The Sun Lions. Photo by Ryan Pickering.

This was a show I felt young at. It wasn’t what I’ve understood to be the usual crowd at Rad Castle (Joseph Marrett’s series of Monday nights at the Zuzu). It felt more like a bar-bar and less like a hip-bar (which isn’t a value judgement).

Fantastic Liars went on first. When I most enjoy them, cialis they play a fun, ed modern take on ‘50s rock and roll. The songs are what Conor Oberst might write if he were locked in a room to watch Stand By Me over and over. Most of the credit for their ‘50s feel goes to tenor sax player, Craig McKeone. He has much better tone than one comes to expect in the “rock band + horn” equation. The set felt long to me, but it was all pretty fluid––drum-fills connecting many of the songs. Highlights included two well-chosen covers: The Beatle’s “Hey Bulldog” and Patsy Cline’s “She’s Got You.”

Then came The Sun Lions, a power-trio who know how to craft a riff. I can’t explain why, but they strike me as a band Roger Klotz might like. They sound like the less-punk side of Nirvana and have an earnest appreciation for ‘70s guitar power. None of the self-indulgence of the ‘70s though––in fact, with Pete Schluter’s chops and creativity, they’d get away with quite a few more guitar solos.

The Sun Lions are really designed for bigger rooms and louder speakers. This made it cool to hear them play on the floor of a narrow restaurant, with a tiny drumkit and a relatively small amp. Zuzu is an intimate enough place that drummer, Jeff Walsh, could (and did) lean on his knee to address the audience, without a microphone or really raising his voice.