Hacienda was rockin at The Croc. Read an interviewwith the lead singer here. Check out some pics from the show:

It was a indie rock fauna festival last night at the Croc.  No wolves or deer, but other mammalians were well represented. Mammals have been/continue to trend as band meme in indie rock land.

Pepper Rabbit opened. Judging from their recorded stuff, you'd think Pepper Rabbit was twee tame.  But live they were entirely different, completely different sound than their recorded stuff. Big songs and a big sound.  Guitarist/singer pushing vocals and guitar through dozens of pedals (all vintage), getting mad sonic transformation out of both.  Drummer was tight, holding back, but no doubt he had chops.  Solid playing.  Songs were composed, not cliche, emotive with twists and turns, weird breaks in the middle, syncopation, the band showing that they were rehearsed.  They are opening for Passion Pit at the Moore next Tuesday; hope this serves them well to get some good exposure. 

Miniature Tigers was next, playing to an appreciative crowd: "Show us your tits!"  More keyboard driven than guitar driven.   Singer with a falsetto that defined them vocally. Here's some pics by Adam Forslund:

Then Freelance Whales. Sounding very major pentatonic, anthemic, in the vein of what Arcade Fire and Death Cab For Cutie has wrought on to the expectations of the epic and of the romantic. A kind of mature tweeness, if that isn't a contradiction.  The consequence of emoting on stage within the constraints of the genre.  

Here's a couple pics:

Keeping with the early 90s indie flashback that seems to be cresting right now, caught Liz Phair last night at the Croc. Always loved those first few records but had never seen her live. Was hesitant cause of stage fright rep she had. But after seeing the live stream of her perform at Matador21, where she was on her game and playing old tunes with panache, figured it was worth a go.  Was great. Played mostly old stuff from those first two records.  Seemed to really enjoy playing all those cuts, they weren’t tired and she wasn't tired of them. Sounded fresh with tight backing band, solid, lead guitarist rendering nice treatments, Fenders everywhere.  Yeah, those are some great songs.  They hold their own 15 years later.  Phair talkin about Nash (from UO) and The Rainbow Room in Chicago. She was relaxed, joking around, enjoying herself. Crowd into it it, super appreciative, singing along. She also played ‘Polyester Bride’ and ‘Perfect World’ from Whitechocoloatespaceegg.  And some other ‘pop’ as she called it from more recent records. Came out and did a bunch of encores, including ‘Soap Star Joe’ and the ever so dirty ‘Flower’ inviting girl from the audience up on stage to sing along with her.

She’s got a new record coming out soon. Single from the record can be downloaded free below -- and it's a good cut:

People Eating People opened. Two keyboards, no guitars, bass and drums. Some inventive percussion by left handed dummer. This video is pretty sweet in every sense: