With all the hubbub surrounding Beck’s “secret” backstage show Monday night, there was some concern The Apples in Stereo show upstairs might get overlooked. To some extent it was, but let it be said that anyone who just went home to their couch and tried to stream the Decemberists on NPR through crappy laptop speakers missed out on a hell of a good night.

The Archie Bronson Outfit went on first, their post-rock a pretty stark contrast to anything the Apples have ever put out. But it worked well as an opening act, mainly because the UK’s ABO are a damn fine band in their own right. A labelmate of Franz Ferdinand, they share some of the same post-rock leanings, but do everything with a considerable air of anger and aggression. Where Franz might use driving punk guitar to get you up to dance, ABO turn up all amps, pedals, etc. and builds a wall of noise out of it. Occasionally, the wall tumbles to reveal either a song’s trad-rock core or the most menacing use of a double-backbeat we’ve ever heard. Their myspace page somehow calls them “folk rock,” which, where we come from, means the Byrds. And the Byrds they certainly aren’t. But they are their own thing, a unique sounding way to arrange two guitars and drums to blow through your eardrums and pound the hell out of your brain.

After a few minutes to decompress (reconstruct is probably a better word), Apples came on to a small crowd, no doubt taking an attendance hit from Decemberists/Beck double whammy. This was a new sort of Apples; pre-show, lead singer Robert Schneider was noticeably geeked up talking about his new lineup featuring Bill Doss (formerly of Olivia Tremor Control), John Ferguson (of Big Fresh), and John Dufilho (of Deathray Davies) – something of an all-star lineup of psych pop.