Happy Just To See You stays in character at Silhouette Lounge on Monday, 4 September 2023.

Scrivener and In Use complete the slider trio.

Bill the Bartender was regaling a tourist couple from Philly with an itinerary of local dives.

The couple knew they liked the hotdog, beer, and noise dive Silhouette Lounge. Now they wanted to widen their circle. Bill was here to help.

He suggested a few joints within walking distance. Out the door to your left was Model Cafe, whose Google Business listing self-describes as “Cocktails & beers come in a bare-bones setting with a variety of bar games including pinball.” Sounds familiar.

He also suggested O’Brien’s Pub, where Bill used to work over a decade ago. Erik O. Yelp-reviewed the pub over a decade ago (which is probably the last time you logged into Yelp, if you ever have) and shouted out the “pretty grimey back patio if your into that” (sic).

O’Brien’s Pub has a back patio? Where the fuck is that? Did they cordone it off due to its ‘pretty grimey-ness’?

The couple took Bill’s advice and left for a little walking tour, an Allston-themed bar crawl.

Not sure if they didn’t like what they found, got lost, or just missed Bill’s puckish grin, because they walked back through the doors of the Sil within the half hour.

A beer in hand is worth two in the bush.

In Use

The solo guitarist In Use spun out a set of lofi indie jazz rock. He fingered the kinds of chords that give your standard giggers heart palpitations. You know, the four-or-more fret spanners that transform your hands into ragged claws scuttling across the floors of silent seas. The musician reported that a new EP is en route.

Happy Just To See You

The New Hampshire band’s name is a hook on which you have to hang a hat every time you get home from school or work. The kind of name you have to live up to. It turned out to be no winking irony. Happy Just To See You was a sunshine beam of indie rock with pop vibrations.

And the quartet included a dedicated violin. Not a one- or two-song diversion, rather a fully-incorporated fiddle that lent their sound a rootsy swell.

The band reeled in the crowd with clean-sounding anthemic hooks. Shades of Hallelujah The Hills meets Barenaked Ladies.

Shout out to the crazy drunk in the front room who smashed his pool stick against the water cooler in time to the one of the song’s crescendo. Felt that rhythm.

Scrivener

The only scrivener most people know is Bartleby of Melville’s “Bartleby, the Scrivener” fame.

But there’s a few Bartelbys in music. There’s a Bartleby in Czechia and Spain. There’s a Bartleby Delicate in Luxembourg. There’s a The Bartleby Jones in New Jersey.

At least a couple of Scriveners too. There’s a Scrivener in Olympia, Washington on our own Scrivener in Boston.

With a whole country spanning the distance between the pair, the Scriveners likely never meet each other. Makes sense, fits with the scrivener’s preferences. He seemed a lone wolf sort.

Boston’s Scrivener had the sound of a singer-songwriter led trio indie rock night out. A Hump Night out. What other nights are there?

Shout out to Dylan S. for winning a pair of tickets!

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