I've mentioned this here before but this is a night I hoped I wouldn't see for a long, long time. Friday night will mark the (hopefully not) final show from the excellent powerpop band The Young Sportsmen.

I haven't been the only writer here taken in by this great band as their two LPs and one EP have all gotten rave reviews on this website. They are certainly one of my favorite bands to listen to (but, to be fair, my least favorite to look up on Google Images; note to all: make sure your Safe Search is ON or you're not at work).

Of their first EP, The Familiar Glow of Colliding Particles, Chris Estey wrote:

Somehow, Young Sportsmen get away with making all the songs on the EP full-on anthems without ever saturating it with emo-overkill. The lyrics seem sharp and full of interesting imagery, splintering political ideas ("Chavez") with relationships to technology ("The Rocks and the Stars") and the Superchunk-like journal entries of scattered romance ("oh, ain't it strange, you were better off"). Whilst a lyric sheet might be a good idea, the tunes are so catchy it's a great pleasure to keep coming back to figure out what's being sung.

And then their first LP was Death to Palaces and I wrote the review, which said:

If their sound is derived from their influences, they clearly are listening to the right CDs. Death to Palaces has ten songs and all range from very solid to great. It starts out with the Cheap Trick-esque “Unnecessary,” which has oddly depressing lyric content for a pop band to make, but it completely works with the record. The song opens by stating, “Did you ever get the feeling you’re unnecessary? You try and try and try but you’ll never be a contribution.” The tempo is far more upbeat than the lyrical content.

For their most recent album, If You Want It, Andrew Boe said:

Incorporating their influences of pop rock groups from the sixties to the present, Seattle’s powerpop darlings Young Sportsmen have universally culled together the characteristics of their heroes from The Who to XTC to Cheap Trick on their second full-length release, If You Want It. Fans of the group will be pleased with this sparkly record, which is a well-produced assembly of catchy tunes.

I quote from all of these reviews because I heard from my friend JessicaSeattle that they will be playing every song in their catalogue Friday night, so the evening could go on for quite a while. Doors open at 9 and Guns and Rosetti and Peter Parker are also on the bill. This goes down at the Sunset ($7, 21+). See you there?