Jeff Conolly of Lyres
Whatever the odds, the dogged pursuit of a dream is something to be admired. Jeff Conolly of Lyres knows something about that kind of persistence. Springing from the fertile Boston scene of the early 1980s, his band helped spearhead the era’s return to ’60s-inspired garage rock, and Conolly has been keeping that faith ever since, through shifting trends, near-constant personnel changes and long periods of relative inactivity. After some 20-odd years in the works, Conolly’s looking to finally complete the band’s fifth studio album this year, with a little help from a crowdfunding campaign running alongside their current tour.
Supporting the venerable revivalists for tonight’s rare stop at the Cactus Club was a pair of well-booked local openers, which made it worth turning up early even if few people chose to do so. First up was Fox Face, who, despite playing to only a handful of onlookers, didn’t pull any punches and likely still managed to convert at least a few new fans with their direct, aggressive brand of riot grrrl-charged punk. They only have one recording available online, their self-titled EP from 2013, but hopefully some of the yet-to-be released songs heard here will be out officially before too long.
Next up you had Drugs Dragons, who’s harsh, somewhat insidious pysch-punk is captured well on last year’s raucously deranged Dusty Medical Records release I & I/II, but nonetheless is probably ideally experienced in a live setting, where the band’s blurts of noise and vitriol are exceptionally loud and appropriately sloppy. While certainly not for everyone, as if the band would have it any other way, you don’t have to look very far beyond the intentionally abrasive surface to see that there are some great songs, as well as a perhaps surprising amount of unhinged humor, concealed underneath all the murk.
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As Conolly and company began setting up, the club’s heretofore sparsely populated back room seemed to suddenly become crowded, mostly with rapidly aging garage rock fanatics. After a warm welcome, Conolly, disdainful of setlists, conducted the current Lyres from behind his Vox Super Continental organ, guiding them through an energetic, off-the-cuff performance that included plenty of early cuts, such as “Don’t Give It Up Now” from their first full-length On Fyre, plus fiery covers of genre classics like The Alarm Clocks’ “No Reason to Complain.” The world may have mostly moved on, but it’s good to see Conolly still hasn’t.
