They say variety is the spice of life, if that’s true for bills, this Saturday night’s lineup was a veritable garam masala. The headliner of Ex Hex was the reason the room was sold out well in advance, and Mary Timony along with her crack rhythm section of Betsy Wright and Laura Harris filled the space with their infectious buzzsaw of candy-dipped/barbed wire hooks and melodies. Though the last record came out four years ago, the band took the opportunity to showcase a handful of new songs, and they did not disappoint. Timony became an adopted daughter of the city when she left DC for Boston to form Helium in the early ’90s and she’s still got a sizable fan base here.

EZTV might have been the oddball addition to the lineup, with their particular vision of song craft leaning towards the Teenage Fanclub side of things, a sunny and sweet outlook but with some serious guitar work woven into the songs. Playing guitars that look like Josh Homme yard sale gems, leader Ezra Tenenbaum and crew certainly know their way around a catchy song, and their two LPs via Captured Tracks are worth hearing.

Kicking things off was E (aka A Band Called E, as doing a web search search for a single letter might require highly sophisticated ninja google skills), a band formed by well-respected members of the Boston rock scene. Thalia Zedek, Jason Sanford and Gavin McCarthy are one of those rare combinations where disparate elements from previous ensembles work so perfectly together, you wonder what took them so long to share a stage. Sanford hasn’t abandoned his meticulously handcrafted instruments that I first noticed via Neptune, and the interplay between Zedek and himself anchored the songs in a post-punk manner that few have explored; This Heat might be a RIYL tag for E, among others. One last observation from the show; it’s the first time I think I’ve ever see a full lineup of bands where all members sang.

More photos from the show: