I didn’t know much about the Antlers going into their show. Scratch that, I knew only that they were on Frenchkiss records and Syd from Les Savy Fav (who, unless I’m mistaken pretty much runs FKR) has fantastic taste.

Turns out that their label is a horrible jump-off point for the Antlers. I expected them to sound like pretty much every other FKR band I’ve ever heard, which is to say pretty much somewhere in the middle of a scale between Les Savy Fav and Thunderbirds Are Now! When you’re on a label that’s known for energetic guitar-rock, I don’t feel bad for expecting that.

NOW HAVING SAID THAT, the Antlers were really good. I can’t say which song sounded better than any other, because I’d never heard them before, but all the songs I heard sounded great. It’s soft, emotional folk-pop without self-indulgence or whine that too often accompanies simple guy-with-guitar groups. And of course all of this is a very long way of saying “Wasn’t familiar with them, but after seeing their show will quickly try to remedy that.”