Sprawled out in a spread stance, guitarist Brian Bedsworth forced out chords with the exaggerated body movements of a prize fighter.
And sporting a sound that embodied the harder side of The Dismemberment Plan, Disband gave the crowd proof that the locals can keep up with the basement bands of larger cities.
Disband files nicely into a new category of rockers that passes on the minute rules of pop-rock, sticking to the stripped down basics of lyricism and performance.
The vocals supplied by Greg Collins were of the type often described as "having character." And most pieces never melodically settled into themselves -- but it sounded like that was the point.
In this sense, Disband has the markings of the cut-and-paste sound emerging from Chicago's underground rock scene. It typifies the growing Windy City sound, a lyrical, guitar-heavy response to the New York explosion of basement rock ushered in by the success of The Strokes.
Heavy on guitars, polished one minute and deconstructive the next, Disband shares Modest Mouse's effective disregard for the details of the pop-rock song formula, a willingness to deviate that has made the latter famous.
But Disband's ability to create a sound that breaks some rules was undermined by its willingness to break the cardinal rule of rock: Rock doesn't say it's sorry.
An excess of disclaimers for unfinished missed hooks robs audiences of the idea that the band isn't making mistakes, it's stylizing. This brings us to pop-rock rule No. 1: If you screw up, just pretend it's all part of your style.
Letting another lesser pop-rock performance rule slide, Disband provided a sound listeners could do some serious head-bobbing to but deprived them of something important -- their faces.
