Hailing from “the slimy yet majestic banks of the almighty Connecticut River,” local instrumental rockers The Darling Boys list three things as their inspiration for joining forces.

“Unchecked aggression, hyperactivity and boredom all led to the formation of this band,” says lead guitarist Dave “Provost” Darling.

Or to put matters differently… “A practice isn’t complete without at least one fist fight,” says bassist Mike “Talbot” Darling. “It gets pretty crazy sometimes. Furniture may or may not get thrown.”

Officially taking shape as a unit in 2010, despite having written and played together for almost two decades, The Darling Boys also cite motivation of a personal nature.

Says drummer Ken “Topham” Darling, “One of our brothers, who is no longer with us, had a dream of one day starting a family band with all of his brothers. This band is a tribute to Andy Darling. Respect.”

Unfortunately, branding themselves as a “family band” and choosing to perform without a vocalist, has often left the Darling Boys facing confused audiences that misunderstand the group’s approach.

“The idea of a family band is a dying tradition these days. Nobody seems to take anything seriously anymore, especially the idea of a family band,” says Ken.

“Some people just don’t even understand what a ‘family band’ is,” says Mike. “There is no way to deal with that.”

Ken continues, “People who come to our shows—people we don’t even know, nor have we ever met—find it within themselves to let us in on the secret that, without a vocalist who sings words no one will ever take us seriously and we won’t ever make any money.”

“The challenge is knowing when to walk away from these people,” says Dave.

In the meantime, the band has performed a series of well-received shows alongside several other Western Mass. groups and appeared at the fifth annual Happy Valley Showdown in Northampton in February.

“We’ve played a handful of solid shows in the Valley with some really great bands,” says Dave. We seemed to have really hit it off with Yucky Octopus when we played together. Home Body and The Darling Boys go way back. There’s an awesome band called Whirl, who we played with at the Happy Valley Showdown. They are all excellent.”

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As for future projects, the group is keeping pretty busy producing new material. But for a lucky few, tastes of new songs will be made available at upcoming gigs.

“Since we are writing and recording, we have only been doing sporadic, exclusive, VIP basement shows to test some of this new material,” says Ken.

Adds Dave, “We are currently finishing up writing and recording an LP, as well as writing a program piece regarding the hunting process of animals in the wild called the ‘Anatomy Of A Kill.'”

And what exactly does all this new stuff sound like?

“Like a shotgun,” Ken says. “Blowing your face off.”

For more information on The Darling Boys please visit www.facebook.com/pages/The-Darling-Boys/193083780759697.