Five bands make a fest at O’Brien’s Pub on Friday, 25 April 2025.

Casket Rats serve up a bluesy plate of punker metal in the closing slot. Openers Helldog, Troll Milk, Betty, and D.O.D. give the new meatstick menu a good long look.

The bar accepts credit cards now.

Ace the Quiz, Win the Tix

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Hump Nights

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Ace the Quiz, Win the Tix 〰️ Hump Nights 〰️

Hump Nights

May 7

A triplestack of rock in Rat City, USA.

May 10

The 4th Wall celebrates its 18-month anniversary at Capitol Theater.

May 14

Rock n roll legends The Zombies on the big screen.

HOUND HANDLER / SWEET PETUNIA / NEMARCA / KEEGAN JAMES

May 19

A quadruplestack of folk rock in Rat City, USA.

May 20

BIMBO (MI) brings a night of art punk vibrations.

May 24

Matinees are punk rock.

May 31

Maine backwards at Jamaica Plain’s favorite dive. Don’t miss this!

Jun 14

Humbird at Warehouse XI.

Hump Nights

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Ace the Quiz, Win the Tix

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Hump Nights 〰️ Ace the Quiz, Win the Tix 〰️

As the old adage goes, five bands on a bill makes a fest. It’s a good thing that O’Brien’s Pub has shifted up its default showtime by a full hour to 8PM (doors at 7PM). Because it would be hard to get through five acts before the T shuts down otherwise.

What else is new at O’Brien’s? The pub accepts cards now, and you can run a tab. It sure is tough to remind the bartender of the name on your tab while the music is blasting on stage. Hey, that’s life.

And the new meatstick menu? A thing of beauty. A decent and deep selection, stored right behind the counter in one of those wall-hanging shoe holder thingeez you remember from kindergarten.

Are meatsticks the pub’s strategic response to the hot dog gimmick at Silhouette Lounge up the road? The Great Allston Shelf Stable Encased Meat Wars have begun.

Choose your fighter!

Betty

After the D.O.D. opening act, Allston’s own Betty took the stage. A doomy, post hardcore trio with some metal tendencies. Some sunny samples. Power drumming. Screamcore vocals. They put out a howler of an album titled Forbidden Riff in 2023. You can find it on Bandcamp, but you’ll have to search under the band name “Bar Chord Betty.”

Was that a former band name?

Troll Milk

King of stage banter, Troll Milk. You learn all sorts of soft skills in the performing arts, including how to stall for time during soundcheck, tuning, and whatnot. The quartet’s metal-infused punk attack was loud, heavy, and uptempo. Without an instrument to bother with, the dedicated vocalist was free to roam around the front lip of the stage, leaning into the pit like a punk rock Leonardo DiCaprio on the bow of the Titanic.

King of stage banter, king of the world!

Casket Rats

Helldog performed in the second to last slot. Dogs and rats and trolls. The kind of things you find rummaging trash in the back alleys of Middle Earth, which is a great way to contract an infectious disease. Always have a vial of healing remedy Phoenix Tears at the ready.

Casket Rats took the stage as a four-piece. A punk/metal hybrid, with strong bluesy turns. The great thing about this particular hybrid is that it combines the rich timbre of metal guitar with the pith of punk and the soul of blues. There was very little of the excessive soloing or personality vamping that you encounter in pure metal. The level of musicianship tends to be a bit higher than pure punk.

And Casket Rats played a few downright bluesy numbers that brought their style of rock n roll back to its roots. Which is no surprise if you’ve heard their s/t EP, chock full of bluesy rockers like “Waiting In Line” and “Bordello.”