It's kind of hard to say Meddlesome three times fast. It's easy, however, to get into the music this local band makes. The Meddlesome Meddlesome Meddlesome Bells refers to their sound as "apocalyptic folk-metal," and though I'll be damned if I could've come up with that term, it proves to be a pretty good descriptor.

Mouths open wide, the three members were singing together when we walked in to check them out last night at the Bug Jar. Some tiny mishaps (some feedback from the vicinity of the bass drum; an out-of-tune guitar; a rocky start to one song) only made me like the Meddlesome Bells more: they took it all in stride. When the guitarist's strap came undone, Brian Blatt hopped up from his seat on the floor and helpfully re-attached it.

Though the attitude on stage was mostly focused, it was also fun. Kerrin Pantelakis's arms-flailing, drumming style made me think of her as a bird working out her aggression in an attempt to take flight, and when she gave her spot at the drums over to the bass player, and grabbed a washboard to accompany her singing, the whole folk-metal thing was fully realized.

Ian Downey is Famous is a trio I cannot believe I haven't seen before. Up till now, I've known Downey mostly as record-store-guy and for his antics with The Bloody Noes. But he impressed the hell out of me last night, both with his emphatic singing (sometimes with eyes closed) and with his unexpected (almost odd, in a good way) guitar solos.

I was in need of a good drum fix, though, and last night, between the Bell's Kerrin, and Ian Downey's Darren DeWispelare (rhyming drummer names!), I was in bliss 'round midnight.