They put on a good show, with Millan strutting around the stage playing air drums and Campbell making overly serious faces while bellowing “Take me to the Riot.” Halfway through, the drummer put on an LED helmet. Why? We’re not sure. But the reason these guys have been around for so long is because that’s the kind of stuff that makes for a memorable concert.

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Citizen Cope is one of those rare performers whose songs are diverse enough to keep you guessing but similar enough to form a unifying rhythm for the entire show. “Bullet and a Target” is a perfect example of Cope’s range—a groovy and nearly upbeat melody belies a song about heroin, amputees and conception in a pickup truck.


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Though he occasionally plays with a full band, on Saturday Bird had a plethora of instruments strapped to him, chimney-sweep-from-Mary-Poppins style, and he strummed and switched them around to perform all his songs as a one-man indie band. A guitar hung from his back as he plucked the violin. There was a keyboard to his left and his ubiquitous double-ended spinning horn behind him. At one point, he removed one shoe to reveal a hot pink sock, the better to peck at his foot pedals with.

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Finland might be great for strange death metal and Iceland for ambient trip-hop, but look no further than the other white Northern country for pitch-perfect pop that caters to a wide palette of tastes. Peter, Bjorn and John are no exception, and Saturday night at Club Nokia, the group celebrated their 10 years together by strutting their incredible range.

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The best surprise about Tegan and Sara’s show wasn’t their dynamic new album, which they played in its entirety. It was, quite frankly, that these girls are the funniest lesbians since Ellen.

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In keeping with Curio’s egalitarian populism, the night’s artists hang out among the audience until their turn in the line-up. Then, like a Happening straight out of the ‘60s, they get up and do their thing, three feet away.
Fortunately, it’s the ideal venue for an artist like Shelley Short, whose gentle crooning and guitar plucking lulled the audience into a happy trance, as though she were gathering us all around some invisible campfire.

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A highlight came during the obligatory encore, during which a Jimmy Kimmel (in Kanye West sunglasses) rushed onto the stage and grabbed the microphone from Flowers, saying, “I’m going to let you finish, but I just wanted to say that the Psychedelic Furs had one of the best songs of all time.”

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