PORTLAND, Maine — A yellow-headed toddler twirled and wobbled across Wharf Street’s uneven cobblestones on Saturday night at what must’ve been well past his bedtime. The lad’s mother trailed close behind, arms outstretched, ready to cushion the inevitable knee-skinning tumble to come.
It didn’t happen, though.
Instead, with his chubby joints remaining intact, the boy kept on moving, with only squeals of delight escaping his grinning mouth.
The mixed-up scene of flailing joy and looming danger was an apt metaphor for the music filling the evening air along the busy pedestrian passageway. Busking duo Plague Dad provided the soundtrack, singing songs about death’s lonesome inevitability, set against infectious melodies with jaunty, danceable beats.
“In times like these, we all need a hand, a comforting word, a thought and a prayer,” they sang. “But in the end, we all die alone, cold and scared, with nobody there.”
The odd mix is nothing new for Plague Dad’s Frank Gallagher and Miguel Sanchez. The duo’s doom-and-dance musical partnership has roots in the 1980s. Back then, they shared a rock-and-roll band that had a brief brush with West Coast grunge fame before eventually breaking up. Now, nearly 40 years later, Gallagher, 57, and Sanchez, 56, are back together, reviving their youthful punk rock dreams while hurtling toward retirement age.
And it’s working.
They’ve recently put out two records (yes, real records) and just earned a Friday night main stage slot on Aug. 4 at this year’s A.R.M.E. Boot Camp Festival, one of Maine’s hippest summer music events.
The lineup of the Searsmont-based weekend festival also includes Rustic Overtones, Murcialogo, Scissorfight, Seepeoples, Myles Bullen and Mouth Washington.
“We met in 1985, in Boston. We were both attending the Berklee College of Music,” said Sanchez, Plague Dad’s percussionist. “We formed a bond pretty quickly, and we ended up playing in a band called Scouts Honor.”
Within a short time, the band relocated to San Francisco and began sharing the stage with up-and-coming acts like the Goo Goo Dolls and Nirvana. For a time, they also shared a manager with Primus.
“We were a thrash funk band like the [Red Hot] Chili Peppers,” said Gallager, who sings and plays guitar.
They still sing “Cops on Acid,” today, which was a Scouts Honor song from their old band.
“Saw a cop today. He was listening to the Grateful Dead,” Gallagher sang on Saturday as passersby swayed. “Is that cop on acid? Is that cop on acid?”
After Scouts Honor broke up in 1994, Sanchez played in bands and worked in restaurants in California and Kansas City. Gallagher, a Bangor High School graduate, worked in media, public relations and politics before settling in Portland with his family in 2006.
Years went by. The pair kept in touch but lived too far apart to make music together. Then came the pandemic.
Gallagher lost his job and found himself shut in at home with plenty of time to kill. He then began writing new songs.
One of them is titled “Plague Song.”
“The cold hand of death caresses this land, and the power of hope is beyond your command,” it goes. “Today is the day and the hour’s at hand; seek shelter at home and make your last stand.”
In one of the universe’s more ironic twists, Gallagher soon found himself running the University of Southern Maine’s asymptomatic COVID-19 testing program.
“And now that the pandemic is officially over,” he said, “I’m unemployed again.”
But, as the world of live music reopened, Gallagaher convinced Sanchez to move to Portland in 2020 and form Plague Dad with him.
“There was a plague and we’re both dads,” Gallagher said, explaining the moniker.
They decided to keep their act acoustic as a nod to how they’d have to play if the world crumbled.
“I was like, what if stuff just totally breaks down and we don’t have power — and there’s anarchy,” Gallagher said. “What will we be able to do with just acoustic instruments? That was the sort of ethos behind it.”
Despite their often heavy lyrics, and prepper’s musical mentality, the duo’s tunes maintain their buoyancy.
“The thing is, we mask it in that country-Americana sound, and people hear that thump, thump, thump and they just start dancing,” Gallagher said. “There’s a real disconnect — or maybe a connection. I don’t know.”
Plague Dad started out playing streetside shows a couple years ago. It was a COVID-safe venue and the only one available to a new act featuring two unknown, long-in-the-tooth, musicians. But they soon won fans — many of them less than half their age — and found themselves playing indoor venues including Sun Tiki Studios on Forest Avenue and High-Fidelity in Bayside.
They’ve since released two vinyl record EPs on their own label. One, recorded live, features the cheers of an adoring high school-age audience.
Looking ahead, Gallagher and Sanchez say they’re looking forward to the A.R.M.E. Festival and whatever comes next. They’re already planning another record.
“We just want to have fun and scratch this itch,” Sanchez said.
