The staff took the stage at Monday night’s Rad Castle show at Zuzu. Nick the sound guy played in the first band, drug The Furniture, viagra sale and Joe the bartender closed the night with Creaturos. Having performers cover other duties in the venue gave the show a homey feel and made Leamers seem like honored guests. They were visiting from Montreal with some advance copies of their upcoming 7”.

The Furniture played a very tight first (official) show. They’re a full-sounding two-piece of drums and baritone guitar. The drummer smacked away with force and precision. (Actually, viagra this whole show was blessed with rocking drummers.) Nick sang wistfully in a rough voice and did an impressive job of multi-tasking––working bass-lines into his guitar parts and still managing to move around a bit. Their songwriting (not their sound) reminds me a bit of Death Cab for Cutie.

Leamers’ drummer, Emily, helped out guitarist/singer, Matt, with vocals. According to their facebook page, his vocal cords were in rough shape that night. I liked hearing the songs with both voices–it made them sound more carefree and rude than on their recordings. Their set definitely had the most surprises. They opened with a bouncy country groove and pretty soon snuck in noodly, off-kilter riffs (ridiculously well-coordinated). This band does whatever they feel like, and they usually feel like playing fast. They have a punk sensibility and a pop sensibility, but they don’t play pop-punk.

Creaturos closed with a pounding set that embraced the psychedelic, pushing their music up to and over cliffs of sound. That bit of sliminess in the singing really came to life once guitarist/singer Spenser Gralla lay down on the bar. They played a new one which was comparatively less wild––even pretty. That most of the crowd stayed past midnight on a Monday speaks to how awesome their set was. They gave a lot and left us wanting more.