Toad on Friday night. Josh Lederman y los Diablos. Hard driving guitar, fiddle, accordion, country Tex Mex...and oh yeah, couple of klezmer numbers. They were very good.
Saturday at The Cantab Lounge in Central Square. The web site, or someplace, maybe a sign over the bar, says in business since 1938. This place is a time machine. it's a 1950s neighborhood bar in a not so great neighborhood. Music at 9:30, but I did not plan very well and got there a little before 9:00. This place is grim. Two or three guys at the bar.....they are probably younger than me, but they look old and only a step or two from homeless....guy working very slowly on a beer that went flat half an hour ago, keeping a good foot grip on the bar stool just in case gravity cuts in unexpectedly, hoping one of the other inmates gets a windfall and buys a round. The wine selection is a sure sign these guys are a couple of decades in calendar debt.....a dozen airline style split-size bottles on the back bar. You were hoping for maybe a nice South Australia Shiraz? Yikes, I don't think I can hold out until 9:30.The reason I came at all was that I noticed the other night walking by...another story....that Shirley Lewis sings here sometimes. She's terrific, so I thought maybe the other music would be OK. Finally the band comes on at a little past 9:30. Middle aged guys on lead and sax, couple of younger guys on bass and drums, great blues sound....Fatback Band ....I suspect just a name for a basically pickup crew. Sax player is terrific....burly guy with a big white beard, kangol cap on backwards, bowling shirt...probably a conservatory prof by day. And by 10:30 the place is transformed. Bar packed, dance floor full, white, black, young, old. Elegant 60ish Cambridge lady dancing next to absurdly skinny high fashion multitasking African American girl who is dancing, drinking, talking, and snapping pix with her cell phone. Definitely worth the trip. Next time wait til 10:00....
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