Hot Rod Circuit / Cartel

live in Cambridge (2011)

Brian Shultz

New Hampshire's Smoke Signals was in the midst of their opening set when I arrived. Middle-of-the-road alt-country rock I'm not too into. Competent stuff but a little boring.

The Appreciation Post was next. Apparently they're one of those longer-running locals that don't find much success or recognition but push through and keep going. (So much for the hope of an appropriate namesake.) Props for that sort of attitude, and a good, energetic vibe on stage, but I was not feeling them musically. It was like all the Motion City Soundtrack songs on Commit This to Memory I didn't like.

I'm not sure if Hot Rod Circuit has brought Cartel on tour before, but if not, it's a long-overdue pairing. Despite Cartel's poppier inclincations, one could definitely detect the influence of HRC's playful guitar work on their early material (The Ransom EP, namely).

Admittedly, I haven't listened to them since 2005's Chroma, skipping out on 2007's self-titled, Bubble-produced affair and 2009's Cycles. And not to so rudely dismiss the latter half of the band's catalogue, but the best thing they could have done is come out and play at least a decent amount of old stuff to capitalize on the nostalgia in the air (even if said "nostalgia" only dates so far back as 2004). But that's exactly what they did, thankfully, with the majority of the set coming from The Ransom and Chroma. They even skipped over Cartel completely. They did play a pair of tracks from their new EP, In Stereo, which were actually pretty good. They weren't a far cry from the band's early mix of moderate '00s emo/punk influence and pop-rock motion, but there's a few more ambitious sonic flourishes and pedals that make it a little bit different and interesting.

This was also the first set that garnered any sort of real response from the crowd. They were the right age to have obviously resonated with older cuts like "Luckie St." and "Honestly." Even a dude in a Killing the Dream shirt was visibly pumped.

Their drummer was entertaining to watch, since he hit pretty hard. Also, Will Pugh talked about being 19 and infatuated with the HRC song "Radiation Suit" so much, they more or less ripped it off for "The City Never Sleeps." Both bands played said songs, so the audience could even compare for themselves. That was nice of them.

Set list (8:55-9:35):