The Sick Lipstick / Shy Child / Fox the Boombox / The Boston Letter

I decided I was down with Fox the Boombox at the first strains of the opening ballad, which were simply "Dear Mom and Dad," mostly because stickin' a reference to the old M and P in your punk rock is always pretty awesome. The band, which includes Sick Lipstick shrieker Lindsey Gillard, pushed out a short-ish set of slightly discordant low 'n old girl rock with some seriously nervous-excited first-show grins on their probably too cute faces. It is with the tightest finger crossing that I hope this group keeps kickin' it and blossoms into a fucked-up, pretty butterfly. Before that came the notoriously pain-incurring electro-indie low-beat one-man-show, the Boston Letter. Infamous (or famous, depending on who you ask) for injuring himself and potentially others while pumping the jams, the BL got off scott free this time around. But although Ontario crowds "hate" him for it, as he told the crowd between songs, fucking shit up is exactly what pulls this act from simple karaoke to mega-awesome karaoke. To make up for the lack of rough and tumble, New York's Shy Child whipped out the hardcore dance card and shook the audience with the biggest sounding two-guy key-tar and drums combo I've ever seen. Off the charts compared to singer/key-tarist Pete Cafarella's other, not-quite-there-and-painful-because-of-it group, El Guapo, Shy Child managed a major feat with the tiniest manpower muster-able: extremely tight, hard-hitting and super prog-y disco rock without a single guitar. Pete and drummer Nate Smith shook the house for a bunch of adoring and sweaty new converts, but fled the stage before hitting us with what is probably their best song — "You're All Aglow," the slow and driving lead-off track from their newest disc, The Humanity EP. A tough act to follow. Good thing Toronto's creep-o spazz addicts, the Sick Lipstick were there to please a bunch of local kids with some songs to sing along (uh, sort of) to, even though weird band tensions appeared to get a little frothy.