Shootin' Pains

Shootin' Pains

Every great bar needs a wizened codger who belches forth beery invective against the status quo. Shootin' Pains has five of them. "Goat Fuckin' Psycho-Ameracommunist Folk Rock" is how they describe themselves, but that's an understatement given that the Austin quintet comes armed with Dicks veterans Buxf Parrott on banjo and Pat Deason on drums. The grizzled, slapdash demeanor of their railings against war, heartbreak, consumerism, and the workaday world makes 'em custom-warped for drunken ears. Guitarist Mark Kenyon's "My Great Downfall" chronicles the imprisonment of a ne'er-do-well turned in by a double-crossing love interest who's on the "path to God," while guitarist Todd Kassens' "Old Man Drinking Alone" is a poignant death waltz about the stranger at the end of the bar. Thankfully, Pray Like Crazy ends with "Lake McQueeney," a knee-slapping narrative about a near-arrest for drunken paddle boating. If there's such a thing as punk rock aging gracefully, these Shootin' Pains don't need no doctor. (Wednesday, March 12, Elysium, 12mid.)