By DCist contributor Andy Hess

By the time The Fresh & Onlys took the stage on Monday night at Red Palace, we had already seen two unexpectedly fun sets from two other California bands — Crocodiles and Young Prisms. But there’s a good reason why the evening’s headliners are being considered the leading exporters of San Francisco’s New Garage Rock.

Playing a well-paced set that included choice songs from last year’s excellent Play It Strange and their recently released Secret Walls EP as well as deeper cuts like “Peacock And Wing,” The Fresh & Onlys spent their 50 minutes on stage whipping the crowd into a mess of sweat with their ’60s guitar-spun melodies that are equal parts Johnny Cash and Nuggets compilation. The show was a mostly business affair for the quartet, as they stuch to the playing, instead of chatting up the audience. Frontman Tim Cohen’s silence doesn’t really matter, of course, when you have an inventive guitarist like Wymond Miles, who can go from surfy guitar lines to arena rock posturing in the same song.

Openers Crocodiles and Young Prisms, both hailing from San Diego, were the perfect middle reliever and set-up man for The Fresh & Onlys. Crocodiles, who are largely subdued on record, were a shot in the arm when their blistering shoegaze meets garage rock live. From the first song, frontman Brandon Welchez was as captivating as the band behind him. That energy translated to the crowd who spent most of the band’s set dancing, and, at one point, moshing to the band’s songs. Young Prisms had a different, but equally compelling set. The band’s set was a brief introduction into their world of reverb drenched, mostly inaudible words over a steady rhythm section. Had they not spent the set staring at their shoes, the bliss-outs would have hit harder.