Out on the town

Music seen, Thursday, May 24-Sunday, May 27
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY  |  May 30, 2007

With last weekend’s Best Music Poll festival and a sizable chunk of other great bills around town this weekend, I managed to see (or overhear) 19 bands over a four-day stretch. Here are the five most exhilarating moments of a truly exhausting weekend.

5) CONIFER AT GENO’S AND MONEYCASTASIA AT SPACE I hadn’t seen either of these excellent instrumental post-rock acts before, and both really delivered. Conifer’s setup — drummer with his back to the crowd, flanked by his three guitarists — is an appropriate visual representation of how organic the band’s heavy cascades are; Moneycastasia’s technically striking, jazz-inflected movements likewise sustained some audaciously long songs.

4) SHADE + BOONDOCKS AT THE WHITE HEART It was a pretty sleepy weekend in the Arts District outside of this dance party, which was about overflowing by midnight. Our dynamic duo cut through all the chatter and did exactly what they were supposed to: left a floor of dancers hanging on every cut.

3) DIAMOND SHARP AT GENO’S Hands down, best Diamond Sharp set I’ve seen. The group have always written some sharp breakup songs, but they’ve rarely been so alive. Frontman Jason Rogers has really stepped up the charisma after a brief Northeast tour last week; bouncing about the stage, all punk-as-fuck attitude, he’s found the key to the band’s success: he made apathy something worth giving a shit about.

2) THE TOUGHCATS AT ZOMBIE KICKBALL Obviously the sight of the North Haven trio (with special guest musicians above the equipment shack) rocking for scores of zombies was a hoot, but the band played it right too: fast-paced, in shambles, wordless except for the obligatory cries of “brains!,” “zombie!” and “uuuuurrrrggg!”

1) WHITE LIGHT + BROWN BIRD AT SPACE Two highlights from the Gallery’s “Tryst Haunt” Saturday. Ian Paige’s White Light collective cover Spacemen 3’s “Revolution” with a fire-and-brimstone urgency so inspired it felt like a timewarp, and Brown Bird play a few songs from their wonderful new album, Such Unrest, with such simple power it’s a wonder we can still think of them as our little secret.

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