via Josh ^[1]

We’d been enjoying happy hour for a few hours already by the time we got to Neumos just before The Apples in Stereo ^[2] were set to go on, so I wasn’t overly surprised to walk in and see a guy in a tracksuit and silver cape standing on the stage behind a keyboard. Guys dressed as spacemen were sort of where the evening was going. I was honestly unsure what to expect, anyway; the only review I’ve read of their live show lately was a dismissive one from Tasty Gig Reviews ^[3], and it’s unfair to review anyone if they’ve played after Tullycraft, who always manage to charm the dancing shoes onto the surliest of audience members.

The rest of the band filed onstage and got right into it, playing a short sort of intro before swinging into a song. They were well put together and well-mixed, sounding so completely rehearsed that I immediately felt like I was seeing a band on a television show. They sounded…famous. Radio-friendly. It’s a feeling that’s especially strong during bouncier songs like “Energy,” and it’s not a bad thing. Just unexpected.

The crowd was not helping me feel any less like I was on tv. A guy in a fedora yelled “Welcome to America!” for no immediately obvious reason. The long-haired man in front of me with the thick white-framed glasses started blowing bubbles. I watched a girl in the middle of the crowd take off her shoes in order to be able to dance with her guy. (Ok, that was pretty gross. I hope she boiled her feet when she got home.) A blonde that smelled like coconut squeezed into the six inches between me and the guy with the bubbles and I didn’t even elbow her in the kidneys. Just like on television.

The band was all dressed like they were each playing a part–the guy in the white button-down with a caution tape strap on his bass, the guy in the tie and vest, the super-cute drummer in the argyle sweater. I couldn’t stop watching John Hill on guitar, who was impeccably dressed in a great polka-dot shirt with a black vest and was clearly having an amazing time. I’ll forgive a lot of sins on stage if you look like you’re genuinely enjoying yourself.

Everything was going along great, the crowd bouncing and dancing and having a party, until about 3/4 of the way through the set when Robert Schneider inexplicably played a quiet song all by himself. It killed the energy and lost the crowd, who started to thin out pretty much immediately. I’m pretty sure that’s what cost them an encore. Slow songs are great and sometimes fit perfectly into a set, but this one emphatically did not.

They played one new song that they had written when they were getting ready to tour, and one that made me think for a few seconds that they were about to break into a cover of The Stone Roses’ “Sally Cinnamon.” “7 Stars,” my favorite off the new album, didn’t make it into the set, although a cover of an Explorers Club song did. For the last song they called all the members of both The Explorers Club and Casper and the Cookies onstage. Everyone showed up and burdened themselves with noisemakers and maracas and tambourines, having loads of fun, and I was back in love again. I think it’s great when bands on the same bill join each other for songs. (Are you guys taking notes? It’d be pretty easy to start a band that I would love regardless of how it sounded. I think you’d just have to be friendly and enthusiastic and well-dressed, and maybe let me play tambourine sometimes.)

A few folks tried to make enough noise to bring the band back out for an encore, but most of the crowd seemed to be done. We all wandered outside, where it smelled like spring.