Reading Room closes out the back room at Silhouette Lounge on Monday, 13 March 2023.

Jake Hunsinger, First Passionate Frisbee Club, and Bad At Drawing open the four-stack bill.

The longtime regulars at Silhouette Lounge remember the former fixture behind the bar Irene.

If they don’t, they can swivel their necks around to view her portrait at the back of the Allston dive. This is the moment in the post that screams for a photo. But instead of providing one, why don’t you make a pilgrimage to her old stomping ground and raise a tallboy of ‘Gansett in Irene’s honor?

In this episode of As The Sil Turns, Bill the Bartender recalls the bygone bartender, whom he variously dubs Irene “the rocket queen” or Irene “queen bee.” She worked the taps and cans for thirty odd years before the change in ownership, as Bill tells it, inspired thoughts of her own retirement. When you work a job that long, you get used to a certain way of doing things, which doesn’t always gel with new boss.

As Bill tells it, Irene was in her 80s and already thinking about hanging it up. Her portrait captures her thirty year stint at the bar: a shock of red hair, eyes that look right back into yours, poised to pour you a drink, probably not too interested in your bullshit, ready for a laugh, ready to wake up the next day and do it all again. There’s something heroic in the workaday routine.

Anyway, find that portrait.

Quick hits:

• Celtics got all they could handle from the Houston Rockets through three quarters, then fumbled a chance to pull ahead for the win in the fourth. Boston can only lose to these “objectively inferior” squads so many times before you start to wonder what’s what.

• There was talk among the old time regulars about a botched romantic turn earlier in the evening. Something about a potential hookup that flatlined when someone went in for the hug instead of the kiss. The elders counseled: “Hug it out, tug it out.” Best not to dig too deeply.

• A drunk bar patron was talking up the financial merits of the Silhouette Lounge Hot Dog Tattoo Deal. That is, get a Sil tattoo, get free hot dogs for life. “You only need to eat 15 or so before you break even.” Maybe so, maybe not. Before you get the ink, do a little reconnaissance mission to find out how often the hot dog machine is fired up and ready to serve. You can’t eat free hot dogs that don’t exist.

Jake Hunsinger

Jake Hunsinger? Is it pronounced like ‘gunslinger’? Oh wait, beat me to it. You don’t often find legit cowboy hat-wearing strummers in the Allston dive, but a four-stack bill in the backroom of the Silhouette Lounge can accommodate most genres.

Hunsinger regularly plays with the Rock Bottom Band, a Rhode Island-based outfit. Tonight was a solo performance, full of twang and winsome prairie plaints. 

There’s a borderland territory between rock and country that Johnny Cash walked for years, dialing up the badass and dialing down the cowpoke. Hunsinger eschewed all half measures, delivering a set that was full-on country radio. You’ve got to find your stage where you can find it in a town that can’t boast many country bars, or even country-adjacent bars.

First Passionate Frisbee Club

Is Pink Navel in First Passionate Frisbee Club? A permanent member, or a rotating fill-in? There was some backstory about a gig missed due to sickness or injury or otherwise. The local hip hop luminary and music maven behind Knobs stepped up to fill the slot. 

The FPFC delivered a solo acoustic set of idiosyncratic indie strummer tunes. Pink Navel’s hip hop sets always feel like a lark, and his turn as a Club-member struck similar notes. One nice thing about taking turns in different genres: you can import the best elements of each into the other. 

Shout out to the capo. At one point FPFC claimed it was easy to play guitar if you committed to “cheating.” Hey, capos aren’t cheating! They’re just a tool of the trade.

Bad At Drawing

Boston’s Bad At Drawing brought a loud, energetic attack with some aughts-era “Meet Me In the Bathroom” club rock dizziness.

If the stage was a gyroscope, the four-piece BAD would have spun it off its axis. Shades of grungier Square Loop. Shades of Rage Against the Machine. Shades of lamps.

Extra points for the artillery fire percussion at various high points during the set.

Reading Room

Reading Room delivered a well-crafted set of structurally-sound, load-bearing indie rock.

The three-piece mixed originals and covers, though the covers sounded quite original. A version of Oasis’ “Wonderwall” fashioned the song for RR’s three-piece ensemble, finding the spirit of the original without attempting superficial mimicry.

Shout out to the clean bass play – no filters or effects to gum up the works. 

Extra points for luring Bill the Bartender into the backroom, who took precious minutes away from his money-making hours to see Reading Room live, if only for a moment. High praise at the Sil. Then it was back to the “hug and tug” discourse at the bar.

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