Under the proposed rules, promoters would have to apply for a permit from the Philadelphia Police Department (PPD) 30 days before every single event — meaning if you promote a weekly club night, that’s 52 permit applications per year . More than just a bureaucratic nightmare, this would all but abolish last-minute shows or pickup parties. These applications would have to include detailed security plans, the promoter’s business-privilege-license number, the venue’s capacity and the expected crowd. Perhaps most importantly, the bill would hold promoters liable for the actions of the crowds at the events they promote.

Beyond the kind of infrastructure chaos such an ordinance would cause (how many small clubs have the staff required to tackle such a monumental load of paperwork?), the amount of control the city would have over shows is absurd. According to the bill, Philadelphia’s Police Department has the final say:

Application for such promoted event permit shall be made in writing to the captain of the police district in which the event is to take place at least thirty days prior to such event, upon a suitable form prescribed and furnished by the Commissioner. The application shall be deemed approved unless it is denied at least ten days prior to such event.

Seem fishy? That’s because there’s no set list of reasons for the PPD to deny a permit. Which means the PPD can deny a permit for any reason. That isn’t to say that the Department will go on some sort of tirade, denying permits to any event featuring a performer who doesn’t like, say, the Phillies. But, the potential to abuse such a power isn’t just great: It’s already there. The PPD has the ultimate say on what gets approval, and when pop music has a history of churning out artists who challenge the status quo, who knows what shows will be shut down for absolutely no reason. Had N.W.A. toured through Philly with such a law in place when their infamous song was all the rage, chances are Philadelphia would have been removed from their road map.

What’s worse is the bill removes any semblance of personal responsibility from the local government. The law would require all promoters to follow a strict set of requirements. But, among the list of individuals or organizations not considered “promoters” under the proposed bill, one peculiar description pops up:

(vi) any employee of the City of Philadelphia or a city agency or a city-related agency, to the extent that the employee plans, prepares or executes an event in the course of such employment.

Which sounds like a promoter. Nothing like washing away any semblance of responsibility, right?

These are just a few of the issues that the bill proposed by City Councilmen Darrell Clarke and Bill Greenlee happen to bring up. Such a potential law would drive touring musicians (or celebrities, etc) away from Philadelphia. Booking agents, managers and artists have enough to deal with in the process of planning a tour: The last thing they would want to worry about is that, even with every “t” crossed and “i” dotted, their show could be potentially cut. And 10 days before the proposed concert for that matter. This bill doesn’t instill confidence in the system, it shuts down a vibrant city’s scene.

And, of course, it’s Philadelphia’s homegrown music scene that has to deal with such issues. Tiny clubs featuring up-and-coming bands will be inundated with paperwork they can’t handle, bands who may not be used to the process suddenly have more than they might be able to handle, and suddenly a community is under the penetrating microscope of the PPD. How does that create a welcome, open cultural environment for everyone.

Philadelphia’s produced a wide array of diverse acts that have captured the ears of music listeners around the world. Be it The Roots, Diplo, Paint It Black, Dr. Dog, Spank Rock, Man Man, Jedi Mind Tricks, Algernon Cadwallader, Pattern Is Movement, whatever your taste is, there’s probably been a band or musician that calls Philly home and made a career there during the last two decades. So, how on earth can the City of Philadelphia justify stunting the growth of their vibrant city’s cultural future with such a poorly-conceived bill?

You can read the bill here, find out more about the arguments against the bill here, and, if you disagree with the bill, sign the petition against it here.

And now, a small sample of Philadelphia-bred music and musicians.

The Roots:

[youtubevid id="qQ6wuWy16uA"]

Dr. Dog:

[youtubevid id="_b2-KNH5EWM"]

Major Lazer (Diplo + Switch):

[youtubevid id="nWCdG0RacIk"]

Paint It Black:

[youtubevid id="E5Dy241rHO8"]

Man Man:

[youtubevid id="p-7I6Fw5LUY"]

Jedi Mind Tricks:

[youtubevid id="dNITJsOrHr0"]

Algernon Cadwallader:

[youtubevid id="VSV1bCagUyA"]

Spank Rock:

[youtubevid id="DrgFFfDymU8"]

Pattern Is Movement:

[youtubevid id="3tngJT8epS8"]

Often times, this occurs in the form of PR agencies emailing bloggers links to “exclusive” MP3s, which then become recycled throughout the blogosphere. Then there are the Nine Inch Nailers – bands that want nothing more but to connect fans to the music and (sometimes) screw over their old labels. Somewhere in between these options are the little bands, who post  free songs or whole albums on sites like Gimmie Sound and Bandcamp in the hopes that fans will pick them up and fall in love with the tunes.

What’s missing for so many little groups that simply post their music online is any ability to connect to fans. There’s hardly any outside help for a band from Middle of Nowhere, U.S.A., that wants to get their music to the unaware public. They don’t have the advantage of publicists, they don’t have a big name that will automatically generate traffic and they may not have any support on the blogs.

For those bands, a site like Kickstarter may have the key to finding a fan base. Bands can post potential recording projects and ask for donations to help fund said projects. In return, the funders can get great swag, such as free songs. Simply having a project in the Kickstarter database can get a group’s name out to an entirely new audience, but the payoffs may never work, especially if a project doesn’t get full funding.

So what can smaller bands do when they want to get their music out to the public, even when giving away your music may not see any response in return? How can bands engage listeners and get people to tune in?

Everyone Everywhere, Tiny Engines and Beartrap PR may have found the answer.

With Everyone Everywhere’s self-titled LP set to drop in May, the band, their label (Tiny Engines) and their publicists (Beartrap) have decided to give away all the songs on the album for free. They’re doing it with the help of 10 blogs.

They’ve dubbed their project the “Everyone Everywhere MP3 Blog Tour.” Since Monday, one of 10 selected blogs have begun posting one song from the upcoming release, one song at a time. So, for example, on Friday, music blog Battle Of The Midwestern Housewives will post a link to download “Tiny Boat,” the fifth song from Everyone Everywhere. On Monday, The Ripple Effect posted “Tiny Planet,” the album’s lead off-tune. The tour continues through next Friday, when the album’s tenth and final song will be posted on Clicky Clicky Music. Once the tour is over, Punknews.org will be streaming the album in its entirety beginning May 4.

It’s a pretty genius idea. Not only does the blog tour put a new spin on the “legal free music” idea, but it engages Everyone Everywhere’s audience and builds a community at the same time. Listeners not only get some great tunes (and yes, so far the songs debuted on the various blogs are fantastic), but they get to discover new blogs: Fans can read a little about the band and find a modern critical voice they may not have been aware of before.

Tiny Engines co-founder and Beartrap PR employee Chuck Daley took some time to answer a few questions about the blog tour via email. Daley had some great insight, and below is the interview, along with more information about the Everyone Everywhere Blog Tour:

Who came up with the blog tour idea? Was it one of the Everyone Everywhere guys, or someone at Tiny Engines or Beartrap PR? Why this particular record?

Chuck Daley: It was a combination of different people and ideas, beginning with Everyone Everywhere and the band’s desire to feature the release an invitation-only file-sharing website.  Initially, I was hesitant (still am, actually) because although I understand that the world has changed and we need to adapt / evolve, yadda yadda, it still doesn’t alter what I know … which is that ridiculous amounts of time, energy and resources that go into making a record like this.  I’m sorry, kids – you can justify it however you’d like, but download an album without paying for it and someone suffers in the process.

So without getting too deep into cantankerous / righteous punk rocker territory, my partners and I eventually decided that we’d give the file-sharing thing a shot.  Everyone Everywhere isn’t an outfit that’s able to tour that much, so beside all the promotion that the label and Beartrap PR does, one quickest, easiest ways for them to distribute the music would be through one of these free file-sharing outlets.

Anyway, I started to kick around other ideas to get the record out to people in more creative (and admittedly controllable) ways.  I remembered that my Tiny Engines / Beartrap partner Will Miller – who also runs a great music site called SoundAsLanguage.com – had participated in something dubbed the “Albums Of The Decade Blog Tour,” which was basically ten blogs listing their favorite albums from the past ten years and trying to create a forum for interesting discussion regarding those choices.

I just sort of put two and two together and that was that.  I do believe that Josh Spilker from Deckfight.com was the creator of the Albums Of The Decade Blog Tour (and is also participating in the Everyone Everyone Blog Tour as well), so I suppose a lot of the credit goes to him.  I’m just the dude who stole other people’s good ideas and smashed em together.

What did everyone find so appealing about the blog tour idea?

CD: As I mentioned, from the beginning the members of Everyone Everywhere were always interested in new ways to distribute their music to a wider audience, especially in lieu of them not being able to make the band a full-time career right now.  This certainly satisfies that criteria.

What I appreciate – other than the fact that it might net Tiny Engines some new fans and perhaps sell a few LPs – is that we also get to bring 10 awesome blogs into the mix.  There are all people whose opinions and critiques I really respect, and I would love to see the MP3 blog tour help increase traffic and win over some new daily readers for them as well.

Were there any concerns over possible monetary setbacks by giving away all the songs for free on 10 different blogs?

CD: Of course, but it was realistic to assume that even if we hadn’t  gone through with the tour, the Everyone Everywhere record would have ended up being posted for free somewhere … probably multiple outlets.  I’ve been involved in this scene for long enough to know that much was almost a certainty.  At least with this endeavor, we’re the ones steering the ship. We get to decide how long the free download is available, the quality of the mp3, etc etc.  Soon, all that will be out of our hands.  It’s nice to have this blog tour right now so we can make a bit of noise and whip up some early excitement about the release.

How were the 10 blogs involved in the blog tour selected? Was there an established relationship between the blogs and Tiny Engines, Beartrap or Everyone Everywhere?

CD: Essentially, Will and I exchanged a few emails and came up with about 15 – 20 blogs who have always been very supportive of what we do. We sort of pondered traffic stats and whatnot, but ultimately the people who we considered were the ones we thought would be most interested and whose blogs would be the best fit for the record.

I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure that of those first 10 we approached, all said yes … even though for a few, Everyone Everywhere might be slightly outside the realm of what they normally cover.  Still, pretty much everyone jumped on board with virtually no hesitation. They were unquestionably excited to be part of the tour and it was definitely nice to get that response from people you work with and of whose blogs I’m a personal fan.

The only downside is that there was a handful of blogs that we love that couldn’t be part of the tour. That was sort of a bummer, but I’m sure we’ll hit them up next time around.

Is this a project you would hope to continue doing with other bands in the future?

CD: Yes, I’m sure there will be another tour … or at least something similar.  We might need to jazz it up or explore other ways to get people stoked, but I really dig the concept and it seems like everyone else does too.

The only downside of this tour has been the sheer amount of time and organization devoted to putting it together.  Not exactly a small amount of work.  On the flip side, once I finished setting things up and dealing with shred of minutia – making sure the blogs were clear on the plans, uploading the songs, writing a press release and creating a page on the website – I took a step back and was really proud of the effort, and I suspect that it will always be something I will remember with fondness.

What are you hoping to get out of the experiment?

CD: Obviously our end goal is the spread Everyone Everywhere’s music to a larger audience.  We wouldn’t have released the album if we didn’t love it and think it deserved a permanent spot in every music lover’s collection.  And of course, it would be sweet to sell a few records as well.  Putting aside the fact that this is an “MP3″ blog tour, we started this label because we dig the vinyl format and we really care about packaging, artwork, lyrics … the general aesthetics of what makes record buying so special.

We’ll never make enough money for Tiny Engines to be a full-time job – anyone who releases vinyl record will tell you it’s virtually impossible to break even – but it’s our hope that we can at least earn a few bucks from each record to put directly back into the label for releasing more great music in the future.  Every little bit helps, so if you’ve downloaded all the songs on the Everyone Everywhere MP3 Blog Tour, think about picking up a copy of the record or buying it on iTunes … or at least attend a show when the band travels through your town.  And definitely take a few minutes to explore all the blogs involved in the tour because they should all be scheduled stops in your daily web adventures.

The Everyone Everywhere MP3 Blog Tour:

SIDE A
————————————————————————————————————————

01. Tiny Planet @ The Ripple Effect – Monday (04/19)
02. Raw Bar OBX 2002 @ Can You See The Sunset? – Tuesday (04/20)
03. From The Beginning To The Tail @ Built On A Weak Spot – Wednesday (04/21)
04. Tiny Town @ Dryvetyme Onlyne – Thursday (04/22)
05. Tiny Boat @ Battle Of The Midwestern Housewives – Friday (04/23)

SIDE B
————————————————————————————————————————

06. Music Work Paper Work @ Deckfight – Monday (04/26)
07. Blown Up Grown Up @ The Album Project – Tuesday (04/27)
08. Fld Ovr @ Familiarize Yourself – Wednesday (04/28)
09. I Feel Fine by Everyone Everywhere @ Reviewsic – Thursday (04/29)
10. Obama House, Fukui Prefecture @ Clicky Clicky Music – Friday (04/30)

[youtubevid id="abrr00c6KPk"]

Some Kind of Merchandiser from Leor Galil on Vimeo.

“Merchandise, it keeps us alive,” Fugazi proclaimed on their song “Merchandise.” Though the D.C. punk act saw merch as a distraction, many Do It Yourself punk acts use money from selling records and clothing to survive as a band.

When Philadelphia’s Algernon Cadwallader played Strangelight – a new Chicago DIY venue – on Friday, Feb. 5, singer/bassist Peter Helmis took some time to discuss the process of creating and selling merchandise. Peter highlighted an important attribute of creating one’s own records and merchandise that many artists are beginning to take advantage of in the digital era:

It’s really helpful, if you’re a band that’s playing lots of shows, to have a bunch of your records. If someone else puts it out, they’ll give you a bunch of free ones to start out with, then you have to buy them from the label whenever you need them. If you put it out yourself, it’s more money up front, but you have like 1,000 records at your disposal whenever you want. You don’t have to buy them again, you just sell them, have them whenever you go out.

As the band saves money by putting out its own records (Algernon’s DIY label is called Be Happy Records) and bringing their merch on tour, fans have the chance of saving money as well. Buying a record at a concert is usually cheaper than ordering it online or through a mail order, and often some of the merchandise isn’t available online. Three items onsale at the concert – the 75:24 tape, the Fun 7″ record and the tour T-shirt – are either sold out online or not available elsewhere. The group’s CD – Some Kind of Cadwallader – cost $6 at the concert and costs upwards of $8 online (plus shipping and handling).

Like a lot of DIY punk bands, Algernon Cadwallader isn’t getting rich and famous from its merchandise or playing concerts. As Peter said:

It’s anything but full-time, but it’s definitely a full-time hobby. It’s our passion.

To get a glimpse of Algernon Cadwallader’s Friday night performance, take a look at the video below:

Algernon Cadwallader – “Some Kind of Cadwallader” from Leor Galil on Vimeo.

10. TV On The Radio at the Wilbur Theater (Boston)

Six times, and each viewing was a charm, though this performance came with a price, and I’m not talking about the expensive nosebleed seats. Like any number of listeners of “independent” or “underground” music, I was attracted to TVOTR and other acts because they exemplified something entirely different than what was being peddled to the masses… and I wanted to get away from the masses. So it’s a little odd when the masses show up – I wholly enjoy all the success that this group has been getting, but it’s a little upsetting when the only song that gets the crowd moving is their single from a few years ago (“Wolf Like Me”). You’d think people who’d plunk down money for any show over $20 would at least be willing to dance to songs; I’ve never seen a crowd so dumbfounded by a performance. And some of that was the sheer power of TVOTR (the clip below doesn’t do justice to physically seeing them). Their set was surely as heartfelt as any other I’d seen, they mixed in a wealth of excellent new material and blended it in with their older songs, and they kept it fresh with the addition of a horn section, mixing up and rearranging compositions while retaining their original essence. It’s impossible to contain Tunde’s vocal prowess on the page, same as the entire band’s instrumental whirlwinds, so I’ll just leave it at that. If only everyone had their Dancing Choose on…

TV On The Radio – Dreams (live, Wilbur Theater):

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWzpijhkEdM]

9. Subtle/Zach Hill/Pattern Is Movement at the Middle East Upstairs (Boston)

After a period of concert-detox, this triple bill of underground oddballs was just the thing I needed to get back into the live show groove. Pattern Is Movement opened the show with a deft display of minimalist punk drumming smashed headstrong into a wave of gothic organ/keyboard work – and man did this duo enjoy their time onstage. Zach Hill kicked it in gear with his “backing band” Peer Pressure (aka a pre-recorded tableau) and for fourty or so minutes my eyes and ears were subject to some of the fastest, careening display of drumwork I’ve ever witnessed. And to cap off an excellent show were Subtle; after a summer soundtracked by this band, I was ready to see this group pull off their egnimatic sound in a live setting. They certainly didn’t dissapoint. With Doseone spitting lyrics a million miles a minute and the rest of the band covering an amalgam of instruments, they created an intricate pattern wholly unique to their presence in the moment. And it wasn’t a bad way to start a birthday either.

Zach Hill and Peer Pressure – Necromancer (live, Middle East):

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcAqdVUHk84]

8. Liars with No Age at Paradise Rock Club (Boston)

It’s great when you see a band surprise you in concert and never see it coming – so went the tale of my Liars/No Age show. I’d been having trouble getting into Liars and heard great things about their live set; I’d heard great things about No Age and enjoyed what music of their’s I’d heard; I’d had a free weekend and desperately wanted to go see a show that I wasn’t involved in planning. What a treat. No Age seemed dwarfed on the rather-lengthy stage at the Paradise, but their zeal couldn’t be contained by the space or their place as openers, as they cleanly burst from one great hardcore-pop gem to the next. It was tough to top, but Liars were up for the challenge. Frontman Angus Andrew barely left his chair in the center of the stage, but was a riveting ringleader, headbanging to the steady, pulsating music that grabbed my rib cage and wouldn’t let go. And I no longer have any problem picking up their recorded material.

Liars – Clear Island (live, Paradise Rock Club):

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxKpB4qUtKQ]

7. Why? at the MFA (Boston)

Sure, I complained about the conceit of close-minded hipsters at this Why? show in a previous post, but that was only a slight blight on what was a powerful performance. Simply the fact that the band forced people out of their seats and onto the stage by the end of the show is a testament to the force of this band’s live draw. Beyond that, there’s just something about the way they play live. It could be Yoni Wolf’s nasally drawl hitting every note just right; it could be the instrumental rearrangement of numerous songs, turning many an aesthetically muddy piece into fully-fledged bangers. It could be the great catharsis that came with dozens and dozens of fans passionately screaming alongside Wolf’s verbose lyrical displays. And it’s easily the combination of all of these things that really hit it all home.

Why? – Yo Yo Bye Bye (live, MFA):

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmjGiePfh9o]

6. Mission of Burma performing all of Vs. at Paradise Rock Club (Boston)

This show was a wet dream for any Mission of Burma fan – their entire first full length performed in full. Add on two encores and a venue packed with the hometown crowd and you’d be hard pressed to not be pumping your fists in the air. Even though Burma decided to do the whole “play your best/favorite/seminal album in full,” they subverted the business as usual method of performing these kind of shows and began with a handful of tracks at the end of the record (“Laugh The World Away,” “OK/No Way,” etc). And with the whole band in perfect synchronicity, it was simply an astounding show, with one great song after another. But, is that really any different from a “normal” Burma show?

Mission of Burma – The Ballad of Johnny Burma (live, Paradise):

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IBTPZSg8aI]

5. Mark Kozelek at the MFA (Boston)

Mark Kozelek (aka Sun Kil Moon/Red House Painters) was completely at ease in the MFA auditorium. Outright I was happy simply to be at this show; after several years of trying, I’d made it to a live performance featuring one of the most moving voices I’ve listened to in years. And that voice didn’t let down; the minute Kozelek opened with “Trucker’s Atlas,” he on an acoustic guitar accompanied by a touring partner on another guitar, the hair on my arms stood on end when Kozelek made an impromptu humming pattern where there was none on the record. And it just got better, with Kozelek knocking out hits from the past three Sun Kil Moon records and digging deep into his Red House Painters and solo material. Even with the live version of “Duk Koo Kim” stretching into the double digit minute run time, the show was as moving and haunting as anything Kozelek has committed to record. His encore, four different songs from his long repertoire strung together in a makeshift medley left me completely elated for days on end.

Unfortunately, there is no video of this show available online at the moment. Instead, here is a brief snippet of Kozelek performing Duk Koo Kim in California from 2004:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJMMNtxjNek&feature=related]

4. Ponytail at The Talking Head (Baltimore)

Spend half a day in a tiny Baltimore club and you’d be tired as shit. But cram that place with 50 friends and put Ponytail onstage long after midnight, and it makes for one hell of a party. I’d convinced a friend to drive down to Baltimore from DC to check out the band live, and was it worth the (sometimes awkward) wait. After seeing these folks play three times this year, their hometown show was by far the best out of the lot, with the entire band putting their whole essence into one captivating half hour that sent normally stiff concert goers into a spastic, dancing frenzy. With Molly Siegel’s bemusing and careening whoops and hollers at the helm, the band took off from the first song until the seven-minute closer, “Celebrate the Body Electric.” I left Baltimore tired and ultimately triumphant.

Ponytail – Celebrate the Body Electric (live, Talking Head):

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkNxCqWXO2A]

3. Parts & Labor at Siren Music Festival (New York)

Siren’s a tough gig to do. There’s the scorching heat, the terrible sound, the crowds of oft-disinterested scenesters packed into one big sweaty mess, and the whole thing takes up most of the day. Great bands have gone through mediocre and ok sets at the hands of this festival. Parts & Labor weren’t one of them. Returning from a European tour, they gave the hometown crowd all that was in them, which was quite a bit. It was my first viewing of the band as a quartet, and it certainly knocked me out, as the group delivered one of the best performances at Siren I’ve seen, period. The hits kept coming through (“The Gold We’re Digging,” “Death,” etc), and Parts & Labor were as taught as ever. And thankful to boot; it’s often rare to see a band member smile while performing, but Dan Friel grinned while tossing his head back and forth throughout the set. And if you didn’t believe that the band really cared about each and every song of their set, perhaps the moment when B.J. Warshaw launched his well-worn bass into the crowd at the end of “Changing of the Guard” sealed the deal. It certainly did for one lucky fan.

Unfortunately, there is no video of this show available online at the moment. Instead, here is a performance of Changing of the Guard in Dallas from this year:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B0e_Er4IFY]

2. Boredoms at Paradise Rock Club (Boston)

I think my mind literally melted during this show. Boredoms have put out a lot of records – many of them unlistenable and unpalatable for those with the slightest distaste for punk. But I’d be hard pressed to find someone who likes to dance who wouldn’t have freaked out at this performance. With three members on drums and frontman Eye on a combination of synths, 8-necked guitar, two strange glowing balls of light that made static noise, and random chanting, Boredoms put together a fantastic and fluid set that was more a rave than a punk show. Hip shaking syncopated beats  provided by the three drumsets gave way to techno-like synths with change ups that tugged at your ears and feet. It lasted well over and hour and a half, but ended far to quickly.

Unfortunately, there is no video of this show available online at the moment. Instead, enjoy this selection from their ATP set from 2006:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qfss4Julqv4]

1. The Baltimore Round Robin Tour at Mass Art – Feet Night (Boston)

This is what shows should be like. Bands packed in, playing for the thrill of performance and a sense of urgency that cannot be covered by a ticketmaster fee, a big chaotic mess wherein things fall apart, but everyone is there to help pick it up, where concert goers and performers intermingle freely and lines are blurred to the point where no one really cares who is who, where one act who may not mean anything to folks outside of a certain city performs as an equal to other musicians who get more press than folks who spend lifetimes in the PR industry could dream of, where a four and a half hour show gets you twelve different bands of a diverse set of genres, all pleading with you to dance and enjoy life and take a chance because hell they just did by treking around parts of North America to show you their community. It’s about community and it’s about creating and it’s about music for the sake of music and not hype or fame. And man is it thrilling. So thrilling it’s made attending most shows afterwards seem downright complacent by design. You have to give it a hand to the Wham City crew for pulling that show together; equipment broke, set times ran long, the Pozen Center at Mass Art smelled like a middle school locker room, but it fucking worked. It was in the moment, and the moment was captivating. Although some of the acts didn’t quite perform as passionately/deftly/well as others, they tore it up just by being there. Double Dagger brought the political punk mosh pit, but not before the Deathset provided a heady mix of electronics and thrash punk, while Smartgrowth had some downright danceable mashups, Future Islands got everyone to dance even in cramped conditions, Videohippos overcame technical difficulties to bring some lo-fi dance pop, and Nuclear Power Pants were downright in-your-face hilarious. Of course props to Dan Deacon, who ended the evening with a stellar performance of “Wham City”; as most of the hype-following crowd members had abandoned the show in droves before the end of the fourth and final go-round of the Round Robin, it felt like one big communal celebration, with members of the Wham City family and the concert die-hards dancing and singing around Deacon to what has ultimately become that community’s theme song. Right then, everyone there was a member of Wham City and a performer in the traveling circus of the Baltimore Round Robin. Now that’s in the moment.

Dan Deacon at Feet Night (live, Mass Art):

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVMBepxs6tc]

(Very) Honorable Mentions:

Iron & Wine (Pearl Street, Northampton): Sam Beam’s voice can warm a thousand + person crowd while the rain outside provides ample acoustic rhythms.

Shudder to Think (Paradise Rock Club, Boston): Reuniting for the first tour after their break up in the later half of the 90s, these first-wave prog-emo rockers kicked out all the best of the best of their backcatalog.

Edie Sedgwick (Oxfam Cafe, Somerville): Minimalist twee-styled punk done by a full band – complete with a couple of chorus singers in matching dresses – and an outlandish sense of self-aware humor not unlike labelmate trailblazers Nation of Ulysses and you’ve got one hell of a fun dance party.

Videohippos (Union Square, Somerville): A great set as part of an outdoor art festival in Union Square, this duo brought a surprising amount of energy and whipped up people into something resembling a dancing frenzy.

The Hold Steady/Drive By Truckers (The Orpheum Theater, Boston): These two bands just want to have fun (as if the smile on Craig Finn’s face didn’t tell you), and the Hold Steady certainly stole the show with one guitar-fueled-Americana song after another. Their pairing may have felt a little awkward, but these two bands certainly had a great time.

After the Jump Festival at four stages in Brooklyn: Four stages of free sets by a range of Brooklyn artists, this was an excellent place to check out those artists about to burst onto the national scene. Great sets by Noveller, an acoustic two-manned version of Extra Life, a pre-iPod fame Chairlift, and finally, where would a great noise fest be without Ponytail.

Dr. Dog (Rickenbacker Park, Philadelphia): People of all ages from all across town packed into a park on a beautiful day – isn’t that what summer’s all about? And Dr. Dog was there to pull all those warm ‘n fun summer feelings together with over 2 hours of classic rock cum modern indie. If only every summer day could be so great…