Metal Blues Ballers

Adapter Adapter paired hot licks and harmonica at Silhouette Lounge on Monday, 22 May 2023.

Rougarou, Blue Manic, and Strawberry Coffin filled a four-stack bill with heavy sounds.

The Lakers were getting blown out by the Nuggets on the television above the head of Bill the Bartender at the Silhouette Lounge. It was a sweep!

Can the Celtics avoid the same fate? The hometown team is doing everything in its power to give the fanbase heartbreak and headache in the Eastern Conference Finals against Jimmy Butler playing in god-mode. Watch if you dare.

Quick hits:

The Bathrobe Guy was in the house. Seems like there was an O’Brien’s Pub contingent in the house in general to cheer on the opener Rougarou, which features at least one of the dudes who works at the Allston club around the corner.
Bill the Bartender had the hot dog machine rolling. What was the occasion?
Rumor has it that Tyler the Sound Guy is organizing a music fest up in Salem called something like Hope Festival… When are we going to hear more news on that front?

Nobody needs another Lakers/Celtics final if it was going to feature that janky, over-the-hill superstar squad from Los Angeles. But a Nuggets/Celtics series? Would love to see the Cs try to clamp down on the Joker. Grant Williams could rehash his Batman bit.

Rougarou

The rougarou (or loup-garou) is a monster from Cajun folklore. It’s a freaky sort of thing that’s inspired a few bands.

Don’t confuse Boston’s Rougarou with the one from Salt Lake City, or the one from Asheville, or the band that goes by Rougaroux up north in Vancouver.

Our local Rougarou can make good on the Cajun promise by adding a little banjo into the mix for a swampy, jammy sound.

It’s deep-fried roadhouse music that makes for good ambience while smashing a glass beer bottle over someone’s head in an 80s action flick. You know, one of those “odd couple” type of flicks where the straight-laced partner is always trying and failing to keep the wildcard partner in check.

Check out this snippet of “Sun Song” recorded live a while back, posted up at their Facebook.

Blue Manic

Blue Manic kicked off their set with a long, winding instrumental jammer that could have been a Berklee grad’s senior thesis for all its nuance and genre-surfing.

Within the general fold of heavy guitar rock, the local four-piece mixed blues, post rock, and hints of doom sludge. Tempo changes figured in at key moments, sewing shorter pop music notions into more epic tapestries of sound.

It’s music for advanced rock n roll stoners who need more than a guitar solo to get their kicks. Forget thirty second noodling, Blue Manic launched the entire song into the sun on their double-digit running time space odysseys.

Adapter Adapter

Rhode Island’s Adapter Adapter brought an array of harmonicas to the backroom on Monday night.

The lead singer firmly affixed the tin sandwich to the mic stand to trade between vocal duties and laying down the gob iron.

On a night of heavy music, the Ocean State band kept the fires burning with a gritty, bluesy, metal-laced mix. A kind of southern rock feel: Molly Hatchet meets Black Sabbath meets Metallica meets the mouth harp.

If you listened closely, you may have heard a few songs off their 2023 LP Sleep Spell.

Strawberry Coffin

Strawberry Coffin? Sounds like a sticky mess and an ant’s dream. The closer slowed down the night’s tempo to a more leisurely crawl, serving up a sludgy nightcap to the assembled crowd.

By the time Boston-based three-piece switched off their amps, the Lakers were long since finished. Will the Celtics follow them with an ignonimous exit from the Playoffs? Ime might have the last laugh…