Hot Dog Daydreams

`Food and drink at the Silhouette Lounge.`

The White Bear Principle mulls a tattoo at the Silhouette Lounge on Wednesday, 19 July 2023.

The Love Shamans, Peregrine Dream, and Robot Food frolic among the juicy vapors of encased meat products.

Hot dog daydreams. Better than night terrors. Didn’t we just cover The Wurst the other day?

Wednesday was National Hot Dog Day (and a Hump Night!), and the Silhouette Lounge was not letting a potential marketing and promotion opportunity go gently into that good night.

You all know about the tattoo promotion at the Sil. Get a Sil tattoo, get a free hot dog every day for life. Here are the details, if you’re interested…

What’s a free hot dog worth to you? Hard to quantify. But consider how many hot dogs most tattoos earn their owners. None. So if you were going to get a tattoo anyway, why not one that will keep you fed? It will be a great story to tell your non-existent grandchildren as the warming Earth explodes into a fiery ball in the next few decades.

If you weren’t ready for a tattoo, the Sil still had a decent deal for paying customers. Something like a dollar per dog in honor of National Hot Dog Day. At least the first hot dog. The next one’s going to cost you the normal price.

Sarah Leib of the Silhouette Lounge promoted the deal on CBS Boston. It’s one of the TV channels. Can’t say which. Check it out!

Robot Food

Robot Food. Robots don’t need food. That’s the thing about robots.

The one-man set-up included a guitar, keys, mixer, and a bevy of pedals at foot. It’s amazing what kinds of live sounds one person can squeeze out of the right rig. Though you need more arms than Vishnu to operate it all at once.

The Boston-based outfit laid down a heavy dressing of atmospheric rock fusion gyrations atop a bed of canned beats. The focus was centered on the celestial guitar and keys patterns floating above, but he pulled off a few percussive flourishes with his fourth arm and fifth hand.

Peregrine Dream

No, not peregrine! It’s Peregrine Dream. Rolls off the tongue like Tangerine Dream.

The four-piece from Portsmouth, New Hampshire plays a kind of indie groove that stops short of funk. There’s a jammy rhythm section but the lead guitar stays in a postpunk lane with restrained solos and fills.

The setlist was composed of a mix of originals and covers, including Bob Marley’s “Stir It Up.” Shout out to the lead vocalist for going falsetto and extra points for actually hitting it.

The White Bear Principle

The White Bear Principle is a psychological theory about attention and attention suppression.

You know when you try not to think about something (like a white bear) and that’s all you think about? The more you know…

The Boston three-piece rocked a metal ethos with some postmetal musical ideas. Maybe some emo and doom persuasions?

A sticky bass drum pedal slowed the trio out of the gates. A quick fix ensued, and the bass drum fired off like a cannon for the rest of the set.

Shout out to the final song of the set, an epic musical journey that cut crossways through a number of genres. Shades of Ageotan.

The Love Shamans

The Love Shamans performed as a duo, guitars and drums, departing from their typical three-piece lineup.

The songwriting from the local rockers has the sort of economy that can handle the downsize. You lose the meaty low end without the bass, but you can sell it as a kind of pop minimalism a la White Stripes. If Science Penguin can do it, why not The Love Shamans?

Everyone’s bassist must be on summer vacation.