Last Night: Richard Lloyd ‘n Little Murders at the Record Bar

Mad men was the theme of the evening yesterday at the Record Bar, beginning at 11, with the unhinged-school-teacher persona of Little Murders frontman Bill Cave.

Standing up stiffbacked and coiling his mic cable around his forearms as if to symbolically leash them to his torso, Cave barked out scary, repetitive lyrics in a muffled, punk mein that recalled David Yow and soundbites from The Wall. Behind him, an all-star lineup of instrumental badasses churned out spiny, aggressive, noisy rock.

Guitarist Auggie Wolber (Hundred Years War, In the Pines) led the assault with steel-cutting, trebly riffs that remained tasteful while cutting splintering wails out of the air around his humbucker-equipped Telecaster. Across the stage, Byron Collum (ex-Doris Henson) did the work of two, coaxing both a pulsing low-end roar out of his bass and fleshing out the group’s sound with more harmonic, chordal stuff. His former DH band mate, Wes Gartner (whom I hadn’t seen behind a drumkit in over two years), was a twisting, sweaty mass of limbs and hair, smashing out patterns heavy on intricate snare/hi-hat interplay.