I saw Bent Shapes open for John Vanderslice last Wednesday at Allston’s Great Scott and having had limited exposure to both bands, I came away with a huge appreciation and some new favorite songs.

Bent Shapes took to half of the stage—a drum-and-keyboard setup on the left side of the stage relegated them to the corner of the room, which was awkward for about five seconds, then they started playing their music.

Their music is great, catchy, inoffensive indie rock. When I say inoffensive, that’s not a dig. I just mean it’s palatable and could be used in an Apple commercial and on the soundtrack of a Juno remake. I guess that still sounds like a dig, but it’s totally not. Their sound captured some of the best parts of Vampire Weekend, Pavement, and Rilo Kiley. And the whole thing wasn’t inoffensive: “Brat Poison,” a fun highlight of the set, was an experimental punk-rock thrasher.

The crowd got up and danced immediately; something you don’t really see at a show this size. No coaxing from the band was necessary. The floor was full from the get-go. Bent Shapes’ vocals are easy to dance and sing along to—the kind of lyrics you can tell are probably super clever but there are so many coming so fast that you take it at face value.

The band traded off vocals from guitarist to drummer to bassist. And they were super charming. Their guitarist, Andy, told a pretty hilarious story about them picking up the t-shirts for the tour, and the banter was always self-aware and fun and quick. Then it was back into fun pop-rock. Bent Shapes were a pleasure to watch, happy to be playing for Allston, grateful to be touring with John Vanderslice, and comfortable enough on stage to make you forget they’re only taking up half of it.

John Vanderslice is a talker, you guys. Before a song started, he went on tangent off of tangent off of tangent. It was pretty funny. Then they played a song and it wasn’t bad, but it felt a little classic rock, save for a couple of interesting chord changes. Then another story/diatribe. But it’s okay, because after that it got back into the music. Vanderslice’s music, after the first couple songs (which again were still pretty good), got way more experimental.

So we’ve got John singing (live, he sounds like a dead ringer for Colin Meloy. I guess if we’re going chronologically, Colin Meloy is a dead ringer for John Vanderslice, but either way, after I realized it I couldn’t unhear it) and playing his guitar, twisting knobs occasionally on a mixing board to bend and mutilate his tones and noises. Jason is the only other person on stage, playing drums. I was wondering where the bass tone came from for a while, but I was able to peek through heads and see Jason subtly playing with a Moog synthesizer. He would also play samples, adding amazing layers that were key to the songs sounding so beautiful.

But the third musician was their traveling sound man, who was twisting and bending Vanderslice’s vocals, throwing on and cutting off delay, reverb, and effects that I couldn’t come close to placing. Afterward, I shook his hand and congratulated him on a show well done, which I suppose should be done for the people running sound, but I did it more as you would congratulate a performer. He deserved it, it sounded so well-produced and full.

When the stage-show was over, John brought his acoustic guitar and Jason brought a tom down to the floor to play two more songs, surrounded by the phone-flashlights of the audience. Great Scott’s dance floor seemed the perfect size for this, as there was space for John to move circles around Jason, but everyone was still packed together, sharing the moment. During the last song, he forgot the words. It was hilarious to us at the time but probably not in retrospect, because everyone was feeling the high of the show. John really takes that experience, the endorphins released from being in a rock club listening to blips and whirs and guitars, and hearing an unpolished joke from an aside from a story from a guy who’s tour-weary but still having the time of his life, and he runs with it.