Last night...

...went to the Matt & Kim show in Northampton, a very hyper-kinetic, excitable duo, whose drummer (kim) is adorable, with a 100 watt smile and a manic, straight-up-and-down attack...Matt was pretty cute, too, but more in the pop way...they were sort of like the Thermals but peppier and friendlier. Since Matt apparently went to Brattleboro High School not too long ago, the crowd was packed with locals, a very young audience who knew a lot of the songs and spent much of the set stage diving and stage surfing. Matt was very excited about our regime change and kept dedicating songs to Obama. Fun stuff. Here's "Yea Yeah"



And "5K" (she's a runner, in addition to everything else, apparently...if I were even the least bit gay I'd have a giant crush)


Best Fwends, also from Brooklyn, were in the middle of the bill. their music, have to say, is pretty ordinary, a mix of rap and metal and spazz punk. Still the stage show is highly, highly entertaining, with 6' tall inflatable gargoyles, a banner of hand-drawn cartoon faces and lots of theater. At the end, they punted the gargoyles out into the audience, where they bounced like giant, mildly nightmarish beach balls on top of the audience and then gradually deflated.

Here is "Skate or Live"


And some live footage


The opener was an electronics guy named Eric Hnatow, a local, who spent part of his set wearing a set of blinking christmas lights and another part inciting the audience to wave big strings of multicolored lights. His music was pretty good, too, with huge thumping beats and one slightly more meditative piece towards the end, performed with another guy, that reminded me a little bit of Ecstatic Sunshine. (though obviously no guitars) I am not finding any video, so you will just have to take my word.

Here's his MySpace, though


I'm not writing about this show for PopMatters or anybody...so this is it.