The Scarring Party, who headline a 10 p.m. bill at the Cactus Club tonight, play old timey, tuba- and accordion-driven jazz; vintage American music as re-imagined through the lens of Tom Waits records and haunted carnival rides. Even when filtered through a quirky, vintage microphone, their lyrics are decidedly macabre, reading like excerpts of a George Romero script peppered with nods to Nietzsche. The band’s percussive cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Everybody Knows” recorded live on WMSE and available on their Web site, is perhaps the best version of the song since Concrete Blonde’s.
The Scarring Party
Tonight @ the Cactus Club - 10 p.m.
