Tonight in Cleveland - July 17th edition

Fresh on the heels of last night's Ponytail/Yeasayer Grog show is another great one, this time featuring Handsome Furs, the husband-wife duo and Wolf Parade off-shoot. Like the evening before, when Jason Lytle held the stage, last night's show was fantastic. The room was sweltering, the crowd was excited, and even though there were a lot more neo-hippies in the room than you'd expect or want to see, it was cool. Given the heat, the audience was more spread out, stretching into back corners rather than clumped up in front.

Those up front got a great night, though, between Ponytail's Molly Siegel's antics and the incredible energy of the fellas in Yeasayer. I really dug the Ponytail set - that band can really jam - but I'm still iffy on how often I want to listen to Siegel's vocals. Right now, a live show every couple of years seems fine, though if the band released an album where she took a more-straightforward approach to vocalizing lyrics, I'd be first in line to buy it. Yeasayer was just great, and the opening 3-4 songs of their set had me stunned.

As the band continued and got deeper in to the music I was considerably more familiar with, I felt my energy and attention drain, moving further toward the back and more likely to chat with friends. This was most likely a greater reflection of how tired I was and the kind of day I'd had before the concert than anything else. And unlike the Ponytail album, I can't imagine more than a couple weeks going by between listens to this band's recording output.

Tonight's Grog Shop show may well be just as awesome. I'm super stoked about the chance to see Handsome Furs, and I've been hearing good indie buzz about the Virginia-based Cinnamon Band and positive local things about Lakewood's Saint Ohio for a little while now. Last night's show, great as it was, didn't topple Phosphorescent from the "best of 2009" crown, but perhaps Montreal's Alexei Perry and Dan Boeckner will team up to do just that tonight.

To again attempt to whet your appetite, here is some video goodness for your viewing/listening pleasure, beginning with a live clip of a 2008 Cinnamon Band performance, followed by two Handsome Furs selections: a cool QTV in-studio conversation and performance of "Legal Tender" and yet another posting of my favorite video of this year, the zombie-love "I'm Confused" extravaganza.