That Was The Show That Was | Grooms with Young Adults, Chandeliers, Vegans | Great Scott | 9 Oct.

[PHOTOS: Quinn Banford, special to Clicky Clicky] It's fun to witness the give-and-take between the two preposterously fertile music scenes of Allston and Brooklyn. Grooms, a notable dream-pop trio based in the latter, have played the former a fair amount on bills spangled with local luminaries. Wednesday night at the venerable Great Scott was no different. There the Brooklyn combo bowed a national tour intended to promote its shit-hot new record, Infinity Caller, slotted third in a bill top-lined by Boston-bred heavyweights Young Adults. The mysteriously small crowd that materialized early were treated to opening sets from Vegans and Chandeliers.

Grooms wasted no time hitting their stride, and pumping out should-be hit after should-be hit at a remarkable rate. Fronter Travis Johnson joked from the stage about ingesting great speed just prior to the quartet's set, and, yes, Heisenberg, it was blue. Too soon, indeed. Grooms opened with "Lion Name," much to our delight, and thereafter continued to bring the proverbial and literal noise. Perhaps they were feeding off the energy they knew Young Adults would bring later, or maybe they were extra stoked to be launching the tour, but whatever the reason these dudes really rocked the fuck out. On record Grooms exhibits substantial restraint, but on Wednesday its music was chaotic, explosive and enshrouded in distortion. All of this made the live presentation of new album-highlight "I Think Were Alone Now" even more awesome.

We missed openers Vegans, but did arrive in time for Chandeliers, whose too-brief time on stage was light on banter and heavy on electrifying, math-y rock. Maybe a little *too* heavy at first, as fronter Dan Coulson ripped straight through a string during the trio's very first number. Chris Villon from YA was quick to supply a loaner, however, and the rest of the set went off with nary a hitch. An interesting aspect of Chandeliers' live sound is the treatment that clothes Mr. Coulson's vocals. The sound is distorted and makes his voice sound as if it is coming through a payphone, adding a singular dimension to the oft-busy arrangements.

Young Adults, as is their usual practice, decisively ended the evening with an eardrum-eviscerating performance. It's no secret, of course, that they are very loud -- like "ears ringing for the next business week" loud. But fans know the threesome's shuddering racket isn't simply noise for noise's sake, however: anthemic jams reside breathe from beneath the sludge. The band played tunes from its Born In '91 EP as well as plenty of old jams. Despite battling some serious sniffles, the aforementioned Mr. Villon and his merry men were reliably intense, and blared punk-gaze stompers well into early Thursday morning. -- Dillon Riley

Speedy Ortiz's Major Arcana Release Show With Grass Is Green, Vegans, Kal Marks | Great Scott | 6 July



It's a weird week with a Thursday-shaped hole in it, or maybe a giant leisure chasm, if you are among those fortunate to have Friday off work/school/life. At the far end of said chasm we think the living will be a touch strange and electric, as we will finally all exist in a world where one can possess Major Arcana, which to date seems to have been the most-talked-about record of 2013. Speedy Ortiz's pre-release singles have come at regular intervals to keep the chins wagging (ploing! blaam! pizzow!) for the last couple months, but today the whole enchilada dropped in the form of an album stream via NPR's First Listen platform (the true album release, as in the day we expect Carpark will have the record in stores for you to purchase it, is a week from tomorrow). If you haven't spent any time with Major Arcana yet, well, stop what you are doing and get in there, because we expect the talk is only going to increase, as the Western Mass.-based quartet's debut full-length is as strong as they come. We'll have a lot more to say on the subject next week here and in the electronic pages of Vanyaland, which will run our review.

For now let's concentrate on the brilliant spectacle that will be Saturday's Boston release show. For the occasion, Speedy O-dawg has enlisted progressive post-hardcore wunderkinds Grass Is Green, who slay on the regular and have had their share of digital ink-facsimile in the Clicky Clicky, and who also played the release show for Speedy Ortiz's widely heralded Sports EP in May 2012, which we guess makes Grass Is Green a bit of a lucky rabbit's foot for Speedy? Also on the bill this Saturday are Vegans and Kal Marks. Full event details are at this Facebook event page right here; readers in New York would do well to see Speedy Ortiz not Saturday but rather Friday night, when it fetes the release of the LP at Death By Audio in Brooklyn with support from BFFs Roomrunner (who we recently wrote about here), Californiax, No One and the Somebodies and The Sediment Club. That's a whole lot of rock music; you'd do well to get your inoculations up to date before the week is out. Speedy Ortiz will embark on an exhaustive/exhausting five-week tour July 9; they are very likely coming to your town to do the Speedy Ortiz curse to your favorite DIY space, so check out the tour dates posted here and warn your indie rockers. Finally, there will be at least one "music" "video" coming along in the coming weeks, so keep an eye out.