Another rainy night in Lawrence. Seems lately they all have been. Vanessa and I drove over from Kansas City and got to the club at 10:00, paid our $4 and headed in. Due to a gift from God, we found a booth still open with a lovely view of the stage. Just about everyone I knew from the KC scene were present and accounted for so I guess this was a scene points kinda show. Glad I was there so I could get my card punched.

First up was Reggie and the Full Effect. The band was make up entirely of members from the other bands playing that night and was (as I understood it) a project band of James's (drummer from Coalesce). I thought they were hella good but not very challenging or original. I'm not sure you have to be either to write great power-pop though. I will admit at times I thought Weezer should walk up on stage and kick all of their cute asses. However they did put on a great show, they are all veterans and the songs were catchy. They had already won me over even before they concluded with "Still the One I Want" by Shania Twain. That was just the icing on the cake.

Coalesce played second which kinda surprised me as they are arguable the biggest band of the night. Generally I don't like Coalesce but tonight I really did. They were their general intense selves and played a short and powerful set announcing themselves as "the heavy band playing tonight." Soon they'll have out a CD of Led Zeppelin songs and so tonight they treated us with "Immigrant Song". However when you add a Zeppelin groove to Coalesce it ends up sounding like Clutch somehow.

After a blown guitar head and 20 minutes of fussing with a new one The Anniversary played a plagued set. The keys weren't loud enough, first guitar sounded horrible and there was too much apologizing for the guitar delays and sound throughout the set. That annoys me more than the sound. Several songs came across very well, particularly the guitar leads, and the band enjoyed a very good response from the crowd, especially from the grrls shouting (only half serious) "We Love You Adrianne!" A newer song showed some really experimentation in minimalism and more thought into rhythm which made me happy and keeps them from being just an "emo" band.

Before The Get Up Kids took the stage it was stormed by a costumed band that was introduced as Black Light and the Lava Lamps (or Lava Lamp and the Black Lights?). For 10 painful minutes they lip synched (badly by design) to various pop songs, and most notably to "Smells Like Teen Spirit". It was pointless and masturbatory though I suppose if you knew who it was under the masks, it may have been amusing.

Finally the Get Up Kids took the stage with much hoopla. A big night for them because they announced the deal they struck with Mojo (well not actually announced it but just say they sold out and thanked their A&R man), it was their 3 year anniversary as a band, and it was Jim's 21st birthday. The band were relaxed, worked the home town crowd well, and seemed to have a hell of a good time up there (maybe it was the Jagermeister shots they were brought up during their set). Sadly I had to leave midway into their set so if something really cool happened after I left. Don't tell me.