An Evening With The Baseball Project

CRITIC’S PICK: It’s “an evening with...” which means two full sets from this indie rock supergroup of sorts, featuring some ex-members of R.E.M. (Buck and Mills), Dream Syndicate (Steve Wynn), The Minus 5/Young Fresh Fellows (Scott McCaughey), and Filthy Friends (Linda Pitman). These baseball-loving musicians just released a fourth album of songs about our great national pastime humorously entitled The Grand Salami, their first in nine years. There is no way musicians with these impressive credentials wouldn’t be worth hearing, and even if most of the tunes concern baseball, they are well crafted in a sort of British Invasion meets Nuggets way. Plus it’s clear these folks are “Having Fun,” not coincidentally the name of one of their new songs. While little on the current album hits a home run, there are a lot of solid doubles, and live it’ll likely be a blast. - Hal Horowitz