Drunken Logic
Yacht Club — Thursday, May 21 at 10 p.m.
Boston-based band Drunken Logic head to the Yacht Club this Thursday to perform its smart, pop-heavy brand of alternative rock. Sounding at times like a cross between Ben Folds Five and Weezer with its equal reliance on keyboard and guitar, Drunk Logic specializes in boisterous, catchy rock anthems built on driving pop-punk rhythms.
With an unabashedly ‘90s feel to their music, Drunken Logic can come off sounding a bit saccharine by today’s standards. But, once given a chance, what distinguishes the group is its lack of fear over sounding whimsical and zany, an especially refreshing quality when contemporary pop music seems to prioritize posturing. This appeal can perhaps best be appreciated in “The Good News is (Nobody Gives a Damn),” the exuberantly up-tempo single to the group’s new album A Long Journey to the Middle, wherein the listener is invited to shed their self-conscious hang-ups by considering that everyone is usually too self-absorbed with their own faults to notice yours.
Formed as project by students at Boston’s prestigious Berklee College of Music, a big part of Drunken Logic’s appeal is the musicianship underlying their tightly constructed songs. Equally striking, though, is how sophisticated the Drunken Logic’s lyrical content is. Though not a concept album, there is an impressive thematic unity to the carefully constructed narratives on relationships and finding one’s place in the world that feature on A Long Journey to the Middle. Especially noteworthy is “Dry Run Road,” a song that successfully stretches a peppy pop-punk format to comment on police brutality and the war on terror without sounding contrived.
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