Sun. Feb. 17

 The Mystery Tramps call their debut full-length CD  "Cure for the Common Misconception.” The Mystery Tramps, a North Shore-based quartet, range in age from 14 to 17. And, so guitarist-singer Adam Amoroso explains the title: “There is a common misconception that people think young kids can’t make an album that’s as good as anyone else. We’re not out here as young kids; we’re just musicians who are ten years younger than people who have music on the radio right now.” Well, put. If you didn’t know – that is you heard the Tramps blind – you’d say they a smart, sharp punk-pop (and ska and reggae) band influenced by Green Day, the Clash and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. 
 

The Mystery Tramps  formed on Halloween 2005. “We were just friends playing together,” says Amoroso, “doing Green Day covers, and we started getting tighter and tighter, writing better songs.” The band shifts seamlessly among genres, has a knack for a pop hook, a bracing guitar lead and impassioned vocals. Amoroso and singer-guitarist Eric Grava are the main writers. The formed penned a standout, “A World Like This,” that starts off with a sarcastic “Society today is a really great place” and moves on to condemn “a bunch of lying Nazis/ Just stay away from them/And they’ll be sure to do the same to you/It ain’t right … But what do I know anyway? I’m just some dumb kid/ In a world like this.” The Mytery Tramps - which took their name from a line in Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" - are both righteously raging against duplicity and poking a little fun at themselves.  The Tramps play the Middle East Upstairs on Sunday February 17th with The Appreciation Post, Math The Band, Bad Flirt, and The Hollow Sound. This is an afternoon, all ages event, and doors open at 1:00 PM.