Column 97: YouTubed
Videos are relevant all over again.

Overheard while out and about last weekend, talk of the new Ladyfinger (NE) video, the one featuring a slouched and beaten Matt Bowen — local legend and music hustler, former member of too many bands to list — pushing a broom in his role as a school janitor. I had to see it. But where?

Music videos have been around for what seems like forever, but they’ve never been a serious endeavor for local indie bands. What’s the point? You could spend thousands of dollars and hours making a video that ultimately will never be seen by anyone but your family and friends. MTV? Who do you think you are? A-Ha?

YouTube has changed all of that. Located at www.youtube.com, the website is one of technology’s ultimate time wasters right along with Madden ’07 and the Blackberry. Go there now and you’ll find linked off the homepage videos like “Sweet Tired Cat” — 27 seconds of a cat falling asleep, and “Chad Vader,” a 6-minute video that imagines Darth Vader as a grocery clerk at “Empire Market.” Funny? Well, sort of.

You’ll also find that aforementioned video of Ladyfinger’s “Too Cool for School” in all its cheesy glory. In fact, you’ll find just about any music video that you can remember seeing on MTV. Robert Plant’s “Big Log” circa 1983? It’s there. The A-Ha classic “Take on Me”? Of course. Cursive’s “Dorothy at Forty”? Yup, right along with every other video made by Saddle Creek artists, including The Faint’s “Agenda Suicide,” arguably the best music video ever produced by a local band.

Saddle Creek Records exec Robb Nansel likes YouTube. “It seems like a great way to get some additional exposure that bands may not have had access to before,” he said, adding that the website’s crappy Flash-based video technology is so poor that it won’t impact the label’s video sales. “But we have never viewed the music videos that we make as a revenue stream. We think of them as promotional materials for our bands, so the more people that see the videos, the better.”

Greg Edds, guitarist for local rock band Little Brazil, couldn’t agree more. Edds emailed me a link to their video for “Stretching Skin,” which captures the band playing in a well-lit practice space. He said the video has been viewed more than 1,300 times since it was uploaded to YouTube in September.

“(YouTube) definitely allows us and other bands to reach a world market without touring to those lengths,” he said. “It’s another avenue for bands to try something new… and free, creatively.”

But even more prolific than band-made music videos is live footage captured by fans — thousands of hours of it. You cannot go to a rock show these days without seeing those kids and their tiny palm-corders, capturing a performance that will be uploaded to YouTube the next morning.

The footage is clearly a breach of various copyright laws, but Nansel doesn’t seem to mind. “I think technically, people should ask permission,” he said, “but we have never asked anyone to take anything down.”

Those amateur indie-rock videographers certainly came in handy last Friday night for Saddle Creek band Two Gallants. Over the weekend, a number of outraged Houstonites emailed me to recount how Two Gallants were busted by the HPD during a performance at club Walter’s on Washington. They told stories of police brutality that bordered on Gestapo tactics, of people being thrown to the ground and 14-year-olds being “tazed.” However, the only mainstream coverage of the event, by Houston ABC affiliate KTRK, seemed to counter their claims, stating band members attacked the officer, who efficiently restored order. Who to believe? In the “old days,” most would rely on the ABC account.

But within hours of the confrontation, videos of the incident wound up on YouTube, capturing the frantic melee as it happened. One video clearly shows a cop taking down a band member on stage and calling for back-up. Another appears to capture a patron being pushed by the cop to the floor. Since they went online Saturday, the videos have been viewed more than 80,000 times. And that KTRK report has been updated, no longer stating the band attacked the cop.

In the end, the videos don’t capture how the scuffle began — that’ll be for a Houston court to determine (talk about your return engagements). As of Tuesday morning, the story had been covered by more than a dozen online news outlets, including Rolling Stone.com — many include links to the YouTube footage. You simply cannot buy publicity like that. And for a band that’s known in the indie music world for their song about spending a night in a “Las Cruces Jail,” they can now add a line about a real night in a Houston jail. Hopefully someone captured it on video.

Who would have thought Two Gallants getting busted in Houston last Friday night would become such a big deal? It’s a story that just isn’t going to die. The Houston Chronicle today follows with a lengthy feature headlined, “Melee Could Put the Hurt on Houston’s Music Scene,” with the underline “Brawl between HPD, band draws national notice, may keep acts away, fans say.” The story (here) says that Houston already has a bad rep among touring bands, and that the Two Gallants debacle is only going to make it worse. “Managers are trying to give their bands a chance in Houston. But there’s absolutely nothing we can say to help our case to get bands into town when they’re being attacked by cops. Whatever the official report is, there’s no excuse for it,” said local promoter Ryan Chavez, who booked the show. Two Gallants would be crazy to skip Houston now. Imagine the press coverage they’d receive, both locally and nationally, upon their return. The show would be huge. If they really want to make a statement about what happened, the best way to do it is from a Houston stage.

Doesn’t sound like that will happen though, based on the band’s interview with Pitchfork that went online yesterday afternoon (here). Adam Stephens’ and Tyson Vogel’s account of the situation is disturbing, painting a picture of a man-mountain strolling through the crowd brandishing a Taser like a cattle prod. “He was really focused on this one kid, who was really young,” said Vogel in the article. “I think he was 14 years old. He kept Tasing him over and over again. The kid started having convulsions or something. It’s so crazy. You can kill somebody with one of those things.” If true, that’s pretty creepy. The funniest line of the story comes from Stephens: “That guy was huge, and we’re skinny little indie rocker kids. It’s not like we go to the gym, and we definitely couldn’t take this guy on in any way. He was a big dude and he was on top of us, pretty much had us down.” So now the band is considering taking legal action, which would be a mistake. Says Vogel, “This is about a larger truth. We’re not trying to get something else out of it. We just want what’s right.” Good luck with that one.

Tonight at Sokol Underground, Thunderbirds Are Now! roll into town in support of their new album, Make History on Frenchkiss Records, a standard-issue indie rock album. With Rescue and Tie These Hands, $8, 9 p.m. Meanwhile, over at O’Leaver’s, it’s Mike Tulis’ Rock Movie Night featuring the documentary We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen. Movie details are here. The film rolls at 9:30 and it’s FREE.

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A follow-up to the Two Gallants’ drama. Just about every music outlet on the web has covered the incident, including Rollingstone.com and, of course, Pitchfork. And there are tons of blogs covering the fracas, including this one. Also as a result of the rigmarole, Thursday’s Lazy-i column will focus on YouTube and will mention the incident. Again, could Saddle Creek and Two Gallants ask for better (or at least, more) publicity, even if it costs the band some more jail time and/or fines? Guess that’s up to the band to decide…

Tonight at Sokol Underground Bonnie Prince Billy along with Dapose‘s Vverevvolf Grehv. Who remembers the last time Will Oldham came to town? I do. It was back in August 2001 at The Music Box. Simon Joyner opened the show, and Pinetop Seven did an amazing set. Oldham stumbled on stage last along with has band of very strange musicians. They created about 30 minutes of droning noise that featured Oldham mumbling words incoherently while some spook stood at the front of the stage and stared at the crowd (that appeared to be his only job, to be the official goon). Not one of the best shows of 2001, not by a long shot. But hey, that was five years ago. I’m sure things have gotten better for Oldham by then. He’s certainly turned out to be a helluva an actor (Junebug, Old Joy, etc.). And his new album, The Letting Go, has been getting raves. $15, 9 p.m. If you prefer to dance instead, drop in at O’Leaver’s for Chromatics, who’s playing tonight with Glass Candy and Eagle’s Blood. $5, 9:30 p.m.

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I received a number of emails over the weekend from outraged Houstonites who were there Friday night when Two Gallants got busted during a performance at Walter’s on Washington. Walter’s calls itself “the neighborhood bar that is also the best new live music venue in Houston.” Supposedly a few of those neighbors weren’t so happy with the noise level Friday night and called the cops. By the accounts I’ve received, what ensued was a police action that borders on Gestapo.

One member of the crowd, Lazy-i reader William G.K. Zhang, says it went down like this: “A policeman came into the venue and immediately got on stage. The policeman then started to confront Adam and after a short while, threw him down on the stage. The policeman then got up and immediately called for backup. The policeman also started thrashing around and destroying musical equipment. Afterwards, members from the crowd and the opening bands started confronting the police officer. The police officer then proceeded to harass and taze members of the crowd, including one 14-year old teenager. Adam then ran out of the venue and disappeared into the streets. Tyson was handcuffed and peacefully entered the police car. Soon, helicopters and police cars flooded into the venue parking lot. Arrests were made of members of the opening bands and dissenting crowd members.”

The local ABC affiliate filed this report, which originally stated the band attacked the cop. Ah, but the power of portable digital video cameras proved that those initial reports were, to say the least, questionable, and story has since been updated. Take a look a couple different videos of the incident on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxKQb03A0bw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40x2KghHX_A

Ugly. I ran into Saddle Creek’s Robb Nansel yesterday, who confirmed that the incident did indeed go down, and that Adam and Tyson didn’t get out of Houston till the next day, then booked it to Austin for their gig at Emo’s. Zhang said that among the casualties in the fray was Langhorne Slim’s 90-year-old bass, which got broken when the cop pushed a crowd member into it. Now there are reports that the neighbors never complained about the noise. And let’s be honest, isn’t it odd for a cop to storm the stage and try to take a guitar away from the musician? If you want the sound cut, you go to the sound board and start unplugging things. Strange, strange business. It’ll be even stranger when the Two Gallants make their return visit to Houston — to appear in court.

The Houston Chronicle weighs in with this account, where an HPD spokesman calls the policeman’s behavior “commendable.”

Zhang’s full account is now on the Two Gallants Wikipedia entry.

There’s another account on a witness’s myspace page:

And more comments at the Two Gallants forum.

Expect this story to be covered in all the usual music media over the next few days. Could Two Gallants ask for better publicity? Congratulations, Saddle Creek. And thanks to those who wrote in (Emily, William, John) to give me a head’s up.

* * *

There was a nice crowd at the Chin Up Chin Up show Saturday night at O’Leaver’s to hear a nice set from a nice indie 5-piece that plays nice, mid-tempo indie rock. I like Chin Up, but the set was less than riveting. To their credit, they got better as the set wore on, peaking with the final two songs.

Tonight at O’Leaver’s, Oakland-based indie heavy-metal trio Totimoshi takes the stage with Omaha’s own Lepers. $5, 9:30 p.m.

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Maybe 65 people were at Sokol Underground last night to see Protoculture play the best set I’ve ever heard them play. If you were around the stage, you saw the hi-jinx between the crowd and band, that at one point forced them to start a song over. Kooky. Great sound, though, and always fun to watch (though they didn’t play their Kite Pilot cover as drummer Koly Walter has promised.).

STNNNG had a tougher time. Halfway through their set, something went amiss with one of the guitar amps. It killed the momentum the band had gathered up to that point with their brand of hard-edged post-punk. Frontman Chris Besinger was in his usual bizarre form, looking like a dwarfish sex deviant straight out of Times Square circa 1971. With his scream-bark, leather gloves and piercing eyes, he looked like a homicidal street lunatic ranting at an imaginary friend, pointing and grimacing and storming around the stage. Meanwhile, a small moshpit formed up front, consisting of five or six young guys stomping around elbowing each other. Whatever happened to the slam-dance culture? STNNNG’s new songs are bleak, intense and filthy, at times creating an intense groove with Besinger playing the role of punk shaman. And man, it was loud.

Tonight at O’Leaver’s, Chin Up Chin Up, with Skull Fight and Electric Needle Room. $5, 9:30 p.m.

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Friday the 13th. Pretty scary. Is it safe to go out tonight? Well, if you do, there’s a great show down at Sokol Underground: STNNNG, The Protoculture, Bombardment Society and The Stay Awake all for just $8. I’m told that The Protoculture will be rolling out a new cover of a Kite Pilot song this evening. And if you haven’t seen Bombardment with new bass player Lincoln Dickison (The Monroes), well, you’re in for a treat.

If for some reason you’ve gone crazy and you don’t feel like driving downtown, Mark Mallman is “scheduled” to open a show at O’Leaver’s with Pendrakes and Jon Yeager Band. Ironically, I mentioned Mallman’s show to Chris Besinger of STNNNG, and he said if these two shows were going on simultaneously in Minneapolis, Mallman’s show would be the one to sell out. Please Note: Mallman’s O’Leaver’ show is not listed on his tour page. He was scheduled to play in Fargo last night and in Albuquerque tomorrow. The show’s promoter hasn’t been able to reach him to confirm tonight’s show, so caveat emptor on this one.

If you survive Friday the 13th, you may not be so lucky on the 14th, what with Skull Fight!, Chin Up Chin Up, and Electric Needle Room playing at O’Leaver’s. CUCU just released the long player This Harness Can’t Ride Anything on Suicide Squeeze. Skull Fight! is the new Cuterthans, but tougher, angrier, maybe not as smarter, but angrier (sort of). Electric Needle Room is one of the guys featured in my Joslyn column from a few weeks ago. I believe this will be his O’Leaver’s debut. Will he be great? Will he suck? Find out for $5.

* * *

A bit of Saddle Creek-related news to pass on: In an interview with Billboard (they’re getting all the scoops lately), Cursive’s Tim Kasher said that the band is writing a new album’s worth of music with the intention of hitting the studio in January for a fall release. Kasher also continues to work on his screenplay titled, “Help Wanted Nights.” Ain’t looking so good for us Good Life fans, as Kasher is unsure when he’ll return to that band. Read the whole story here. If you’re wondering how Cursive is doing on the road, here’s a colorful review of their show in Philly, that starts with “A man has found his way onto the stage of the Starlight Ballroom and he is very, very drunk.” and ends with “A smile deep across his face, Kasher thanks everyone post-sing-a-long, bending over and hugging the front row. His sincerity probably only half due to his drinking.” Glug-glug-glug…

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Column 96: What’s the Point?
The trouble with lists.

The core problem with creating a special “music issue” of The Reader that includes a “list” of the 20 “best bands” in the Omaha/Lincoln area is obvious. You’re forced to answer the question: “What’s the point?” Why place bands in a pecking order based on the (hopefully, though unlikely) well-informed opinion of a group of faceless critics who feel compelled to tell the public what is good and what isn’t?

The argument against such a list gets down to one undeniable fact: When it comes to art, competition sucks. It serves no purpose. It makes friends enemies. It creates pride, envy and doubt in the heart of the artists. It discourages as much as it encourages new art, new ideas, risk-taking.

And yet, “best of” lists and the endless string of award shows have become an acknowledged method of recognizing art and music in our culture, even though the determination of what’s good and what isn’t ultimately rests solely in the eyes and ears of the beholder. You can tell me a thousand times that something is great or something sucks, but in the end, I’ll decide for myself (Unless, of course, I’m a sheep).

So why do it? Why make a list of the best and a list of runners-up (and, by default, a list of those that didn’t make the lists)? The most obvious reason: Because it’s fun. It’s controversial. And most importantly, because people love their lists and awards. They need to have their opinions validated, to affirm that they, indeed, have “good taste.” So I guess it all comes down to ego, and doesn’t ego fuel all art? Perhaps, perhaps…

What I can tell you with extreme confidence is that no matter how Editor Andy and the rest of the staff cut it, the list will piss people off. Hell, I don’t even like the list. Where’s Mal Madrigal and Outlaw Con Bandana? Where’s Brimstone Howl? WHERE THE HELL IS THE MONROES?

But let’s start with the obvious complaint: Of the top 20 “best bands” 40 percent of them are Saddle Creek Records artists — Neva Dinova, Tilly and the Wall, Cursive, Criteria, Bright Eyes, The Faint, Ladyfinger and The Good Life. The discussion whether to include Saddle Creek bands was — to say the least — heated. The core arguments against it: They’re not local bands, they’re national bands that happen to live in Omaha. They’ve already “made it.” They’re mentioned constantly in the national press, why do they need any more recognition? Aren’t they all millionaires? Hell, they rarely even play in Omaha. And so on.

But to not include Saddle Creek artists would have made the list more pointless than it already is. Cursive and Bright Eyes and The Faint are Omaha bands — they live here, they interact with other local musicians, they go to local shows, they drink booze at O’Leaver’s and Sokol and The Brothers like the rest of us. They love Omaha or else they would have moved away a long, long time ago. But the most obvious argument: They’re the sole reason the Omaha music scene is recognized east of the Missouri River and west of Elkhorn.

Yeah, they’re successful, and they don’t need any more pats on the back. And I can pretty much promise you that the one-sheet included with Bright Eyes’ next release will not include the accolade, “Named one of Omaha’s top-20 bands of 2006 by The Reader.” But one-sheets for Anonymous American and Prospect Avenue and Jazzwholes might. How valuable is it for those bands to be on the same list as Saddle Creek acts in terms of just capturing the attention of an out-of-town club owner or small indie label?

Look, there’s no way The Reader was going to completely satisfy anyone with this list. And from that standpoint, it’s a failure before it was ever printed. But will it get people thinking, arguing, debating the music scene, defending their favorite band, discussing the merits of another, discovering a new band that they never heard before? Perhaps, perhaps…

So don’t get mad. Relax. It’s all in good fun. You already know that your favorite band is good, whether the idiots at The Reader know it or not. And maybe next year those asswipes will remember The Monroes and Mal Madrigal and everyone else that didn’t make the list. But somehow, I doubt it.

Had enough of those guitar-and-drum acts? You know, The White Stripes, The Black Dice, Two Gallants, and on and on? How ’bout an organ-and-drum duo? Now there’s a new twist. The Benevento-Russo Duo are just that. Organist Marco Benevento and drummer Joe Russo can go from loungy jazzy interludes to all-out cacophonous rock anthems in no time flat. The duo started out playing a weekly residency at The Knitting factory in NYC, and have since played everywhere from the Fuji Rockfest in Japan to SXSW to Bonnaroo. How did a Wurlitzer ever get so cool? $10, 9 p.m.

Yes, that STNNNG interview just went online (read it here). Frontman Chris Besinger was one of the better interviews I’ve had in recent weeks. Translated: He was funny and engaging, as opposed to dry and boring. In addition to mocking Wayne Coyne and Chris Machmuller, Besinger talked about his leather glove, his love of Omaha, his new and old albums, and why he does what he does.

On how all cities have both a good music scene and a crappy music scene: “You can’t have a good scene without a crappy scene, they feed off each other. Sometimes when you’re on tour you just end up in the crappy scene, which is usually the people who are willing to give out their shows. About a week afterward, you heard from someone from that town who says, ‘Oh, you really should have played with this band or at this club.'”

On chicks at shows: “There aren’t any. If we were all gay guys, that would be awesome, because there’s not a whole lot of babes at our shows.”

On the fact their their new record is a “concept album”: “It turned into a concept album accidentally, a concept that doesn’t make sense. It’s kind of about things and people or animals that are two conflicting things at the same time. It’s not like one of those weird, unwieldy Pete Townsend or Pink Floyd concepts. I don’t want people to think we’re Tool or the Mars Volta.”

On text messaging during shows: “We opened a show for a friend of ours and it was a much different crowd than we’re used to. There was this dude up front texting on his phone, three or four rows back. I just wanted to get that phone and throw it against the wall. We’re a loud, crazy, out-of-control band and you’re sending a text message? NO TEXTING!”

On owning his first house in Minneapolis: “It’s weird. You end up at weird times of the day thinking ‘I own this house? I’m in my kitchen. I own all this crap.'”

On Prince: “He’s still very much in the mindset in Minneapolis. Prince was at one of our shows, but when I say he was at one of our shows, it was more like he ended up at 7th St. Entrance after we finished playing.” He went on to say Grant Hart is another local legend that still hangs out around town. “You see him all the time.”

I don’t know how to lead this — I’ve been waiting for this show for a decade and finally, here it was. I was halfway afraid that no one would show up, this being Omaha, and this band being somewhat unknown due to the city’s lack of a college radio station. But my city didn’t disappoint me, and lo and behold, the Underground was sold out, packed with people that were, for the first time in recent memory, closer to my age than what you’d find at a typical indie show. Lots of old guys in graying ponytails, lots of middle-aged couples out for a wild night, and yes, also lots of young, urban indie fans paying homage to these legends, though overall, a completely different audience than, say, at a typical Creek show.

It was nice to see the entire band sitting behind the merch table while opening act, Why?, played their set of middle-of-the-road indie pop sung by a guy who sounded like John Flansburgh from They Might be Giants. Ira, looking like a cross between SNL’s Chris Parnell and monologist Eric Bogosian, even sold me my YLT T-shirt ($11, cheap!).

What to say about the show? Two hours, three encores, selections from throughout their catalog. Don’t ask me the songs’ names, because I don’t know them. There were a couple from the new record, including “Pass the Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind,” and “Mr. Tough.” A throbbing version of “Big Day Coming,” an ironically appropriate (if only because North Korea was probably preparing to test their first nuke at the time), revelatory take on “Nuclear War” (I didn’t realize that James McNew sung the lead), and a couple long, droning jams that were 20 minutes of throbbing organ and shrieking feedback guitar. Between it all were interspersed a few quiet songs featuring Georgia on vocals sounding like Nico, including encore “Tom Courtenay.”

This band is forever compared to Velvet Underground, and for good reason. Ira has the same, flat monotone voice as Lou Reed, Georgia vocally resembles Nico, and some of their music is reminiscent of VU’s live recordings, but really, no one sounds like YLT to me. Their style is all over the board, from raging indie jams to urban, falsetto R&B to quiet, acoustic ballads. For someone of diminutive size, Georgia Hubley was a monster behind the drum kit, joined at times on a second drum set by McNew, who also manned keyboards when he wasn’t on bass. The bass, incidentally, was numbingly loud. The set started tolerable; but after a few songs, I put in my earplugs, and by the end, the earplugs weren’t enough, especially from the front of the house. I don’t know how people standing next to me by the stack who didn’t have earplugs could take the noise level.

Among Ira’s between-song snappy patter: He acknowledged that last night was the first time YLT had ever been in Nebraska (though he admitted that he lied to one of the local journalists (who? wasn’t me) by telling him/her that they played in Lincoln before). He took a shot at the Omaha World-Herald when he introduced a Ramones cover: “I read in your paper — in one of the few articles that wasn’t about your football team — that today is Johnny Ramone’s birthday.” He asked the audience if they had any questions. Someone asked if the band would ever return to Omaha. “Well, we haven’t left yet,” Ira said, then added. “It’s too early to say.” Chances are, after last night’s show, they’ll probably return, but it could take another 20 years. For me, a top-five show of the year.

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The Brothers doesn’t do shows very often. Hardly at all, actually. The reason is simple: Tré, who runs the place, doesn’t need to. Drop in at The Brothers on any given Friday or Saturday night at around 10. Try to find a table. It’s always packed on weekends just on the strength of its service (You’re not going to have to wait for a beer), its rep (The Brothers is where bands go to get drunk when they’re not playing gigs), and its jukebox (punk and heavy indie and Omaha music from back in the day). So Tré doesn’t need bands to get butts in seats. But every once in a while, he sees an opportunity to put on a show that’s close to his heart, and last night was one of them. My point being: The Brothers ain’t exactly designed for live shows. Yet last night, the bands sounded better there than I’ve heard them anywhere else.

Take Ideal Cleaners. I saw them a few months ago at the Speed! Nebraska showcase at Sokol Underground, and they were good, they were fine. Last night they sounded like a different band. Listening to the trio rip through a set of bruising, welt-rising punk, I said to myself. “Okay, I get it.” I hadn’t really gotten it before, but last night they sounded ripped and raw, easily pushing the weight over their heads for a personal best. Ideal Cleaners sounded better than I’ve ever heard them sound. Better than they sound on record. Stripped down to sonic essentials, their songs bled bright red, and now I think I know what I’ve been missing. I have a feeling they come off just as straight-forward at Duffy’s, where I’ve never seen them play. So look, I don’t know a thing about sound engineering, but I can point to the fact that it was just their amps, the small PA and the bar’s low ceiling and wonder if that resulted in the dynamic tension. Simpler is better, almost always.

It carried on into The Monroes’ set. Has Lincoln Dickison ever played better? No. He was in his own special world last night. The hand-spiders (as Chris and Jamie from Ladyfinger describe his playing style) were running wild on the fretboard, crawling impossibly where other hand spiders rarely climb. Jon Taylor marveled to my left while unpacking T-shirts: “How does he do that?” and later from stage “He must have three hands.” He does it by being the best punk/rock guitarist in Omaha. Lincoln was just plain filthy last night, right down to the riff that powered the band’s cover of Husker Du’s “Divide and Conquer” (you know the one). And again, the sound mix was enormous.

So here’s where it gets weird. Mercy Rule was a band that was notorious for being one of the loudest acts in the Omaha/Lincoln circuit. Guitarist Jon Taylor didn’t just like it loud, he wanted to hurt you. Earplugs weren’t optional, they were required for your personal long-term health. So when Domestica took over The Brothers’ pseudo-stage, I was expecting to be blown completely away. In fact, the band sounded muted and muddy compared to The Cleaners and The Monroes. Certainly it wasn’t as loud as either of those bands. Disappointing? At first, yes. Anyone who’s ever heard Heidi Ore sing knows that it can be a challenge for her just to be heard over the din. And despite the lowering of the amps, her voice still was lost during the first few songs. Ah, but as the set wore on, my ears adjusted to the mix and everything came into better focus.

There are obvious similarities between Domestica and Mercy Rule songs, and that’s part of the charm. No one plays riffs quite like Taylor or has a similar tone. There is a layered, fluid quality to his sound that resonates through his constant, chopping chords. Jon’s guitar always seems to rise to the level of Heidi’s pure, honest, unaffected vocals. So yeah, the band sounds like Mercy Rule, in musicianship and in song structure — those big, chiming anthems that drop down halfway through, leaving Heidi singing alone while Jon plays a simple pinging line that moments later will roar again. Boz Hicks drumming is completely different than Ron Albertson’s. It’s more spare, simpler, more narrow, less likely to get in the way, not nearly as colorful, but right for this style. It’s going to take some getting used to because it ain’t Albertson, who’s precise fills and ballistic remarks are tough to forget.

As their set went on, they got stronger. Heidi’s voice got more comfortable and fuller and familiar with the style. Anyone who’s ever heard her voice before loves it. It’s hearing it for the first time that can be startling. Though at times lost in the mix, she hasn’t lost an ounce of what any Mercy Rule fan has always loved. Welcome back. That said, Domestica could pick up where Mercy Rule left off, if the band wanted to. But I don’t know if that’s what the want. For now, they just want to play together, rock out with their friends and enjoy making music. And that’s all right with me, as long as I can listen.

Tonight, Yo La Tengo at Sokol Underground. If the One Percent site is up-to-date (and it almost always is) then tickets are still available. Do yourself a favor and get down there tonight and see this legendary band. Considering that they’ve never played here before, chances are pretty good you may never ever get another chance.

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