This was the third night in a row I saw The Brunettes but the first time where they were the headliner. It was a much, much better show than they put on with Beirut. And I liked them with Beirut enough that I went and saw them in the first place, so that was awesome.

The first two bands had very little in common with The Brunettes. I wonder if this was one of those shows where they were added very late, simple because they were in town and wanted to play a show. The first band, Unwed Sailor, were the sort of thing that I might have really liked about five years ago. These days? Not as much. They sounded like a much less good version of Tristeza and, while they were fine, were nothing to get all that excited about. Still they seemed like they were having a good time, and it made for decent background music.

The next band, Sybris, were alright as well. My friend really liked them but I was less impressed I guess. They were fine and the lead singer was hilarious when she talked. But they were pretty generic I thought. I honestly can’t really even remember what they sounded like, just random girl-fronted rock band I think.

Finally The Brunettes played. Unlike the Beirut shows, which were very crowded, there were maybe fifty people in the venue. We were right up at the stage and there were no idiots being stupid (well, mostly. There was a group of talking girls right in front of us. Seriously, who goes to the front at a show to talk?) The Brunettes played mostly the same set as at the Beirut shows but the sound was way, way better. I could actually understand what they were saying on the mic and the crowd really connected with their audience participation stuff. Because they played mostly the same songs, and because I’d already heard them the previous two nights, I actually knew some of the words. They stayed on stage at the end and let us know that they were playing the encore, which I thought was hilarious, and then were coerced by the crowd in to playing an extra song that was not on their set list. Which they did perfectly. Their show was great and I’m definitely glad I went. Plus they are one of the nicer bands I’ve talked to recently. Super friendly and cool.