Stormy night is right for the Pernice Brothers

August 16, 2005|Globe Correspondent

CAMBRIDGE -- Like one of those pulpy old suspense thrillers, this one started during a dark and stormy night, which, as stretched metaphors go, perfectly suited Joe Pernice's overcast chamber-pop ruminations on ruination. Occasionally, a slice of sunlight cut through the gorgeous gloom -- a brief, balmy respite. But you knew, one way or another, that more lightning was on its way. And where there is lightning, there is thunder in the distance, and in lead guitarist Peyton Pinkerton's fingertips.

''Thanks for coming out in the storm," quipped Pernice, acoustic guitar dangling from his shoulder, before opening with the bright, brisk ''There Goes The Sun," from the Pernice Brothers' latest album, ''Discover a Lovelier You" (out on Ashmont Records, the Dorchester-based label that Pernice, a South Shore native, runs with longtime manager Joyce Linehan).

Whether the choice of openers was coincidence or tongue in cheek, it was fitting. This is what happens in Pernice's songs -- the sun departs, skies fall, planes crash, people die or survive in quiet desperation -- though you might not know it at first. Before the story lines set in, the tunes are like Christmas presents wrapped in festive ribbons of melody, harmony, and lovely hooks -- all the better to draw you, inexorably, to the coal at the center.

Such was Sunday night's splendid 70-minute set that showcased an ever-revolving lineup (Pernice's wife, pianist Laura Stein, no longer tours with the band; for this tour, two members of Royal Gun, a promising opening band from London, are helping out) playing Pernice's exquisite laments of the unloved. Faded beauties such as ''Crestfallen" shimmered effortlessly alongside the Left Banke-ish paisley pop of the new ''Saddest Quo," each number's verses cupped inside Pernice's satiny purr.

But when things got too pretty (on the surface at least), Pernice brought out the unadorned, venomous ''Bum Leg" on solo acoustic guitar. Animated drummer Patrick Berkery (of the Philly pop outfit Bigger Lovers) added sinew, muscle, and bone to the proceedings, and as always, Pinkerton (indie-rock's most unsung, essential lead guitarist?) proved a wondrous foil, adding flourishes and gleaming brush strokes of electric guitar that both accented and underscored the sublime heartache at the core of Pernice's poetry.