Sarahindie

If you are unfamiliar, the premise of Hoodwink, traditionally held the night before Bamboozle festivals, is that bands pick a favorite, different band, and play a set of their songs. I, who loves cover songs, love Hoodwink. Because some people (me) have real jobs, I missed the first few bands. I am told that Eye Alaska, who did the music of Kanye West, stagecrashed the set of The Summer Set, who were doing Taylor Swift. So Eye Alaska wins at life.

All the Day Holiday plays The Beach Boys: they have dressed in costume, which is adorable. Blue oxford shirts, black trousers, sunglasses, hair neatly combed. It almost makes up for the terrible sound mix. It’s about 80% too loud treble, underscored by just enough bass to rattle my ribcage. The really weakness in this set is their insistence on using as much falsetto as the original band. It takes a real man to admit that his falsetto isn’t ready for prime time. Also, thanks to this band’s popularity, this is the first time I’ve seen kids running and dancing wildly at the sound of the Beach Boys in … ever.

The Maine plays Everclear: From the first song, they are excellent. (To be fair, the source material is way easier.) But the Phoenix-based Maine has the right laid-back SoCal angst for this band’s repetoire.

Hmm, as they go on, it becomes apparent that they frontloaded the set with the songs they were good at. The lead singer’s grip on the lyrics collapses after the second song.

Say Anything plays The Misfits: Okay. Loud. Par for the course.

Motion City Soundtrack plays Nine Inch Nails: I suppose anyone who thought about it a moment would realize that MCS would be the best band at Hoodwink this year. They picked source material that was strong and adapted it to their strengths rather than trying to force themselves to be an electrometal band for a night. But it still shows a new side of them, which I think is the secret aim behind the Hoodwink concerts. This is awesome, hard as hell rock. Plus, they use their techs to their full ability, so at one point, there are seven guys playing on stage. Plus, no one except drummer Tony Thaxton seems to be the only one allowed to play just one instrument. It’s positively Arcade Fire. But it is amazingly worth it, if just for the three dueling synths + Moog closing of “Closer.”

The way frontman Justin Pierre throws himself around the stage, I think this might be the closest I ever coming to seeing Trent Reznor himself. It’s almost worth the horrible pain in my eardrums from the WAY TOO MANY amps.

When they start “Hurt”, there are at least a dozen real lighters in the air. That is more than I’ve seen at a show in at least ten years. Also, my favorite people here are3 the nice middle-aged mom with the string backpack and her husband, who is having a religious experience.

Andrew McMahon plays Bar Classics: He starts with a Dylan impression. Progresses to “Rocket Man,” a deep Simon & Garfunkel cut, and a quarter-speed version of MGMT’s “Kids.” Time to go home!

Okay, look kids, I’m gonna level with you. February is kicking my ass. I got a sinus infection, for starters, and the medication is making me hella loopy. I’ve been sick for about two weeks. I have all of these notes to share with you about Empires’ trip through the east coast, and that is forthcoming, but in the meantime, go buy their new awesome single, “Strangers” (or at least click over to listen to it). Their album, Bang, is going to be pretty epic. Then, as if that wasn’t hanging over me, I dragged myself out for the Motion City Soundtrack show only to promptly spill Robitussin on my trusty liveblogging phone and utterly destroy it. So that is lost to time. (Summary: like all MCS shows, Katie ended up Mom-ing a mosh pit. And they brought an a capella group from Williams College to sing one of their songs in the encore.)

So, Katie suggested that I do a sort of Motion City roundup with my thoughts on the show and their new album, My Dinosaur Life, and other stuff. But you guys, I am just barely managing to make myself meals at this point (lunch yesterday? half a bowl of Lucky Charms aka all the Lucky Charms we had left). So instead, I give you the things I was going to talk about.

1. Click the link above and go to Lala.com and listen to the most adorably geeky band in emodom. Their songs are angsty, yes, but also punk in a very Midwestern way and speaking to a life much closer to the one I’ve lived than the epic tales of betrayal and sluttiness shared by Fall Out Boy or Panic! at the Disco. These are songs about how you’ll totally give up your X-Box if that’s what it takes to bring her back, and who can’t relate to that? (Besides my mom.)
2. They did an Interface session at Spinner and it will give you a taste of them live and their intense adorability. They seem like the kind of dudes that would be in your after work beer aficionados club/D&D party.
3. They made the following video. They seem to think it sucks, but I do not. I think it will probably be my favorite video of the year, and it’s only February.