She goes out dancing with her friends

Sidewalk Driver, Township  @ Brighton Music Hall, Allston, MA (10/1/11)

Soooo I'm at Brighton Music Hall and the place is the most packed I've ever seen it. I mean, realistically, I've only ever seen the place like 5 times, but it's the most packed out of those 5 times, so that's saying something, right? Anyway, I come in during Andrea Gillis' set, but I don't feel like I saw enough of it to make career-making-or-breaking judgments here, so I'll skip right to Sidewalk Driver. I reviewed these dudes' album back in like, 2009, which basically means I'm an expert on their music. I even know some of the words to their songs! These guys seem to have a pretty impressive following, because I see lots of hot chicks dancing around to "She Goes Out Dancing." So thanks to Sidewalk Driver for getting some babes to come out to a metal show, for real. They sound pretty good and I even find myself dancing with my friends a little bit, like the song says. Anyway these dudes are putting on an awesome energetic show and my favorite is when Tad takes off his little top hat. That's when shit starts to get crazy.

If you haven’t seen these guys, you’re missing out on a lot of glitter. See video:

Okay so Sidewalk Driver finishes, and then the room gets all dark and a big screen comes down out of nowhere and there's this completely ridiculous spoof documentary about modern music or something. I don't even know. I went to the bathroom to fix my hair for like 10 minutes and I came back out and this video was still going, and people were starting to be all, "Ugh, less video more rock." Eventually Township complies with the crowd's communal desire for rock by stopping their mockumentary and picking up their instruments. These dudes totally shred with crowd favorites like "Sinister Minister," "Gunning Through the Night," and "Warrior Chief." Like, I'm headbanging so much that I'm pretty sure my neck is going to be sore tomorrow. Also, I don't know what kind of madness comes over everyone, but the crowd actually complies when asked to provide some wolf howls. Awesome. So, in addition to being totally entranced by Mark Pinansky's beard for like an hour, I feel like I have been sufficiently rocked tonight, so I'd say this show was a smashing success.

American Water, The Fatal Flaw, The Appreciation Post

American Water, The Fatal Flaw, The Appreciation Post TT @ The Bear's Place, Cambridge, MA 9/30/11

Even though I actually showed up in time for a band with an earlier set time for once in my goddamn life, I'm going to fast-forward through about 150 words of talking about American Water's set. *fast forwards* Okay, sweet, that was informative and well-written, right? Right then, onto The Fatal Flaw. As we all know, I am a huge fan of these dudes! I am really sad because there are only about 10 people watching the band (almost everyone else is around the bar) and that is lame because The Fatal Flaw is the best! They play all their greatest hits, including "Lord, I'm Bored," "Don't Start Believen," "The Last Cassingle," "California Evergreen," and then they finish up with "Narrow Hours." I know all the words to all the songs, and it looks like the blonde chick in front of me does too, so that's cool. Also, Joel Reader's pants are kinda tight and I think that's a crucial quality in a frontman, just sayin'. ALSO, guitarist Aaron Spransy (I looked up his name on facebook, I'm not THAT big of a fan) is hilarious to watch because he has silly onstage guitar-playing antics, so there's that. Anyway these guys sound awesome and everyone should love them, please and thanks.

So, The Appreciation Post is onstage shortly later, and the number of people inside TT's seems to have approximately quadrupled almost instantly. One thing I like about seeing TAP live is that they use less synth than they do on their recordings, and I absolutely dig the slightly grittier versions of these giddy synth-pop anthems. I'm totally singing along to "I'm No Sure Thing" (sweet trivia fact: the music video for this song was filmed in my hometown. Cool right?) and so is pretty much everyone else in the crowd because TAP is really good and apparently a lot of other people in Boston think so too because here they are at the show singing along, YAY! The end.

Here’s that video I was talking about…