Word is the SeaMonsters are a teacher band, a band full of teachers, and if that's the case then let's you and me quit our jobs and get credentialed right this instant. Rare is the early-to-bed teach who can rock past his bedtime—seriously, ever lived with one?—but when the SeaMonsters announced their last song a little after half past midnight, it was with a request from sweaty and breathless guitarist/singer Matt Clatterbuck: one more gin and tonic, if you please, bartender, with more gin than tonic. No word on whether Clatterbuck had scheduled some free reading on the lesson plan for the next day, but if that last call didn't wipe him out, then the set surely did. Busting long, hard-jam instrumentals (think fIREHOSE, not Phish; Mike Watt's an obvious influence) in between songs about smart stuff (“Charles Darwin had a broken heart,” started one Jonathan Richman-esque tune), the trio—with brother drummer Mark Clatterbuck and bassist Sam Stroosma—delivered exactly the kind of performance you'd expect from people whose days are filled with bathroom passes and whose nights begin at 4 p.m.: seamless (as in really well rehearsed), with a play-or-die, this-is-how-I-relax energy. It's music made for the working week, by people who actually abide by alarm clocks. For the SeaMonsters' sake, let's hope theirs went off the next day.
