[Record Crate] I love an early night

You can substitute country singer Eddie Rabbit for me, and "early" for "rainy," for I love an early night. I love being able to engage in my favorite pastime of seeing live music and get home early enough to make it to the office the next morning. Spanish Moon is really to be commended for the shows they've been booking before their popular Velcro dance night. When I arrived there with dusk illuminating the nearby bridge, Stinking Lizaveta was a couple of peculiar songs into their set. Lizaveta songs consist of a maniacal drum beat, an undulating groove from an electric upright bass, some intricate guitar work that might be mapping the human genome for all its complexity and the sole vocal accompaniment of the guitarist shouting "WOOOOOOOOOO!"

Appropriately, as darkness began to fall, Austin's critically acclaimed hammer-of-Thor rock occultists The Sword commenced to lay down the heavy din. It was pretty cool to see heads banging and the occasional fit of air guitar happening in the crowd at 9:30 p.m. I was so giddy with the prospect of getting a good night's sleep that I skipped out on Torche's set. Hopefully shows like this will start a trend toward a music scene that is more accessible to those of us with a concert shirt heart under our button-down lives.

Does it qualify to be the end of an era, when the era was long over to begin with? Witness the final show by Werewolf, the legendary 80s cover band at The Varsity to find out. As to why they are leaving our temporal plane is anyone's guess; perhaps the carbon footprint of all that hairspray and spandex was weighing too heavily on their consciences.

One of my favorite local bands, Elsah, comes out of hiding this week at the North Gate Tavern, promising a batch of new songs and a renewed vigor. They will be joined by Paul Johnson, formerly of Elsah and member of The Prescriptions.

On their latest album Swimming, French Kicks have dialed back the electronic sheen for a decidedly more rock approach to their nervous yet dreamy music, sounding all the better for it. Frightened Rabbit, the finest Joy Division revisionists in all of Selkirk, U.K., will be joining them onstage at the Spanish Moon.

Go listen to some Bo Diddley this week, either out of respect or just to remind yourself what rock 'n' roll is really supposed to sound like.

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