Events

[PUNK] As an institution in both the classic, first-generation punk canon and Ireland’s best contemporary exports, Stiff Little Fingers is the little engine that can and will. Having released just 10 albums in a career that’s spanned close to four decades, the band’s latest, the PledgeMusic-funded No Going Back,  hit number one in the UK after being released last summer. But chart numbers and selling records has never been what SLF is all about (despite recurring success throughout the band’s career, assisted by distribution through Rough Trade Records and airplay from John Peel). True to the dissatisfaction that drove punk’s beginnings, founder/frontman/lyricist Jake Burns has always written about politics and current events from a frustrated personal standpoint, along the way tackling the Troubles (a.k.a. the Northern Ireland conflict), racism, domestic abuse, and most recently depression, among other topics. Still a quartet but with only two of the original members (Burns and bassist Ali McMordie, who returned in 2006), the band plays Town Ballroom on Tuesday, July 14 with Governess and DJ Ruben for a set that pulls pretty evenly from all corners of its catalog.