Click Click: Mika Miko @ Comet Ping Pong

Despite a relative dearth of promotion, plenty of folks showed up to the Thursday night show, and they were quite the enthusiastic bunch. Like us, most of the folks in attendance seemed to enjoy openers the Strange Boys, Rolling Stone's new favorite band. Hailing from Austin, Texas, this four-piece dished out a set's worth of solid garage rock, with underpinnings of rockabilly and a touch of twang. As good as they were, however, it was quite clear, judging by the mood in the room, that the real draw was the headliners.

Though they've dropped most of the gimmicks at this point in their career (most notably using telephone receivers as microphones, though Japanther and others continue to carry that torch), Mika Miko remain an empowering curiosity onto themselves - a mostly girl band in the male-dominated world of hardcore punk. But that's not to say that Mika Miko is just an artsy exercise in feminist ideology. They're practically a force of nature live: a visceral whirlwind of energy, tempered only by a penchant for lighthearted humor (see "Too Cute to Puke" and "Turkey Sandwich"). Recalling the straightforward, blunt force approach of seminal acts like Minor Threat, Black Flag and Bad Brains—influences cited too rarely these days, especially in this town, of all places—the five-piece tore through a loud, sweaty set in Comet's repurposed back room, inciting more than a few folks to dance. It was the sort of show that reminded us of wasted youths filled with shows in crowded living rooms and dank basements.