Wildcat O'Halloran is back in business, and while he is operating under the same name that first captured Valley hearts and souls some 25 years ago, his eponymous band has reinvented itself with a mixture of old and young blood.
The local legend—partly famous for eggs and pancakes served up with a witty helping of chat at the Dove's Nest in Sunderland—has put his flapjack flipping aside and brought his blues band back to town. The Wildcat O'Halloran Band's latest incarnation brings together guitarist Nate Dana from Llama Lasagna, bassist Steve Teuton of Ed Vadas fame, and John Coelho, a Wildcat regular who played with Electric Carnival.
The themes on the band's latest release are as venerable as some of its members: good lovin', bad lovin' and just general blues. The bumping bass line, red-hot guitar licks and gritty vocals make for a slate of dependably groovy tracks. O'Halloran adds his own tongue-in-cheek attitude to the laidback rhymes of the genre, with lyrical refrains like this one: "When you need attention I will give you some/ 'cause I love you/ ain't it nice to be loved that way?" and "Let's face the fact, let's get down to it/ if this day was a dog, they'd shoot it."
The self-proclaimed "aging legend" appears with his band at the Black Moon Lounge on Dec. 18 at 9 p.m. in a benefit show for the Western Massachusetts Food Bank. Bring a non-perishable food item for a discounted ticket price.
