Major Stars and Black Helicopter played ONCE Lounge – 2/15

Noisy Boston luminaries Major Stars and Black Helicopter teamed up for a show presented by Chunklet‘s Henry Owings at the ONCE Lounge last Thursday. 

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: every Major Stars show is a gift. The long-running Boston collective’s blistering psychedelic jams and in-your-face performance style are simply second to none. Thursday night in ONCE’s quirky upstairs lounge, a stage-less spot with seats and signage plucked from an old bowling alley (and better light than its downstage counterpart, arguably), was certainly no different. Fellow local cult favorites Black Helicopter also brought their biting noise rock to the party for an excellent double bill of Boston underground veterans.

Ironically it was Owings – the out-of-towner with a keen ear – who brought the bill together, as the first stop on a short east coast tour that would take him and Major Stars to New York and Philadelphia alongside Bardo Pond (who, tragically, couldn’t make the Boston date). Owings performed a pair of brief stand-up sets between bands, culminating in a memorable one-second band impersonation of The Who that left a sad thrift-shop guitar splintered on the floor.

Photos from all the madness below.