Respected local band Exit Clov rightly bills itself as a band much greater than the sum of its parts. Born from "three worlds collided" -- a musical marriage between talented twins Susan and Emily Hsu, the rhythm section of the Sneeks (bassist Brett Niederman and drummer John Thayer), and former Adoption Agency guitarist Aaron Leeder, Exit Clov stoke sturm und drang from lilting melodies and an oceanic jam. They are, typically, a fine band, with gorgeous and delicate musical eccentricities and loose, jaunty rhythms.

Sadly, so much of what makes Exit Clov an exceptional band was lost amid the murk at the Black Cat Friday night. A sound mix that one could only describe as tragically awful buried the band in a dreadful bass-heavy murk, effectively burying the band's intricate keyboard lines and the Hsu sisters' gorgeous harmony vocals in an inky fog. The band seemed to be having trouble with their bass guitar as well -- many in the audience remarked that it seemed out of tune. This DCist attended the show with not one, but two experienced bass players, both of whom felt it was just as likely that the sound mix's low end resonance was so distorted as to give the illusion that the bass was off by a step.

Having seen Exit Clov play the Staccato Lounge in Adams Morgan -- a perfectly serviceable rock club that's nobody's idea of a gold-standard sound system -- it was shocking that the mix at the Black Cat was so undeniably poor. Standing right next to the chucklehead at the board, it was perplexing to imagine that anyone in that proximity could listen to the show and think, "Yeah, this sounds great right here."

Happily, Exit Clov's new recording, The Saskwatch EP, is a lovely disc, packed with the pointilist beauty and detail of their music that got so badly lost at the Black Cat on Friday night. Songs like "Orange Rust" and "#1 Hits" should find their way into heavy rotation. Fans who'd like to wash the memory of tonight's show away can see Exit Clov again at Iota, where they rarely muck about with bad sound, on February 17th with the Pharmacy Prophets. Gothamist readers are encouraged to check them out at the Mercury Lounge on Feb. 19, where they'll be opening for Stand and Twin A.

Friday night's show featured the Human Marvels as one of the opening acts -- featuring The Enigma of the Jim Rose Circus Sideshow. This was the first time this DCist had ever seen a "band" for whom the onstage appearance of musical instruments was almost completely superfluous -- the music was basically an atonal dirge-like groove that went on and on and on and on and on. It would be nice to say that they did some pretty unspeakable acts onstage, but frankly, most of the action was quite speakable. It was certainly novel to hear someone on stage call out, "This here's my meat skewer, so let's make some noise!" -- but the nicest thing we can say about the Human Marvels is that they clearly didn't hurt themselves too badly jumping the shark.

This DCist did not arrive in time to see the poorly named The Rude Staircase open the show.