It was quite the party last night at the Black Cat, full of skeezy mustached men (think 70s porn) and hyperactive girls in tutus (think Dakota Fanning plus Red Bull). Under normal circumstances, this is probably a law suit waiting to happen, but it turned out to be one of the most entertaining shows by all three acts on a bill that we have seen in some time.

You know you are in for a good night when the opening band whips out the cow bell. Brooklyn’s indie punk rockers, Oxford Collapse were almost like a bizarro version of headliners We Are Scientists, in both appearance and onstage dialogue, but with a sound like that of Bloc Party and more hardcore lead vocals. Even though we hadn’t heard of them before, we were drawn to their quirkiness and couldn’t help but laugh at a line from Back to the Future: “This is an oldie, well its an oldie where i come from, it’s 12 bar blues in Bb, watch out for the changes and try to keep up,” the guitarist added nonchalantly as an intro to one of their songs. They did seem a bit more like a jam band at times where they were not quite together, but also had moments of extended percussive greatness.