattering after a night out, it will sober you up when you need sobering.

A bar or a restaurant, on the other hand, will want to hit a happy medium in the evening. Bright enough to find your way around the room, buy your next drink, see the food you order. Dark enough to round off some of the rougher edges of the joint: the carpet with the irremovable stain, the dust built up on the top-shelf bottles, the mouse or two playing in the corners. Out of sight, out of mind. 

In theory, O’Brien’s Pub fits into the latter category. In practice, it’s hard to effectively and intelligently light a space that small with an impressive amount of multi-modal usage within its tight confines.

While the patrons enjoying music might want it a little dimmer, you also have to think about light needs for the person checking IDs at the door; for the bands setting up, performing, and breaking down; for perusing the merch table; for working the sound board; for selling drinks and making change at the bar. All of this activity and more within a space the size of a glorified studio apartment.

As a result, the lighting at O’Brien’s Pub tends to skew a bit brighter than the imaginary ideal. Sunday night was a particularly bright one, as if to remind most of the crowd that they had some sort of enforced labor in the morning (do you get Presidents Day off?). Blame the lights overhead, sure, but don’t forget the shining lighthouse of Alexandria that is the women’s bathroom.

What is it with the women’s bathroom at O’Brien’s Pub? That thing burns brighter than the light of a thousand suns. Would it kill customers or staff or whoever to shut the door? If there’s some brilliant reason the door is left open, can we at least shut it most of the way? Music at night is a vibe, and that catastrophic solar flare of a restroom is killing it.

Christian Pace

Christian Pace leaned into the sleepiness of the Sunday with his crew of medium-tempo gazey rockers. The ensemble performs as a four-piece, bringing to life the songs of the Boston-based singer/songwriter.

There is a pleasantly narcotic propulsion that builds up about three-quarters of the way through most Pace compositions. The sound is full, but he never overstresses the ear with an overabundance of elements. The drum fills and lead guitar solos are expertly controlled, delivering the right accents while shunning empty flash.

Most of the setlist came off Pace’s EP Skunk, recorded at (among other places) Sound Museum. RIP. By the way, is that a new bassist? Or was the bassist from the Rockwell show a fill-in?

Plight

New York’s Plight flew in from Dover, New Hampshire, and boy were its wings tired. The alt rock four-piece began “Day Five” of “The World Takeover Tour” with an interminable soundcheck that mostly involved the sound guy delivering various formulations of the phrase “turn it down.” 

Sometimes to the bassist, sometimes to the frontman, sometimes to the lead guitar. 

Sometimes in combinations, like to the bassist and the frontman, or the frontman and the lead guitarist, or all three at once. 

Sometimes vocals only, alone or combined in two or three layers, or sometimes vocals and instruments, all together and at the same time.

After the soundcheck reached its erotic climax, the frontman instructed the crowd to take “five giants steps forward” as Plight proceeded to play a gloomy, doomy, grungy, gazey set in honor of the drummer’s mother, who was in the house. Extra points for the coolest looking Rickenbacker bass on planet Earth.

Husbands

Husbands have been gigging lately at divey spots around town: O’Brien’s Pub, Silhouette Lounge, Midway Cafe. If they haven’t hit them yet, it’s just a matter of time before they’ll play Charlie’s Kitchen or State Park. They even have an acoustic gig at the new joint Fields West.

What’s up with acoustic gigs at Fields West? Is it an acoustic-only set up or what? All the booked shows there seem to be acoustic, and the website isn’t operational yet to check either way.

Husbands has the kind of band name that brings a teary, bleary-eyed Adam Driver to mind. Not a good thing or a bad thing, but definitely a thing.

The Boston-based four-piece includes a keyboardist in addition to the usual grunge guitar assault. The keys give the band a little different flavor, though a slightly wonky mix on Sunday night erased most of their contributions. Shout out to songs that ended so abruptly even the players seemed surprised by their finish.

Still Life Sounds

Boston’s Still Life Sounds is one of those post rock outfits that go for big walls of sonic tumult. Shades of Caspian. And like a lot of post rock, you can take or leave the vocals, which are used more for adding an extra ingredient into the musical stew rather than trying to tell a story about this, that, or Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson as a warring couple going through a brutal coast-to-coast divorce. 

Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson? All the stars are here! And nothing burns brighter and hotter than Hollywood, with the exception of the phase 4, category 8, red giant supernova exploding out of the women’s bathroom at O’Brien’s Pub. 

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