In the neighborhood

In case you haven't noticed, neighborhood pubs are where it's at. Tuesday night I met a friend for a drink at the Plough & Stars in Central Square and was treated to a lovely, and free, solo performance by Michael Tarbox of the alt-blues band the Tarbox Ramblers. Then on Wednesday night my husband and I went to Union Square to bid farewell to Tir na nOg, and who happened to be setting up to play but folk-country rocker Dennis Brennan (he of the Kramer-esque hair, above) and the Iodine Brothers? For free, of course. The place was jam-packed, and the bar's impending closing date, now pushed back to the end of February, made the push-lawnmower hanging from the ceiling seem somehow poignant -- and the plates of onion rings passing by smell all the sweeter.