Wandering thru the capitol hill block partycrowd after the most explosive mid-day day-go dance set from my new favorite band, USE, I saw one Nic Offer from apparently not everyone's favorite NYC dance band whose name can't be googled, and in that daze was thinking - 'wow, this really is the resurgence of the live dance band. where's '04's kid creole? Maybe that's where the triple chk fits into all of this.

I have to say I was horribly underwhelmed by the Pretty Girls Make Graves show. After seeing Akimbo, they sounded like tiny, rote tinker toys kids jamming post-hardcore by the numbers very far away from me - and they were boom! on the main stage. Singer Andrea Zollo moves like Jay from Panthers, which makes sense since they've toured together, with stiff robot jerks thrown passion by that Fugazi-style scream-to-melt earnest vocal that works for neither of them. Like her namesaken Moz, Zollo tries to use lyrical repitition for dramatic effect, unlike the Smiths, she doesn't have the hook to drive the point home. And, on top of all, their new material is getting more dance punk, which just seems embarrassingly reactionary and not very well executed in a band with only one guitarist, although he's pretty damn good, and a bass player more prone to pickslides than snap-funk basslines.