Photos: Crackers United present Friction! with Office, The Teeth, The Capitol Years, Bell

Our extra special thanks goes out to Justin at Crackers United for his welcoming attitude to yet another fucking NYC blogger wanting to get in everywhere for free.  The culture of me had only seen The Teeth before last night (once), so the other bands on the bill were fresh as can be.  Boy, did we come out of it loving the shit out of all four of these groups.

But we have to say that The Capitol Years are my heart right now.  More garage rock infused with the sense of melody once admired in the 60s and 70s but long lost in these days, this Philly fivesome brought the shit to our doorstep last night and we think that every single person at Mercury Lounge last night was more than willing to let them in.  If you're into Mooney Suzuki, Black Lips or certain Jack White projects, The Capitol Years are the shit.

Opener Bell had this wonderful melding of Portishead and pure bubblegum pop and (read this carefully) did the greatest rendition of Skee-Lo's "I Wish" that I've ever fucking heard.  The Teeth never disappoint.  With a legion of fans way up front, these Philly boys rocked out so hard, we had to set the camera to slow-synch so you could possible see the amount of sheer motion these kids create.  Oh yeah, and headliners Office?  This Chicago group were so tight it hurts.  Nothing's out of place and not a single beat was missed.  The kids fucking ate it up.  It's like watching a painter in real-time: pre-meditated and genius.  Between-set DJ Lauren Flax made everyone wreck out with her mixes of 80s pop standards and deep electro blips.  Ellen Allien, watch your shit.

Godspeed!