A few days before heading out of town for a short tour with Evan Dando, Jake Brennan puts in a low-key solo acoustic set upstairs at Charlie's Kitchen in Cambridge.

The divey punk-rock attic, in the old-school tradition, has classic greasy burgers, cheap beer and bourbon and a courteous bartender with spiky black hair. There's a cred-carrying regular crowd of local rockers and other underground artistes, no stage and a P.A. as primitive as the sodden plywood floor.