Halcion Halo

Personally, I think you have to love any band that cites as its three major influences “rock & roll, scotch whiskey, and donuts with names like prostitutes.” That last part is a lyric from the Tom Waits piece “9th and Hennepin,” and the music of local outfit Halcion Halo frequently bears the mark of that skewed troubadour in its clattering, stumble-drunk percussion, carnival-of-the-doomed melodies, and the sporadic odd mumbles and grunts of its vocalist. More often, though, the singing is a croon indebted to both Jim Morrison and Robert Smith (a combination that may be hard to imagine, but once you hear it you’ll know what I mean); and most scraps of ramshackle, junkyard blues are eventually hammered by overdriven garage-rock and trash-metal stomp. If all goes well tonight, these guys just might whittle you into kindling. With Ladies of the Night. MICHAEL ALAN GOLDBERG
Thu., Dec. 27, 9 p.m., 2007