Still, the songs aren’t abstract. If anything, they’re specific to a point where story becomes secondary — and the rapturous melodies ensure you don’t concern yourself too much with what’s missing. In Pants Yell! songs, people take taxis, go shopping, break bones, and draw flags at half-mast on their casts, but you never really get close enough to know them. In clumsy hands, this distance could amount to confusion. Churchman’s skill yields the opposite: in the city, it turns out, it’s often easier to identify with a narrator who doesn’t have the whole story.
PANTS YELL! + TULLYCRAFT + THE SMITTENS | P.A.’s Lounge, 345 Somerville Ave, Somerville | June 12 | www.paslounge.com
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