Hinds bring the party to a Monday night at Union Transfer.

Hinds | Photo by Matthew Shaver | mattshaverphoto.com

After a terrible weekend, I believe that many of us needed a release.  Monday isn’t a prime party day, but I needed the positivity, I needed the community, and I hadn’t really planned it, but I needed this Hinds concert at Union Transfer.  Their unbridled optimism, mixed with a hard dose of good old rock and roll was what plenty of people needed.  Garage, lo-fi, whatever you wanna call it, it’s undeniably fun.  First, you haven’t lived until you’ve heard someone try to recall the Fresh Prince by reciting the theme in Spanish, second, you really need to watch Hinds’ Colbert Show performance to even get a taste of the talent here.  Pictures simply don’t do them justice (though I really, really try).

I’d love to keep waxing on and on about how fabulous the show was, but some things took me out of it, that are still nagging me.  No city is 100% perfect, not Philly, not NY, not Tokyo, not even Toronto. But, on the cusp where tragedy and healing meet, when the city showed up in force to show unity with the nation, there were some parts of the evening that stung.

Catcalling just doesn’t have a place in rock anymore, and I hope that didn’t take away from a good time for the band.  But the worst was a moment when Hinds were trying to convey what a good time they were having, in English, not their first language, and someone found it entertaining to shout out “En Ingles for favor” (In English please).

Rock is a universal language, one that most of the world has accepted, but one that the US is still really beginning to understand from the perspectives of other cultures.  I think the band heard it, I even think they kind of addressed it a little (“Really?!”) but, I hope they can take away more from our city than that moment, and come back to us someday, because I really need their rock and roll.

For the most part, spirits were high.  A large part of that was due to some of the local talent on display. Sun Club, from Baltimore, brought a heavy dose of… sounds.  I couldn’t really peg what they were going for, but it was energetic, drenched in reverb, and full of color.  Maybe think Animal Collective meets Beach Fossils.  Local act Joy Again seems to be in the midst of finding themselves, but I’m confident they at least know how to read the map.  Angular, angsty, and agitating, there is a quirky love story amongst the Piebald geekiness and Modest Mouse weirdness.