Night Rally, Clickers, Tristan de Cunha.

Caught a fantastic triple bill at Great Scott last night - Tristan de Cunha and Clickers in support of the Cambridge Night Rally, further evidence of a burgeoning, creative DIY music scene in Boston (Allston, to be more precise).

Tristan de Cunha were onstage for more than half an hour before they came within an arm's length of 4/4 time; the three musicians prefer exotic structures and a cheerfully undanceable prog-punk style. For a band with such extraordinary chops (made all the more awesome by the instrument-switch that closes the show), the lads are refreshingly relaxed about it all; they laugh a lot onstage while tossing off lightning-quick changes of tempo and time under a cloud cover of distortion and noise. When they slowed down enough to let the mortals jump onboard, it was for delectable (and bizarre) covers of two Christmas chestnuts, 'Winter Wonderland' and the Charlie Brown Christmas Special classic 'Skating' (a jazz waltz as performed by a post-punk King Crimson). As usual for such a performance, the vocals were hard to follow, though that's probably the room's fault as much as anything; overall the set was like a shot of pure adrenaline, threatening to burst from exertion but never in danger of losing its finesse. As I put it to my friend afterward: 'Pretty much as complex as music can get that still makes me absolutely lose my shit with exhilaration and joy.' And yet things somehow improved from there.

Clickers neatly bridge the worlds of their fellow-traveller bands TDC and Night Rally. They don't quite have the opening act's formidable chops, but the two-guitar quartet brings complex musicality and tightness to more accessible music, serving as an effective lead-in to Night Rally's expansive songwriting. Clickers have been away for a couple of months, working on new material and recording, and their labours have paid off in spades: I've never heard them sound as good as they did last night. Careening through their usual stew of spacey chord changes and proggy beats, the boys debuted three new songs, each of which takes their sound outward in new directions. Electronic drumbeats and guitar textures now percolate along with their indefatigable rhythm section; the vocals are getting more varied, with yelps and crooning put to excellent contrasting effect; quieter sections space out the full-band onslaught, cleaner than TDC's punkish exhibitionism but able to bring across surprising subtleties. Clickers are a band with a future.

Overheard on the 66 bus back to Cambridge after the show: 'Night Rally. I'm not sure what it was, but I liked it.' That's not a bad way to put it, actually. The trio's most recognizable feature is singer Devin King's Frank-Black-in-The-Sound-of-Music vocal style, which commands attention immediately. But the vocals work in service of a full-band style that's two parts art-rock surrealism, one part tongue-in-cheek melodic interplay, and two parts only-slightly-ironic sci-fi major-chord bliss. The drums are crisp and complex, while aggressive bass undergirds a chiming guitar sound that goes from celestial to diabolical with the turn of an effects knob. Melodically, the Rally belt out the most accessible of the tunes played last night, and as far as the playing goes, there's an endearing humanness to the show. They're the least technically adept ensemble in the lineup (though that's no insult), but they're also the best songwriters - recent tunes have extended their very slightly poppy sound into droning post-industrial-horror fadeouts and even a danceable swing beat (under the words '...to the poison green air!' no less). The bigness of their songs is ambition coupled to real heart. (And brains: the between-song banter is about Che Guevara, Hamlet, and West Side Story.)

All three of these bands put on killer live shows, and all three are busy recording (look for a Clickers/Night Rally 12" this spring from Honeypump). If you like your rock with brains, balls, and beauty, you can do worse than these three ensembles.

[Sure I've got criticisms, by the way, but they're not worth mentioning, as they all take the form of 'Why is this a 10 and not an 11?' Ungrateful bastard.]

Comments

[shazam]

Damn! Sounds like a great show. I'm sorry to have missed it.

However, the family is all here now, and there's snow on the ground, and we're hoping it'll stay for the kids. And the rest of us too.

And we sang and played piano duets tonight, and that's a reasonable, if unrelated, substitute.