Blonde on Blonde

Blonde on Blonde play the kind of dirty blues-rock that makes you want to steal a '67 Camaro and chug tequila straight from the bottle as you hurtle through traffic at breakneck speed. It's the kind of music that makes you regret the smoking ban in this city, even if you don't smoke. The plush confines of the Varsity seem a little too fancy for these guys (think more along the lines of an unfinished basement with a drainage problem and empty liquor bottles strewn about), but songs like "Cocaine Blues" and "Midnight to Mexico" could quickly make you forget your surroundings and cause you to think you're at some down-at-the-heels west Texas roadhouse. These four have clearly taken cues from the bluesiest chunks of the Guns 'N Roses catalog and Aerosmith's pre-drug meltdown days. There are approximately one million bands in this vein, but the energy and sheer boldness of Blonde on Blonde saves them from sounding like the one million and first. 18+.
Thu., Jan. 17, 8 p.m., 2008