Have you ever wondered what The Hold Steady would sound like if they were fronted by someone who indulged in their love of post-hardcore, rather than someone obviously influenced by Bruce Springsteen? Imagine if they signed to Equal Vision rather than Vagrant and consciously played with the express purpose of starting up mosh pits everywhere? Well, wonder no more, because London, Ontario’s Single Mothers are a young, loud and shouty version of the Hold Steady—and they are playing DC9 tonight. Today’s Song of the Day, “Hell (is My Backup Plan),” even looks like a Hold Steady song title, and has the same vocal delivery, but with more crushing guitar riffs. The track has just enough energy to make a crowd full of X’s go wild.

Single Mothers play tonight with PAWS and Typefighter at DC9. Tickets are $10.