Thursday May 22, 2008 (8:30pm)
French Kicks have grown up quite a bit since breaking out of New York's early-2000s post-punk/garage-rock revival. Eschewing danceable beats for songwriting rigor, the quartet's latest album, Swimming, is a tightly constructed, shimmering pop record, full of catchy guitar melodies, distantly echoing percussion, and Nick Stumpf's subdued warble — which all serve to bring the formerly "angular" band's sound closer to Grizzly Bear than the Rapture. Starting off the night are local indie rockers the Weather Underground and Roll the Tanks.
– Joe Blankholm