Jeff Morris, lead vocalist and guitarist for Death & Taxes, sat on the edge of the stage and gruffly demanded that everyone in attendance surround him on the dance floor. Morris is a large man who wears sleeveless flannel and cusses a lot in a deep, gravely voice that carries instant authority, so most of the sparse crowd in attendance at the Dover Brick House obliged. Morris, with bassist Mike Savitkas by his side and drummer Steve Toland onstage, launched into what he described as a “campfire sing-along” about a man forced to choose between his whiskey and his woman. It was a sorrowful tune that ended with a painful but resolute decision.

“So if you want me to choose between you and my booze, I’m afraid that you lose. I’ll take my whiskey,” Morris growled. 

Morris and Savitkas then climbed onto the Brick House stage for a set of punk-influenced classic rock with a country-western edge. Based in Newburyport, Mass., Death & Taxes won Spotlight awards for best rock band in 2007 and 2008. Morris was a founding member of Seacoast punk band The Bruisers, along with current Dropkick Murphys front man Al Barr. He formed Death & Taxes in October 2005, which placed his recent Brick House performance right around the band’s three-year anniversary.

The Death & Taxes trio has refined The Bruisers’ raw punk drive with touches of rock and country, crossing Steve Earle with Social Distortion. Playing a cherry-red electric guitar, Morris sings with distilled fury while Savitkas thumps his bass and executes backup vocals and Toland bashes his drum set.

The band roared through several tunes before slowing things down for a rare love song Morris wrote for his wife. Explaining that he had a son when he was 19 and married his wife, Jody, when he was 20, Morris called her a “fuckin’ saint” for putting up with him and played an uncharacteristically slowish song, although it still had a grainy gut.

The band performed a couple of songs from its new album, “Tattooed Hearts & Broken Promises,” closing with the title track, a raucous and nostalgic rockabilly romp with a strangely celebratory feel. Released on indie label I Scream Records, the album is out now. Visit www.myspace.com/deathntaxesband.

Death’s gig followed an opening set from Boston’s the Have Nots, a fierce punk band with a hyper ska sound. The four-piece act kicked things off with “Uphill Battle,” diving directly into its fast-paced attack. Guitarists Jon Cauztik and Matt Pruitt engaged in vocal sparring matches, spitting out riotous lyrics about social injustice and love.

The Have Nots assembled from the broken parts of former Boston punk bands Stray Bullets and Chicago Typewriter. There is just a hint of reggae guitar riffing in the songs, amped up to a less than casual tempo. Bassist Jameson Hollis gives the music an ever-so-slightly danceable beat with his finger-plucking lines, and drummer Steve Patton, his greasy faux-hawk bobbing, keeps up a machine gun pace. 

The band’s Brick House set featured a surprisingly elaborate multi-colored lightshow. Pruitt twitched and banged his spiked blond head as he played, radiating a Johnny Rotten vibe, while Cauztik sang zealously, wearing a sort of pork pie hat and brandishing a Stray Bullets sticker on his guitar. It was loud. Visit www.myspace.com/havenotsboston.

After Death & Taxes came a closing set from the Joe Mazzari Band, an Epping-based trio formed in 2002. Mazzari is a bluesy classic rock guitarist with a good deal of fire in his strings. He plays with animated exuberance, strutting around the stage and bringing some punk rock ferocity to his solos and vocals.
The band kicked things off with “Miles Away,” the opening track from its 2006 album, “Long Live the King,” released on Rocknroll Scene Records. The music initially had a distinct surf rock sound, with bassist Bill Dougherty and drummer Carl Howard backing the guitar-driven melody. Mazzari soloed liberally and proved to be the most proficient guitarist of the night, although only a handful of people stuck around to hear it. Visit www.joemazzari.com.
—Matt Kanner