A Saturday night CD release show at the Sunset provided the perfect excuse for me to indulge my burgeoning crush on Ballard. Seriously, has that far-flung neighborhood always been so cute? It’s like an old ski town in the off season, when the awful tourists have left and the locals just hang out and work on their beards. It’s all excessively charming, with just the right amount of hipster
cred.

When I arrived, the Seaworthies were just wrapping up their near-a capella set of presumably nautically-inspired songs. During the between set shuffle, we make the all important move of moving to the front stage. The layout at the Sunset is far from ideal, with bathroom and bar traffic cutting through the narrow space. It seems like re-arranging the configuration there could be a design student’s thesis project.

As BOAT gear up for they set, they seed the audience with plastic cups fused together into shakers. Hooray for participatory music making, although I’m told that it’s actually a pretty high pressure role to be granted temporary rhythm section status. While BOAT seems to sit with the twee kids at the lunch table, they definitely skew toward the rockier side of things. Kind of like pop rocks when mixed with your favorite carbonated beverage, except that the explosions are of awesomeness instead of killer indigestion. Sure, the lyrics are precious and narrative, but while singing about awkward situations, books, or reptile boys they have plenty of onstage confidence and occasionally bust out some sweet dance moves. A block of songs are dedicated to D. Crane’s wife, celebrating her birthday in the front row. As the set (so politely posted on their weblog [ohnodisaster]) comes to an end, the band requests that the shakers be returned so as not to disrupt upcoming performances. Some people take this too literally, and cups start flying. BOAT, now four members strong, weathers the revolution, going down in a energetic blaze of glory.

As Samantha told you [mb], the occasion for the show is the release of the first full length album from Math and Physics Club. If you have yet to hear the gentle strummings of these local darlings, you have probably been hiding under a very large rock or willfully ignoring lots of glowing recommendations. Listening to them, I think about how they’d seem like the perfect soundtrack to your next beach bonfire. It’s easy to imagine the band in a little surf shack playing dreamy pop, singing happy birthday to all of the people in the audience decided to celebrate their birthday with the band, and occasionally breaking into a lovely Beat Happening cover. My little fantasy gets broken up occasionally by the screaming of a couple of women in the middle of the crowd. For some unknown reason, they decided to pay to see a quiet band when they really just wanted to shout inanely to each other in public.

Fortunately, their bad behavior didn’t put much of a damper on the proceedings. The band plays a pretty set, and I go back to likening them to a cozy warm sweater. A couple of women in flowy shirts and sparkly jeans start their own dance party. Liam, the guest trumpet player on the new album, meets Math and Physics Club for the first time onstage. They try to end with “Movie Ending Romance”, but the applause of the sold out crowd persuades them to rethink their anti-encore policy and they return for one last song.

I suppose that I should mention that Kevin, the Math and Physics Club drummer, is a Metroblogging author, but I can assure you that no strong arm tactics were involved in the typing of this review.