Back-to-back Weeknight Dancefests

With a flash of my handy pink Mission Creek wristband I was able to go to pretty much all of the shows over the past week, and I did my best to adequately fulfill this task. Though typically I'm not one to go out on a Wednesday or even Thursday night, Mission Creek swayed me from my responsible ways with promises of great live shows.

I headed to The Picador on Wednesday night to see my friend's band, Birth Rites, which drew a reasonably large crowd of friends and fans for a week night show. Though I've seen them play countless times, they really amped it up for their Mission Creek debut and even added a flute to the rock mix.

After Birth Rites' show, the pressures of midterms and homework lured away many of the showgoers but I stuck it out to the end to see the headlining band, So Many Dynamos. I've obsessed over the St. Louis group's song "Search Party" for the past week, playing it on solid repeat multiple times a day. Even though I knew little of So Many Dynamos' music before they hit the stage sometime after midnight, the group's meticulously delivered, hilariously nerdy performance won me over immediately and left my face with a permanent smile for the rest of the night.

Decked out with skinny jeans, shaggy haircuts and black plastic specs, the quartet bounced around like preteens on a sugar high. Despite the waning crowd, the boys' energy could have a filled a venue ten times the size of The Picador. The group rocked with synthesizers, guitars and drums to many songs from their sophomore record Flashlights and their most recent album release, which was recorded with Chris Walla of Death Cab for Cutie. By the end of the show, all the frantic dancing and laughing left me on a buzz that would prevent sleep for several more hours to come.

As if Wednesday's exertions weren't energetic enough, I hit up The Yacht Club on Thursday for an electronic showdown. The School of Flyentology got the crowd on the dance floor and was followed up by MC/VL, a rap duo who originally performed Wednesday but were asked to stay for a followup on Thursday. Growing tired from the previous night's activities, I anxiously awaited headliner The Hood Internet to go on, which didn't happen until 1 a.m. or later. But the wait was worth it just to hear the DJ's mash up of R. Kelly's "I'm A Flirt" with Broken Social Scene's "Shoreline", which was, in short, an AMAZING dancefest. To hear this song and put The Hood Internet on the playlist for your next party, you can go to http://www.thehoodinternet.com/, where the group offers free downloads of two volumes of mixtapes.

To wrap it up, I'd say my somewhat out of character weeknight diversions were definitely worth the sacrificed sleep and homework.

-Claire