Power duo Sleepy Kitty, hailing from “St. Louis via Chicago” according to their Facebook, are touring the United States and Canada and were kind enough to play a set at T. T. The Bear’s Place this past Sunday.

Right off the bat, their setup was pretty unfamiliar: recently I’ve seen a lot of duos made up of drum-pads and a snare next to a pile of synthesizers for one musician, with the other on guitar or bass behind another wall of keyboards. Sleepy Kitty and their setup, however, isn’t the kind of thing that will get lumped in with the electropop of Tanlines or Baths. The influence here is clearly taken more from the White Stripes, but with their own innovation.

The most immediate White Stripes parallel is that Paige’s guitar was either tuned or pitch-shifted super low. When she was wailing on chords, and she was wailing, it was deep and heavy, evoking some sludge-metal, but always staying catchy and sharp enough to keep the pace. But she also would pull out a sharp and fast riff to break things up here and there, coming off haunting in its lower tone.  Occasionally the guitar would be just a background thing, looped in on one or two chords and you’d get to watch her do her thing on vocals which, let’s be serious, was the attraction of the night.

Paige has incredible control of her voice. She sang into the above-mentioned loop pedal and would layer a half-dozen harmonies on top of each other, putting her abilities on perfect display. She brings a Veruca Salt vibe to the songs naturally, but can pull back to an innocent, younger voice, belt like a diva, or make swamp noises (What Are You Going To Do When You Find Bigfoot?), and it’s a blast to watch her do it so effortlessly.

Many of the songs were extremely dynamic (due largely to Evan on drums), to the point where the pace shifted forward, stopped, picked up, broke down in a single track. You could dance along to it, but you’d have to be ready to stop at a moment’s notice and at one point it became about appreciating the music more than grooving. When they were playing stuff off of their new album Projection Room, however, the music became much more song-servicing, and to great results. A particular highlight for me, due to its subject matter and catchy sing-along chorus, was Batman: The Ride, a song about the anticipation of the titular Six Flags amusement.

But you’re going to think up some swamp noises to bring with you.

Local-ish Lowellers Western Education got on stage afterward and cranked out their set. West Ed walks a fun line between the fast, jangly pop-punk of bands like Yellowcard and the dark, powerful ’80s synths of New Order. They’re particularly fun to watch because of how super tight they are. You can see how well choreographed each song is from the effortless arm sweeps of Greg on keyboards/lead vocals and the nods to/from the rest of the band, and the levels of each instrument were always conscious of what needed to take precedence.

They might be on the opposite end of the dynamics spectrum from Sleepy Kitty, however. This isn’t to say they don’t have pulls and releases like any band, but their music is very consistent despite this. I think if you played me the beginning of one of their songs and asked me to pick out how it would evolve from a lineup I’d do pretty well. That was a weird metaphor. What I’m saying is this is good soundtrack music—it’s maybe a bit predictable, but in the way that those styles I mentioned to describe them are. The song is meant to evoke something beyond the music, be it adrenaline or frustration, and the songs are the conduit.

The set had a consistent feel, as these sets tend to go. Western Education is a band that knows how to get a room moving, but I can say I’m genuinely curious to see what their “slow” songs will sound like: they’ll be releasing a full-length in July, and while I’m sure it will contain their brand of infectious, dancey, synth-punk, I’m hoping we’ll get a chance to hear.