THURSDAY

Every band that played at Virgin Mobile Mod Club

Every now and then a bill comes around that is so stacked you could pee yourself. Hold it in please, because Thursday night at the Virgin Mobile Mod Club was just that with Caddywhompus, Speedy Ortiz, PS I Love You, and Pissed Jeans. It felt weirdly corporate walking into the venue, but I had faith in the night with this lineup. It didn’t let down. New Orleans-based Caddywhompus is a diamond in the rough mixing some gnarly mathy guitars, intricate and non-traditional drumbeats, and beautiful poppy, melodic vocals. They don’t tour through the northeast too often, so don’t sit on it next time they’re in Boston. (The last time they came through was two years ago at the Butcher Shoppe RIP)

Next up was local favorites Speedy Ortiz. What more could I say about this band that I haven’t said already? For one thing, they’re not the types to sit on a record too long, so even though Real Hair EP came out only this past February, they are already performing new material. In fact, this new material might sound familiar to those of you who downloaded our Marathon Relief Mixtape from last year that featured the demo track “Bigger Party.” The band re-recorded it for their Adult Swim single series due out this summer. This was the first time I saw Speedy Ortiz perform with Grass is Green’s Devin McKnight on guitar. Could he live up to the crazy antics of Matt Robidoux? Yes, of course. His stoicism didn’t outweigh the power and noise blasting from his guitar and tracks like “Indoor Soccer” really showed how well he fit right into Speedy Ortiz.

PS I Love You was the most unfamiliar to me of the lineup for the night, but I was alone in this. The Toronto-based heavy, fuzzed-out pop band drew a large crowd to fill the Mod Club. It was so loud that even with earplugs, I had to take some steps back to get away from the PA system.

Nothing could have ended the bill better than Pissed Jeans. Known for their bizarre stage antics, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Lead singer Matt Korvette first informed the audience of a band name change. They were no longer to be referred to as Pissed Jeans. They are now Virgin Mobile Pissed Jeans. Korvette also used the setup of the stage to his advantage, frequently passing over to the curtain on stage right to wipe the sweat off his forehead. His clothes stayed on but barely as he spent a lot of the night tugging down his jeans. The band pulsed through their fast, noisy punk, the hardest sound of the evening, and the crowd reacted as they should by opening a pit and starting shit up. If there were NXNE awards, Virgin Mobile Pissed Jeans would certainly win the award for giving the least amount of fucks.

The Pizza Underground at Lee’s Palace

Do yourself a favor and don’t believe the hype. The Pizza Underground isn’t even worth seeing for the zero dollars spent to watch them pretend to play instruments on the Lee’s Palace stage. I came in mid-set and mid-Billy Joel-themed cat songs with a projector screen and #PUSSYJOEL on it. After a medley of this and a discussion of poop-themed Bob Dylan tunes, The Pizza Underground brought a Kurt Cobain impersonator named Kurt Cobained who sang a medley of Nirvana songs in the past tense. Sadly Kurt Cobained was the most talented of the bunch as he could actually sing and play guitar. The set ended with what I assumed the whole show would be: a pizza-themed medley of Velvet Underground songs. I guess I’m also angry, because I missed all the free pizza handed out at the show.

Shannon and the Clams at Lee’s Palace

After the blasphemy and horror that was The Pizza Underground, nothing could have redeemed it better than a perfect performance from Shannon and the Clams. The San Francisco dance-pop-surf-everything awesome band churned out all the bangerz to a very receptive crowd that erupted in a giant dance party.