the limbo souls

repeat readers here will doubtless recognize that the various incarnations of the carl johnson this-and-that, and the arte-k whosamacallits, and the peter lavender etc's carry an extremely common thread, or series of, who would be carl johnson, arte kenyon, peter lavender, steve esposito and justin beaulieu. it's not like the rest of us haven't figured it out, (you see them one time and you know), but it's taken until last night at the skybox in tewksbury for the five of them to start calling themselves (even if only in half-jest) a band.

the limbo souls.

there was one among many signature moments during their set last night when peter started singing lyrics that were unmistakably carl's to a bass line that was pure arte, and all the smiles around the table at which i was seated told the complete story. it was a song that had never been played in public quite this way before, and this would never any longer be a bunch of guys playing each others material--this is a band writing and bringing life to their own, and some of us lucky ones were where when.

who knows how long 'til you see the name on the playbill with the kind of reliable regularity which lets you plan your life around their gigs, but you can see a major portion of the outfit down at 31 main in ayer on saturday night if you're curious. no, it won't be the limbo souls--peter won't be there--but it will be 4/5's of lowell's new heart and soul, and it'll be great.