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Bands with two singers are extra interesting. And if they are total opposites, then all the better. Enter Nick Krill and Thomas Hughes, the lead singers of The Spinto Band. Nick, a skeleton, was wearing a long sleeved shirt, with a collared shirt underneath (while setting up he’d been wearing a sweater with an Obama button). Thomas, not a skeleton, was wearing an almost too small indie shirt (which he was complimented on halfway through the show, though he ignored that). Nick would sway slightly while singing, and really only seemed to enjoy himself while singing their first single, ‘Oh, Mandy’ and right at the end (he broke his guitar strap). Hughes, on the other hand, well, I can only describe his behavior with the words: short circuiting robot. Is it possible to rock so hard that you give yourself a concussion? He was jerking around so hard on stage I figured his brain must be hitting his skull.

They started off the set with their single ‘Summer Grof’ from their new album, Moonwink. The song contains a lot of spasmodic clapping, which the band indulged the audience in, especially Thomas. This was followed by the kazoo-heavy song ‘Brown Boxes’, a favorite for many off their first album, Nice and Nicely Done. Then ‘Needlepoint’, a song Thomas sang while Nick did the classic arm spinning round circularly on his guitar. Standard awkward onstage banter followed, and the band played a healthy mix of songs from both albums, though never really getting the crowd worked up to any sort of pogo-ing frenzy (that’s LA for you. I’m sure it happens elsewhere). They finished up with ‘Direct to Helmet’, during whichI witnessed Thomas slap himself. As mentioned before Nick’s guitar strap snapped, and when they were finally done rocking out, he grabbed his mike and left the stage, with his five other bandmates.

• On 11/5/08 at 11:26pm Dubber said: hadn't heard of them before. good review. Reply

• On 11/5/08 at 11:38pm acam said: This is Thomas. This is a comment on a file from the review gallery. View File Reply