Ezra Furman & The Harpoons at the North Star

Not to overhype him, but the names that come to mind in connection to Ezra Furman, who plays the North Star Bar tonight with his band The Harpoons (and openers Toy Soldiers) are singer-songwriters like Loudon Wainwright and Conor Oberst, and probably most of all Gordon Gano of the Violent Femmes, guys who have lots of words to say and play folk-based, occasionally harmonica-laced, songs that push forward with unrestrained energy as they try to get all the ideas out of their heads and into the music. The band was formed at Tufts University in Boston, is now based in New York and has three albums out, the latest being last year's Inside The Human Body, on Minty Fresh, which shows the 22 year old Furman not yet pinning down exactly who he is musically but having a fine time figuring it out. Here he is pouring his heart out to "Kirsten Dunst," doing Lou Reed's "Heroin" and his own "Take Off Your Sunglasses."

Previously: Jame Maddock at the Tin Angel