Hypnofruit steer clear of Sharp Objects at Union Tavern on Friday, 7 June 2024.

Clocked Out, Korina Zambrano, and Allure spike the punch on the four-stack bill.

The Jamaica Plain Music Festival is coming!

Also known as the JP Music Fest. That’s got more zing.

It will be the 12th edition, coming your way in September, and each year is organized with tender love and care by a neighborhood community that loves live music and knows how to have a good time. This is a bottom-up affair, by and for the people, and it needs your support.

If you missed the annual Smell The Love fundraiser, you can still donate below!

If you missed the fundraiser show in March at the American Legion Hall with Rick Berlin, Colonel Broccoli and the Legion Basement Band, and Fantastic Trees, you can still donate below!

And if you didn’t make it out to Midway Cafe on June 4 in time to catch the annual classic fundraiser John Casey’s JP Bar Wars, you can still donate below!

Do your part to keep Jamaica Plain fresh AND funky.

Hump Nights

Dec 31

Bohemian Rhapsody Sing-Along

Jan 5

The 4th Wall: Pulsr, Grief Mop, Community College, Alexander

Jan 8

Fully Celebrated Orchestra and Guests

Jan 29

Born Innocent: the Redd Kross Story

Jan 30

1-800-ON-HER-OWN

Feb 1

ONCE Presents: The Womps and The Chops

Feb 6

The Fuzztones vs The World

Feb 21

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: An A/V Celebration

There’s a special town celebration called Calhoun Day in the fictional town of Wind Gap from the streaming series Sharp Objects. It’s a supposedly sleepy southern town, except there’s a serial killer afoot. During the fever pitch of the investigation, while fingers are pointing at various suspicious personages in town, the town organizes the annual historical day of remembrance.

What are they remembering? Some weird event from the Civil War, more myth than history, when Union soldiers tortured a local missus who refused to surrender and otherwise compromise herself to the marauders from up North.

It was a weird event, and a weird scene from the TV series. The locals gathered in bunches, socialized a bit, but generally kept to pre-established cliques and whispered about each other.

Now, Friday’s show at Union Tavern was nowhere near as diabolical or steeped in southern crime drama. But there was a really locals vibe, like there usually is at the former PA’s Lounge, with local bands entertaining their friends, family, and otherwise in front of a mural of a dog smoking a stogie.

The four-piece Allure opened the four-stack bill, kicking off the night with a mash-up of rock, soul, and blues samplers.

Calhoun Day (in the TV show) went off the rails when a fight broke out between two murder suspects, which triggered a bad trip freakout in one of the main characters, who had dropped acid a bit before getting up onstage to perform a historical skit and reenactment. She ran offstage, got lost in the woods, and scraped her knees up badly while waiting for the high to subside.

No such drama or horseplay at the Union Tavern show, although there did seem to be a few tables of good ol’ boys. You know the type: they travel in packs, take up an increasing amount of space and oxygen as they get liquored up, and are never “looking for a fight” but damned if it doesn’t find them most nights out. Applications for the State Police have already been submitted.

Korina Zambrano fronted a four-piece indie folk outfit, which you might call ‘indie rock’, but the fiddle accompaniment lends strong folk textures. She reported from stage that a new song called “Monday” was about to drop – probably the polished version of the “Monday” demo that posted on Soundcloud about five months back. You can pre-save it at all the usual spots. But no Bandcamp. Bummer!

Like most crime dramas Sharp Objects has a twist at the end. I won’t spoil it, but you’ll probably see it coming from a few miles off.

These types of thrillers seem to be split into one of two categories: either the whodunnit is way too easy to spot, or the supposed clues are all poorly-written red herrings that no one could be reasonably expected to piece together.

Hypnofruit jammed as an indie rock quartet with a penchant for overalls. Nice vocal duets. A real swinging kind of surf bounce when they want it. Shout out to the cover of “Oh! Darling” by the Beatles.

With covers of hits by Jamiroquai, Daft Punk, and Stevie Wonder, Clocked Out was the “feel good” party band that everyone needed, wanted, deserved at the end of the night. Unfortunately for the community of Wind Gap, from the fictional series Sharp Objects, there was no “feel good” conclusion to their long collective suffering. The murders paused, but the murderer got away, leaving the town vulnerable to a renewal of terror.

It’s just a matter of time…