I saw Blood Brothers and Against Me at the Great American last night. My friend Tim was on on tour with Blood Brothers, playing his 'fabulous crap-selling instrument,' so I came out to see them. He put me on the guest list, which is a good thing because the show was sold out when I got there (this on a Sunday night). Nonetheless, my expectations were not high: a while back I'd given one listen to a Blood Brothers disc, mentally filed it under 'obnoxious-for-the-sake-of-being-obnoxious,' and moved on.

So I was pleasantly surprised to see a really good, tight, high-energy stage show and songs that seemed a lot more interesting live. They have very linear arrangments, lots of time changes, but so much that you'd call them mathy. The dual, dueling vocalists screeched at each other and the audience with manic intensity. Their drummer was great. A number of songs have a layer of ragtime or spooky carnival-organ keyboards. It all added up to something new, worthy of the 'post-hardcore' label that seems to have been affixed to them. I'll have to give these guys another listen.

It was a very different story with Against Me, about whom I knew nothing, and about whom I really don't want to any more. They were completely hardcore-by-the-numbers, basically nothing that hasn't already been done and done better. It actually seemed more frat than punk to me, with linebacker-sized guys conspicuously consuming alcohol while leading the crowd in one cheer-along chorus after another. Still, the kids ate it up, and I suppose I would too if I were still 19. But instead, I was the grumpy guy standing in the back wondering why those kids didn't just go buy some Bad Brains and Fugazi records.