And the great Too Much Rock catch-up of 2025 continues. Let's see how brief we can make this.

Saint Louis' Cyanides started the night just before 9:30. The four-piece had two different singers and embraced twice that many styles. I heard the droning repetition of The Velvet Underground in the band's garage, the bright punk hooks of Buzzcocks, and it was all delivered with the rock 'n' roll swagger of New York Dolls. There was a strong bass line here, a solid lead over there, and a great solo from the rhythm guitarist delivered just before the thirty-minute set ended.

Pale Tongue was just as complicated. The band has honed its psych rock for a decade, and the current quintet (now with three guitars!) has finally found the mark. The recipe required a vocalist with a sharp, nearly rapped delivery, a guitarist who dealt in noise, one who never let go of his whammy bar, a motorik bassist who cut through it all, and a drummer who was equally adept during the new ripper, "Freakout," as he was during the finale that found the group treading in half-time stoner rock. The musicians' gear hummed the whole set. Some of it had to be beat on to make it work. There was nothing pristine or polished about this act, nor should there ever be.

Greg Wheeler and the Poly Mall Cops is the most local band not from Kansas City. The Iowan trio just put out a new album that strays further from power pop and deeper into the garage punk. That spells a guaranteed hit with the Hillsiders' crowd. Every song in the set was an urgent blast of speed and bluster. The bassist pushed the act forward and made the best faces. The vocalist/guitarist slowed things down between songs to let the drummer catch his breath. It seldom worked. The audience sang along during the older numbers and shook their asses to the new ones. My throat was spent and posterior tired when everything ended just before midnight.