The Shondes: Two Great Traditions That Taste Great Together

It could be the first line of a pretty lame joke: "Four queer anti-Zionist Jews walk into a bar..." But the bar in question is P.A.'s, and if the Shondes are a gimmick, they're rocking too hard to hear about it.

While band's name is Yiddish for "disgrace," plural, they're a respectable blend of traditional eastern-European-ish music with traditional angry girl punk: imagine Patti Smith, Sleater-Kinney, and Spitboy singing a fierce polyphony in a briar patch of fiddles and frantic drums. Three-quarters transgender, three-quarters Jewish, and four-quarters radical, the Shondes and their songs are complex and abrasive—the web site flaunts a lengthy sampling of negative reviews, mostly from appalled Indigo Girls fans. Politics aside, their rousing and danceable shows are reputed to be way more fun than Modest Mouse's.

The Shondes play P.A.'s Lounge (Union Square, Somerville) on Sunday, February 25 at 8:30 pm. Tickets are $7 (21+) and $10 (18-20). Somerville's Tricunx open.