On a recent Friday night, 58-year-old Wellesley dad Paul Reed was finishing his 3-hour performance at Lockheart restaurant on Central Street. He thanked the crowd and joined his friends at the bar.

Reed’s guitar/vocal duo MacPablo, with Scott MacKilligan, is one of many in regular rotation on the Wellesley Square restaurant’s stage.

You might figure Reed’s a seasoned pro who’s been doing this forever, right? “Actually, I only began taking guitar seriously two years ago. Friends encouraged us to create our own band, so we did! Other bands allowed us to perform a few songs at their shows to get some experience, and pretty soon we had enough material for a full show,” Reed says.

Wellesley has long been the home of a robust music community (see “Meet the bands: Wellesley’s rock ‘n’ roll moonlighters”) and that community continues to grow. Reed’s band is one of several recent newcomers to the scene, perhaps inspired by the existence of a venue right here in town that provides performance opportunities. Just 2 years ago Lockheart began to experiment with live music in its downstairs lounge on Friday nights from 8-11pm. Soon after, an open mic night was added every other Wednesday to give newer performers experience and a chance to meet other musicians. Now both the Wednesday open mic night and the Friday night band shows occur weekly.

Other new bands on the Lockheart schedule include:

Perchance (Boston College band with Sophie Coté, former leader of the Wellesley High School Rock Band)
The Vacillators (five Wellesley dads playing classic rock)
Patrick & Caitlin (Patrick Hayden & Caitlin Parkes, guitar & vocalist)

Suede Pumas (Bob Bua & friends, classic rock)

The new bands join the ranks of existing Wellesley bands like Grounds for Divorce, Off Label, Million Dollar Day, Bigfoot, Miz Karsen, Mark Stepakoff, Emi & Jadon, Connect 4, and others who perform at local venues including Lockheart, Morse Tavern and Lookout Farm in Natick, and Village Social Club in Brookline.

Up next at Lockheart this Friday: Caitlin and Patrick in only their second public performance. “We’re both in other bands and got together for a short one-off gig on Central Street this summer. We had so much fun we decided to do a full show,” they say. Friday’s event at Lockheart goes from 8-11pm.