The Intelligence / Tonight

Damn. The Intelligence was great last night. What the hell. I did not expect a mosh/crowd surfing at an Intelligence show. Was actually kinda scared that the crowd wouldn't be that into them, since it didn't start to fill up until well into last night's show, but it ended up being one of the more fun crowd's I've seen recently.

Aside from them, Wild Yaks and Golden Triangle were somewhat forgettable-- neither did anything really new or interesting, nor was the music strong enough to transcend how derivative they were. Not exactly saying that either band was terrible, there's much worse around, but neither is really worth watching out for.

However, the first band of the night, Smarts was definitely a nice surprise, an affectingly ramshackle band, somewhat reminiscent of fellow baltimore-ites, Double Dagger. Definitely kept me interested and entertained throughout their set, much more than I can say for the two bands preceding Intelligence.


As for tonight's show,

SAT 9/12 — REAL ESTATE, Desolation Wilderness, Zola Jesus, Big Troubles @ SILENT BARN

I'm pretty fucking psyched. Zola Jesus is one of my favorite bands/whatever you call one person who writes/plays it all (is that still a band?) that I've listened to recently, so I really can't wait for that. The Spoils is a great album, and while I still prefer the somewhat darker aesthetic of New Amsterdam and Tsar Bomba, I definitely appreciate the album as well.

Besides Zola, I just started listening to Big Troubles today after noticing their addition to the lineup. I actually missed them at the Underwater Peoples showcase last month, since I came a bit late, but I'm really impressed by what they have on their myspace. It's really great/simple indie-pop, in a similar vein as the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, with an equally great shoegaze influence, specifically The Boo Radleys (Compare the song Lazy Day by the Radleys and Freudian Slip by Big Troubles--it's the same riff!).