Yesterday evening, drugs I watched the Saturday Night Live where Imagine Dragons was the musical artist. I couldn’t stop noticing the seemingly over dramatic way each of the members of that band performed. Maybe ‘Radioactive’ is a pretty dramatic song in itself, medical and this is probably what they encourage you to do when you perform in front of a televised crowd – whatever, ed to me it just seemed excessive. Staged. Strangely synchronized and unsmiling. For after Monday night’s Bass Drum of Death, Thunderbloods, and Vundabar show at The Great Scott, I saw what rock music should look like performed live. It was a riveting performance by all of the bands involved, the entire venue was electrocuted, slave to the command of the spirited thrash of guitars. Isn’t it kind of crazy to think of just how much catharsis can come out of a calculated vibration of a string?

Local artist Vundabar delivered a sweet surf rock set to open the night. Do not be fooled by their youthful pretty boy, shaggy hair over eyes appearance, as the x marked hands of these band members can really do some amazing work with a guitar. The band has a great and expansive range of musical ability that that sets them happily apart from many other up and coming garage band indie rock groups, notably shown from the the badass 60s inspired bass plucking opening and overall feel of ‘Voodoo’ and the impressively large vocal ability of lead singer Brandon Hagen, who was able to perform sad and delicate upper register tones and then dip quickly and smoothly into lower registers. There’s just really something likeable about the band, they are capable of making excellent feel good light rock, but it also possesses a certain rare musical depth to it. Top it off, they also put on a charming live performance, with Hagen pausing in between songs to give the crowd a Miley Cyrus esque tongue hanging heavy in the mouth, to drummer Drew McDonald ending a drum solo with a quick spin around in his chair before hitting the last note. Vundabar’s engaging presence certainly left a mark on me, as I haven’t stopped listening to their album ‘Antics’ since the show (Check out ‘Holy Toledo’ and ‘Greenland.’)

Next on the bill was also local artist Thunderbloods, who were considerably older than Vundabar, both in appearance and sound. Their sound, as implied by their name, is rock n roll meets the suave coolness of blood spattered cowboy spurs. Their 70s rock influenced, scintillating and frenetic guitar solos amped up the energy from Vundabar, which was raised even higher as lead singer Evan Kenney leapt into the crowd, opening a large and frantic pit while dedicating a song to the recent passing of Philip Seymour Hoffman. The dynamic set of the Thunderbloods was certainly invigorating, nicely representing what Kenney said to the crowd before diving in, “Everything’s great man, we’re alive. We’re alive.”

Finally, Mississippi based lo-fi Bass Drum of Death (there’s a name that will raise some eyebrows) took the stage, truly making for a wonderful combination of the past two openers. The duo entered the stage to Rich Boy and Polow Da Don’s ‘Throw Some D’s, giving the crowd just long enough to throw up some gangster related hand movements before lapsing into their psychedelic deep guitar garage rock choruses. The vocals seemed to be muffled and overcome by the guitars in the live performance than on album, noticeable in tracks such as ‘Crawling After You.’ This was a minor issue of course, because the vigorous guitar choruses delivered by Bass Drum of Death were spectacular. They incited so much energy that it quickly became a mosh or be moshed situation in the crowd, and for how bitterly cold of a winter it has been, who didn’t appreciate getting sweaty and tangling in other people’s body heat for a little bit? (Actually I can answer that, probably the girl behind me. Sorry.)

Overall, a fantastically fun night of local music. If you want to get a taste of the local Boston music scene at all, definitely give these bands a listen. I have attended a diverse amount of musical performances, but Monday night definitely made me realize that there really isn’t anything quite as much of a glorious spectacle as somebody just really being able to work magic with their guitar.