Not a 4/4 in the house tonight at O’Brien’s Pub; SealbeardS shows that Boston can do math.

Night Idea from Richmond postulates that distortion can be smooth and nice, not always harsh. More in tune with post-rock than a lot of their mathed contemporaries, but they keep a shining thread of rhythm throughout.

Boston’s The Modern Voice gives patronage to the almighty riff then drives it brainward, improvising and soloing with intuition. You’ll feel some sort of wholeness: yeah, that’s the way the riff should sound.

A weird bit that I didn’t expect to hear, is that post-hardcore can have a definite vein of sexiness. Super seductive vox of The Leagues from across town might make your rocket fly…

Speaking of rockets, Worcester-based Goddard pays namesake to the American half of rocket pioneering, Robert Goddard. (Math rock, rockets, and science history? These guys sound pretty nerdy.) Regardless of their cool-factor, they certainly punch with the force of a rocket launch. Merging a shoegazed control of tone with math, atypical song structure, and sonic intensity up to _here_, this is not to be missed. A real big spinal-snapping to wake up from daily reverie.

Horns and math? What? The song name “Vegan Mustache Jazz” summarizes it up well, weirdly – Richmond’s Dumb Waiter clearly draws from not only hard bop and math, but metal and punk. What about the choral arrangements? Despite having influences from clearly every corner of the Western musical canon, it’s a well-done experimental blend that gets awfully thick and intense.

O’Brien’s Pub // 8pm // 21+ // $8