New Jersey’s Meteor Police toured through the Cantab Lounge on Saturday, 5 November 2022. With Modern Faces and Earthlings.

The Cantab Lounge played host to an incredible shrinking bill of four – no, three (Skytigers called in sick) – bands at the Underground stage of the Cambridge spot. The Underground (capital ‘U’ for branding purposes) is hardly more than an unfinished basement, lathered with a few coats of epoxy to pass inspection.

There’s a bar in back, outfitted with what looks like fake brick panels, offering a few taps and a low refrigerator of canned selections. The whole scene feels like the B1 level of a frathouse, which suited the acts on Saturday night just fine.

Extra points for a tight pre-show playlist that included Michael Jackson and James Brown. The King of Pop in particular doesn’t get much play in the college recreational circuit, beyond the salutary nod to “Thriller” on Halloween. But the Cantab Lounge is historically a jazz, blues, RnB-type joint, with the college rock an afterthought. Though who knows for sure how the long-running venue will grow and evolve under new ownership.

Openers Earthlings was a four-piece band that seemed torn between the twin possibilities of jazz and rock.

Rumor has it all or most of the members are students from Berklee College of Music. If you figure roughly 70-90% of Berklee students played in the jazz ensemble at their high school, then it makes sense that the training sticks with you and it’s hard to shake.

Not that you have to shake it off, but the band seemed to be pulling in contrary directions. At odds with its creative self, in a good-natured way, to be sure. And there was a little bit of that unseasoned stage presence common to musicians who have played more recitals than shows. The band reports that a new song will be dropping on the 18th of November, which is a very precise date.

The stars of the night were out-of-towners Meteor Police. The New Jersey band was wending its way southward on the last stop of its New England tour. They were wringing the Boston area for all it was worth, having just played a gig on Wednesday at O’Brien’s Pub, on the other side of the Charles River.

And Meteor Police were giving all they were worth. The four-piece put in a theatrical performance that was a little emo, a little New Wave, a little punk, and a little Rocky Horror Picture Show. No one knew what to make of the box-headed leadoff (oh wait, it’s from their music video), but there seemed to be a narrative to the Meteor Police’s set scratching beneath the surface. Shout out to the Bubble Gun heroics. Extra points for sharing merch all around the room.

Closers Modern Faces was a four-piece that played power pop jammers with a sense of humor. The frontman ran into tech difficulty early with a guitar that went completely kaput.

With two other bands on the bill, there were at least four idle six-strings waiting in the wings. It’s de rigeur show code for other musicians to offer equipment to help a band get through their set. But it wasn’t happening tonight (update: the bands chime in in the comments — all is well in the world!) – less out of heartlessness, more out of thoughtlessness, and the general greenhorn vibes in the Underground. 

Modern Faces soldiered on with one less guitar, undeterred, using the extra dead air to play more synth and vamp with the microphone. The band has a new album coming out in December. Hopefully, the guitar parts are already recorded.