O’Brien’s is a funny place, but so are the people that go there. This past Thursday the venue opened its doors to a lineup of both local and visiting acts. Cult Florescent, Loner Chic, Bellwire and 10,000 Blades strung the night together with a variety of onstage antics, some questionable hometown shit-talk and for the most part, good music. The night was an interesting mix from start to finish, from the subdued tones of Bradley DeMatteo to the throttled jams of a self described “words-rock” band. And while Thursday’s crowd may have been on the sparser side of a typical Boston show, the audience and bands alike didn’t pay the extra floor space any mind.

Bradley DeMatteo played as Cult Florescent, a one man minimal pop outfit calling Boston home most days of the week. DeMatteo started off the night with a impressively refined demonstration, mixing prerecorded sounds with his dreamy tenor and whatever miscellaneous bells and whistles he chose to sprinkle in on stage. DeMatteo started most songs with a simple bass line, to then loop it with breathy lyrics and straightforward beats. Like musical Jenga, the singer built his songs from their foundation up, adding and subtracting his bass loops and lyrics with minimal synth, muddied piano and once, shockingly melodic microphone feedback. The end result was complex and intelligent, a snowballing cluster of sounds Dematteo preferred to topple almost entirely for the bulk of his codas.

This was his move to bring listeners back to the almost a cappella sound he started with, and ultimately give himself room to rebuild again. DeMatteo’s spectrum of both minimal and complex dreampop was creative and mature. The singer ended his set as faintly as he began, letting his bass line fade into silence before leaving the stage for the evening.

Loner Chic followed Cult Florescent with loud guitars and pink floral shirts. Hailing from New Haven, Loner Chic based their set on pop punk and emo influences to result in a sound as youthful as frontman Chris Cappello’s 1995 birth. Cappello sang like a warbly Conor Oberst to the tune of a young heartache, disappointing friends and what he calls, “generally feeling bad.” Whether teenage angst or actual depression, his lyrical pessimism was kept hidden by the upbeat chords and buoyant percussion Loner Chic maintained for the bulk of their set. Only when Cappello played solo did his lyrics really take effect in describing the displacement of his past and possible present, a feeling he further described in between songs from a somewhat confusing standpoint. The singer noted the significance of the venue’s location near Harvard Ave and was quick to point out his own negative feelings of living in the shadow of a prestigious college. A good portion of the Cappello’s energy was spent damning the Yale stereotype and the privileged backgrounds of those known to support it. His examples of new froyo chains, upscale coffee shops and a record shop seized by big business were lost on most of the crowd. Listen to the band’s new EP, Pretty Void, here. 

Bellwire followed Loner Chic with a well-humored presence. Locals to the Boston scene, Bellwire started off their set thumping to the groove of “The Bell Hop”, a premier track off the band’s July 2013 EP, summEP.  Bellwire’s sound was perfect to bring the show’s stragglers together, and once frontman Tyler Burdwood sang “Show a pack of friendly strangers that you can boogie,” they did just that.

Burdwood’s on-stage movements were endearing and energetic as he bopped and swayed to Jack Holland’s chunky bass lines and Chris Faulkner’s (also of Wet Dress, The Little Richards and Jonee Earthquake Band) incredible way with sticks. Guitarist Mike Holland fit right in with the bunch too. And though he appeared among the reserved side, the guitarist had no trouble tapping into the band’s more extroverted sound. Burdwood’s voice matched Bellwire’s off-kilter funkiness with his own intuition, adding slight “oohs” and jazzy yelps to further the band’s whim. The few moments Holland joined Burdwood at the mic where also enjoyable, as the two harmonized to form more conventional vocal tones. Despite their effect being entirely welcome, Burdwood’s singular effect held it’s strength where it was–a place far from convention. Like a fuller, straight-forward Violent Femmes, Bellwire filled the majority of their set with a moody yet wholly fun sound, following “The Bell Hop” with “Old House”, another track from summEP. It wasn’t until the band’s closing ballad that they pulled out all the stops, almost letting the slow song fade to silence before pulling their audience up by the boot straps and rallying for an outro of “Sunset on Fischer Street”. Just last weekend the band wrapped up a 7”, a hopeful continuation of the charisma they showed on Thursday’s stage.

10,000 Blades started their set with “Fuck You Die,” a strangely upbeat song from their February 2014 release, Freshwater Muscle. Like Loner Chic, 10,000 Blades was quick to knock a changed New Haven, as their on-stage commentary focused almost entirely on resenting the place they grew up. Regardless of 10,000 Blades’ opinions their sound was worth a listen, as they blew through more songs from Freshwater Muscle with the kind of energy most bands save for a packed audience. Cappello joined frontman Jon Stone during the band’s first song, jumping on stage to grab a free mic and belt out the opening tune’s final, “1, 2, 3, 4 fuck you die.” “My Bloody Granddad” followed as the band’s most melancholy tune, a vague yet gripping tale Stone told showgoers through the more monotone side of his wide vocal range. The band’s current bassist, Sean Keith was unable to make the Allston gig. His absence was substituted by a skillful fill-in, a noted part-time violinist who easily backed Stone’s chord progression with eagerness and talent. While 10,000 Blades performance wasn’t entirely innovative, they still managed to give the audience a sense of their more personal experiences. Stone’s lyrical breadth and nuanced resonance paired well with their stand-in’s bass lines to keep the audience bobbing their heads with enthusiasm. The band ended the night with “I Disagree with Randy Newman,” a tune who’s end Stone met by crooning, “The farther I get from Los Angeles, the happier I’ll get, the happier I’ll get ” until his voice turned silent for good. For good, at least until he yelled his very last words: “Fuck you, Boston! Your pizza sucks!” Music aside, here’s hoping the next time these New Haven bands come around, they’ll have something better to talk about.