I was in indie-pop heaven.
The evening consisted of a four band powerhouse of cute-indie-catchy-goodness. From the moment that the Mosquitos hit the stage to the last strum of the Lucksmiths' guitar there was not a less than blissful moment.
The Mosquitos are a one man band {a la the Mountain Goats} that combined the geek-hero-dom of Buddy Holly with the transformation of nervous energy into the intensity of Elvis Costello. Within the first three songs, he broke strings on his guitar, then broke the strings on Harold from Tullycraft's guitar, and finally found that Marty from the Lucksmiths' guitar was the only one that could handle his jagged, lo-fi, quick melodic jabs at the chords. My favorite song of the set was "Hong-Kong-Fu," which I enjoyed so much that I bought the Mosquitos tape afterwards. When I got to the car and read the DIY green paper packaging, I realized it was the tape from the soundboard of evening's performance. It had a note requesting that I send a copy to the Mosquitos in SFO. How utterly DIY and cute!
Next up was Man of the Year from Portland, who followed through nicely in the cute-indie-pop theme of the evening. But for some reason, I found the most notable aspect of this band was that three of the four members were wearing really cool Saucony sneakers. Are Sauconys the next Converse?
Tullycraft… oh how I love thee, Tullycraft. This time my admiration for them was fed from something lead singer Sean said in the beginning of the set. It is one of the coolest quotes I've heard on stage for some time. "This song is so old and obscure… we might as well just say it is new… like Harold."
Tullycraft's songs of awkward emotion and clever adorability hit that chord of uncertainty and self-realization in each of us — whether we want to admit it or not. They take broken heartstrings and disguise them as palatable pop songs.
Speaking of brilliant eloquence set to infectious music…
The Lucksmiths! Every time they come to town I feel like it is an unexpected birthday present. I feel so fortunate to live in a city that they hit whilst on tour from their native Australia. Of course, traveling to Melbourne to see such a tremendous band in their own habitat wouldn't be such a difficult thing to rationalize… but I digress.
Their musings on the everyday create a fuzzy-filtered home movie in which each of us is the romantic, astute, innocent, altruistic person we want to be. They construct poetic ruminations which you can find commiseratory comfort, cheerful insight and endearing philosophies that help get you through the mundane of the everyday.
And live, they skillfully blended their well-rounded-setlist of soundtrack songs with enchanting intra-band brotherly antics and witty banter. As an audience, we were defenseless against their boy-next-door-cuteness and habit-forming harmonies.
This evening's renditions of "Happy Secret," "Downside to the Upstairs," "Broken Bones," "There's a Boy That Never Goes Out," "Camera-Shy," "T-Shirt Weather," and the ultra-new "Successlessness" made me lightheaded… and is there any love song more beautiful that "Guess How Much I Love You?"
Needless to say, by the end of my five-hour shift at the packed-to-the-gills Sunset Tavern my feet ached, but I found myself charged with giddiness from my evening of indie-glee.
Sad you missed the show? Go buy one of their many pieces of catchy, filled-to-the-rim-with-wordsmith mastery. Go to their web site and read up on all things Lucksmiths. Or just to go to www.qantas.com.au and book your trip now.