You know those nights you’re not really looking for an over-the-top, knock your socks off, raucous rock ‘n roll romp, but rather some good music with a solid crowd at a pretty sweet, but smaller venue? I was having just one of those evenings last Thursday and I was lucky enough to find the prescription for my condition at the Starry Plough in Berkeley.

I live just a few blocks from the Starry Plough (herein the Plough), so I count myself among the lucky who dip in here with some regularity. For the uninitiated, a picture of words seems appropriate. There was a mix of local regulars and hipsters making up the crowd, with plenty of facial hair (myself included) and carefully coifed ‘dos to provide the quintessential hipster look. The Plough welcomed the crowd with its brick and wood paneling walls, decorated with a wide variety of revolutionaries, anti-corporate America slogans, and perhaps my favorite feature – an oversized painting of the words of James Connolly’s Revolutionary Song.

“Until the movement is marked by the joyous, defiant, singing of revolutionary song, it lacks one of the most distinctive marks of a popular revolutionary movement…”
– James Connolly, Revolutionary Song

This captured the feeling of the evening. Not so revolutionary as “We are here to change the world!” but more “We are here to change this moment.” As I noticed that groups of people were forming and this was a much tighter circle that I first imagined, it became clear to me that this was a moment this group of people was going to collectively determine the outcome, and not leave to the perils of fate. It was now time to meet the Gold Robot Records family – or at least three of its bands.

First up to claim their piece of the evening: Sweetie. 3 parts dude, 2 parts lady, but all unabashed, straight to the point indie pop. Sweetie is quite the appropriate name for these guys (and gals) – their songs are short and, well, sweet. Enough so that they were able to pack eight songs into an opener’s set.

Sweetie opened up with a solid vamp number that introduced to them with their often melancholic vocals, two part harmonies, and taste for synchronized stop-starts. They immediately bolstered their cred with a cover of Beck’s Gamma Ray, spiced up with one of my favorite drum sounds, rim clicks (vastly underused and underappreciated). By this time they worked out a few mixing issues with sound guy, so now the keyboards cut through much better. They made sure to perform the two tracks from their Myspace page, “Building” and “Saturdays,” both well written catchy numbers. About the fifth song into their set I saw something that would come to embody the familial attitude of the evening; a lone individual strolled up front and center with a beer in one hand and what looked to be a grilled cheese sandwich in the other, bobbing his head in time and finishing his sandwich, complemented by a few gulps of beer. At first I dismissed him as a friend of the band, but when it came time for the next band to take the stage I realized it was the guitarist/singer from The Parish. He was out there offering some love for those that are not only his friends, but also his siblings in the Gold Robot family.

A fresh beer and ten minutes later the stage was reset and along came The Parish. Right off the bat you could tell the musicianship of each member took a step up from Sweetie. The simple, straight up indie pop of Sweetie was balanced out with the rock and blues driven sound of The Parish. To be honest I wasn’t that familiar with any of these groups prior to this evening, but if there’s one song that pulled me in, it was “Dummy in Trouble” by The Parish. It had an eerily similar vibe to Radiohead’s “Talk Show Host”, but with Radiohead clearly representing their side of the pond, The Parish provided an excellent American counterpoint in “Dummy in Trouble.”

No set would be complete without an homage to some music of yesteryear, and in this set it came in the form of a little doo-wop. The Parish didn’t use a track like this as a stunt, but more of a way to make the audience to realize just how much they had jumped through the hoops of rock and roll stylings. They were well versed in the blues and rock, brought out a little tambourine, the aforementioned doo wop, and touched on some good ol’ Americana as well.