The landscape of music is rich and varied. Walk into any establishment with four walls and well liquor, you’re likely to find a sound system for staging performances too. On a recent night at Sally O’Brien’s Pub in Union Square, Sado-Domestics was one of countless acts bringing life to our stages and soundtracking our nightly revels.
The alt-Americana band consists of Chris Gleason (vocals, banjo), Lucy Martinez (vocals, guitar), Jimmy Ryan (mandolin), Eric Royer (pedal steel), Jim Gray (bass) and Jeff Allison (drums). It’s a mix of musicians and instruments capable of conjuring countrified textures that haven’t lost their rock ’n’ roll boogie. The latest full-length album is 2025’s “Getting the Ghost.”
I caught up with Sado-Domestics members Gleason and Martinez to learn about some of their experiences navigating the local music landscape and where we can catch them play around town. Their next show will be at Remnant Brewing in Cambridge on April 4[next show]
Are there special upcoming dates you have circled on your calendar?
Lucy Martinez: They are all special dates. We’re just happy to be performing, and lots of work goes into getting those gigs. We appreciate being able to play music whenever we can.
Chris Gleason: We have a unique show coming up at Square Root on Friday, April 17, at 8 p.m. where we are sharing the bill with a writer named Aidan Parkinson. He’ll be reading stories that he calls Autofictions (a blend of autobiography and fiction). The performance will alternate between stories from Aidan and short sets of music by Sado-Domestics.
We’re looking forward to Sally O’Brien’s in Somerville on Saturday, May 23, at 7:30 p.m., which is a co-bill with the wonderful Sarah Levecque Band, whom we’ve never shared the stage with before.
And we’re excited to return to McCarthy’s and Toad in Porter Square on Saturday, May 30, from 4 to 7 p.m. Toad has always been a really fun place to play, and McCarthy’s has done a great job of renovating the space while maintaining the classic Toad vibe.
Do you have tips or tricks for getting a distracted crowd to dial in? Or is it more like a “hands-off” attitude and you just play your set the same whether the crowd is plugged in or not?
Martinez: I think the mood we bring helps a lot. If we’re having fun up there, it transfers to the people listening, usually. There are always off nights where that’s not the case, but when we have fun and we are dialed in, more than likely the people listening will be as well. Sometimes people seem not to be listening and then we get so many compliments at the end of a set. We live in a distracted world, but it seems like there is a level of tuning-in that doesn’t require staring at us the whole set. I’m hopeful.
Gleason: It’s true that a lot of the smaller music venues around town also serve as a bar, restaurant or coffee shop, so it can be challenging to engage customers who really aren’t there to see music. In some cases, it might not matter how good the music is … if people have come there to talk to a friend or do work on their laptop, the music might feel like an unwanted distraction. That said, the venues we tend to play frequently, like Sally O’Brien’s, Toad, The Plough and Stars, Remnant Brewing: Satellite, and The Square Root book a ton of live music, so they do attract plenty of people who have, in fact, come to hear music.
What’s been one of your most memorable gigs recently?
Martinez: A recent one was pre-St. Patrick’s Day gig at The Plough and Stars where the crowd of people were almost on top of us. It was a bit overwhelming, but it was also kind of crazy fun.
Gleason: Another unique experience was performing at the new JP Tiny Desk Concert Series, which is held at the Gibson Sotheby’s Real Estate office in Jamaica Plain. We did that one as an acoustic trio with Jimmy Ryan on mandolin. The space has excellent acoustics and can comfortably seat about 50 people. It was a super attentive and appreciative audience. We hadn’t really been sure what to expect from a show booked at a real estate office, but it turned out to be a great experience.
What do you want an audience to take away from a Sado-Domestics show?
Martinez: I hope they just have fun and enjoy themselves. If people are relating to our music and stories, I’m happy.
Gleason: And, if we’re able to achieve that with our live performance, hopefully people will like our music enough to explore our studio recordings.
About The Author
