One of the local acts canceled earlier in the day, shifting the start time back to 8:30. That's fine, I prefer a two-band bill, and I bring a book wherever I go anyway. When I looked up at 8:30, the room was still empty. That's not fine. The local openers were sheepish. The workers at the venue were defeated. The singer from the touring headliner was napping. At 8:40, someone said, "Let's get this over with."

It was Angie Fights Crime that had to bite that bullet. The act is simultaneously new and old hat. Once purely the solo effort of vocalist/guitarist Brent Kinder, the project is currently performing as a four-piece bolstered by Jason Ulgnet (keys), Marc Bollinger (bass), and Keith Howell (drums). On his own, Kinder has released 430 songs. That seems like a lot. Curiously, this was only the live band's fourth show (and the first with Ulgnet). That's the opposite of a lot. How do you distill a lifetime of songs into a nine-song set? I guess you cast a wide net and see what catches. In general, Angie Fights Crime trades in indie rock. Sometimes it's as vanilla as pop/rock, sometimes it roams into twitchy alternative territory. That's where the net caught me. "Disappear" balanced Kinder's brash guitar leads with the insistent and percussive work of bassist Bollinger. Together, they created a harried post-punk urgency that was the highlight of the set. However, for most of the forty-minute performance, the foursome's intent wasn't so obvious. I suspect that will get sorted out over time as players adjust their styles to create a uniform sound. So, stay tuned for that fifth gig, it might just be the one.

I returned to my book while sets of musicians traded the stage. They worked joylessly. It was a bar without happiness.

The members of City Mouse rushed to begin their set as soon as they could. The pop-punk band is led by Miski Dee, who seems to call every city home, though she may currently reside in Los Angeles. She was chatty with the audience, thanking four local friends and the stranger she had dragged in off the street for showing up. That was most of the audience. She was self-conscious about rambling too much, blaming her banter on an ill-timed nap as well as on the long drive that brought the act to Kansas City and the dread of an upcoming longer drive across Kansas. Joining Dee in the van were guitarist Davey Quinn, bassist Jen Louie, and drummer Danny Michael. Despite the circumstances, the quartet was determined to give it the old college dropout try.

Dee is a belter with a big voice colored by a bit of edgy scratch. She can control it enough to deliver pop or uncork it for forceful punk. Fans of Josie Cotton or Hayley and the Crushers are sure to find joy in what City Mouse does. For most of the act's thirty-five-minute set, Dee and Quinn sawed through power chords in unison. When there were leads or solos, Quinn generally managed them, yet on closer "Shine Your Light," Dee carried the whole thing home. Throughout the set, Dee remained energetic, pushing hard and putting on a show as she stood barefoot behind the microphone. Quinn and Louie only offered occasional backing vocals, granting them a bit more freedom. Louie used that freedom to include a few jumps between their screamed vocal duties. That's going above and beyond. But it still wasn't enough.

Despite a strong twelve-song set littered with memorable hooks and a performance that ripped, an empty room is an empty room, and there's just no way to survive that. At 10:10, the show was over. It wasn't the show anyone wanted, but seeing a couple of bands play live music at a no-fuss gig only ten minutes from my apartment – and still getting home in time for Perry Mason – is a win in my book. And since Angie Fights Crime normally practices on Tuesday nights, a show with a sound engineer might have been an upgrade for them. City Mouse, however, deserved better. If the quartet ever passes through Kansas City again, we owe it to them to match their energy.