Castle Doctor takes two and calls Silhouette Lounge in the morning on Monday, 24 July 2023.

Thee Fightin Fish and Amber Fly go flyfishin’ in the opening slots.

All the regulars sitting along the bar at Silhouette Lounge were talking about the serial killer.

Rex Heuermann. You heard the name?

He’s a 59-year old architect from Long Island. He’s got a wife, two kids, and a nice beach house with a soundproof room with an iron door in the basement stocked with “more than 200 guns.” He only had permits for 92 of his weapons! (How’s it even possible to have permits for 92 weapons?).

Police somehow fingered Heuermann for the murder of at least four sex workers, maybe more, with some of the cases stretching back more than a decade. New bodies keep getting dug up by his home at Gilgo Beach.

Gun count and buried bodies aside, it’s the “soundproof room” that raises the red flag. Bill the Bartender repeated the factoid with relish. Soundproof room. The notion just screams serial killer. It’s probably where he chopped up his victims, Bill surmised.

Nothing soundproof about the backroom at the Sil. You could hear the whole show just fine sitting at the bar in the frontroom, save yourself $10. But everyone knows that you need to see live music, not just hear it. Otherwise, it doesn’t count. No one knows why.

In other news, you heard some idiot tried to pull off a drive-by shooting on a bicycle in the North End?

Thee Fightin’ Fish

How many members of Thee Fightin Fish are in Hammered Saint? Or should we be asking the other way around. How many members of Hammered Saint are in Thee Fightin Fish?

If each band was a Russian doll, which would fit over the other? Band membership can be such an amorphous concept that sometimes it’s not worth asking the question.

In any event, Boston’s Thee Fightin Fish performed as a two-piece in the backroom of the Sil on Monday night. Two guitars, no drums. It was a garage punk, lo fi affair. When the duo really got cooking there was a strong Chuck Berry energy with Teddy Boy en déshabillé style.

Amber Fly

Like the flies from Jurassic Park? Life finds a way.

It was a night for two-piece ensembles, which happens now and then at the Sil.

Amber Fly brought one guitarist and one drummer for a pop punk setlist. Extra points for pulling the drummer, like a hockey team down too many points in the third period, for a vocal duet.

Castle Doctor

Straight outta New Mexico, it’s Castle Doctor!

Third of three bands, all two-pieces, but credit the depth and breadth of IBOOKTHINGS’ Google Sheets to pull together three two-piece garage acts with different approaches. Not a White Stripes clone among them.

The Albuquerque (tough to spell!) band employed a bass guitar and drums combo. Ted let it rip up front on four strings while Stu launched the cannonade in back. Shades of Lighting Bolt. Genre surfers from punk to metal to shades of jazz.

Again, no White Stripes clone, but their song “Blue Orchid” did have some Jack White flair. The pair’s sound was way more melodic than you’d expect from what is basically a rhythm section that got lost in the aisles at Home Depot. This band rocks.