If you go to the American Ocelot/Shang Hi Lo’s show at the Burren on Dec. 5, you may or may not see the next big thing from Boston. But you are guaranteed to hear a night of punchy, catchy rock & roll songs from local bands who live and breathe the stuff.

Both are newish bands built around folks who’ve been around the local scene for decades.

You might call American Ocelot leader Joanie Lynch a late bloomer as a songwriter/frontwoman, though she did make an album a decade ago with the band Zygoatz. But even while pursuing other careers she kept working on songs, and finally assembled a studio crew to record them. This became a full-time band with guitarist Kevin James (late of the national band Hullabaloo), bassist Charlie Sullivan and drummer Sara Billingsley. The Burren show celebrates the release of their five-song EP.

Lynch’s songwriting is well worth building a band around; she specializes in thoughtful lyrics and subtly grabbing chorus hooks. And she admits that a lot of time and energy goes into them. “One of our new songs had four or five different melodies, before Kevin came up with the perfect riff for it. Other times I piece something together with different parts till it’s right. I jokingly tell people that every song I write has an ’80s inspiration piece — there’s an Easter egg from another song in there, but it’s usually so subtle that you can’t hear it.” (She cites a Beatles lick in the song “Everything,” but it’s hidden so deep that this Beatles nut missed it).

She says her goal is to keep playing and releasing songs (another EP is underway), but probably not to go on the road. “We’re all in the retirement zone. When the guys joined the band I promised them we’d play once a month on weekends, and we’re only doing this weekday show because it’s the Burren. Kevin’s already played around the world, and right now it’s not feasible for us to be playing some bar in Connecticut on a Tuesday night. This is more like our passion project.”

The Shang Hi Los qualify as a local supergroup; co-leaders Jen D’Angora and Dan Kopko were previously in headlining bands — she with Jenny Dee & the Deelinquents, Dents and Downbeat 5, he with Watts — while bassist Lee Harrington was in the legendary Neighborhoods and drummer Chuck Ferreira is in Eddie Japan, guitarist Chad Raleigh was in the Rationales. They all share an interest in garage rock, ‘60s pop and heavier rock, which can appear in any combination. “When Dan and I got together we had no idea what to expect; so we just let each other go. Both of us have pop tendencies at the heart, and we both come from classic rock-land. The spirit feels a lot like Cheap Trick.”

And they don’t mind an offbeat song angle. Consider their recent single “Morgantic Panic” about Prince Edward’s romantic intrigues) or “Funeral Home Mint” which is about…well, funeral home mints. “You know those candies that are creamy and minty at the same time, that are always loose in bowls? I love those. Putting them in a song just shows how bananas I am.”

D’Angora will likely be the only one at the Burren who’s performed at Fenway Park; the Deelinquents opened a now-famous show with Aerosmith and the J. Geils Band in 2010. “It’s funny because occasionally someone will come up to me and say ‘I’m such a big fan’ and I’ll say ‘Really? Cool!’ But I never think of myself in that way. I’m always just Jen and if I’m not involved in a music thing at that moment, I’m wondering what I’m doing next.”

The Shang Hi Los. (Photo artist management)