A Swinging Good Time

Up in Somerville in Davis Square there lies a little Irish pub called the Burren. Thursday nights at the Burren are straight off of the iPod. Every Thursday night for a $5 cover the back room, as they call it, features the Swingin’ Johnsons (also known as the Johnson Brothers when they’re playing to wedding receptions). Bostonist was a little skeptical about the whole scene until the bar whiskey poured was Jameson. Good whiskey in the well is a pleasant surprise. So were the tunes from the Swingin’ Johnsons. With Jesse’s Girl, Summer of ’69, well, You Shook Me All Night Long with a wide variety of 80’s and 90’s favorites. Chris Marsh leads the band on bass, he had with him the “four piece” which includes guitar, drums, and the fourth is on keyboard. Bostonist can’t help thinking that Chris looks a little bit like John Cusack’s long lost brother. There isn’t much time given to audience banter; the back room is a little too noisy with all the students in attendance for that anyway. The seamless transitions between songs long lost in our memory banks were a pleasant surprise. Isn’t there an old saying, “everybody loves a cover band...sometimes”?