Noise Pop day 3, bathed in red at Cafe du Nord

Back at the Bender's, listening and looking at the end of Shark Toy's set through the Jimmy Beam neon lit window from the outside. The bands reflection from the mirror juxtaposed with bikes, tenements and passersby made me feel grounded, at home and prepared for yet another episode.

Once inside I fussed over the happy hour price of Fernet-Branca on the rocks as Social Studies took the "ASCAP" stage. Social Studies is a great band with potential manifested through vintage synthesizer emulators courtesy of Alesis, an old ass faux wood paneled Casio and a Korg. I first thought they sounded like an indie dance act James Murphy forgot to have sign on the dotted hipster-dance-dance-revolution line. Wrong. Social Studies adhere to the psychedelized Music Emporium early Moog sound and John Phillips school of creativity. The group proved this with the electric keys-zap attack of their Grass Roots cover of "Let's Live For Today." A little help from Tyler of Tempo No Tempo gave an added element of alternating crunchy guitar licks and electro blips. Kudos gang.

I stuck around for a few numbers from The Old Fashioned Way who were nerdy, fun, cute and having themselves a grand ol' time. The group's chirpy tweeness was undeniable, even the hater within could not help but simply adore the dazzling display of glee and nerves before me.

Minutes later I'm at Cafe Du Nord. It's sold out, but this time I'm in like Flynn. TDM brought some grungy fuzz pedals, wild ambient loops between songs and an uplifting "pass out the scantrons to everyone we know" refrain that ascended above Du Nord's basement and into the rafters of the Swedish American Music Hall. However, their cover of Danzig's "Mother" lacked the fire in the gut that a song of such canonical magnitude should wield.

Next was Greg Ashley; just the man and his electric Gibson. He strummed a ten minute set of instrumentals before performing an honest rendition of Leonard Cohen's "True Love Leaves No Traces." And that was the end. I was left with curiosity; what would the rest of Death of a Ladies' Man sound like as interpreted by Greg Ashley? I guess I'll never know.

With an outlaw Hope Sandoval heart and a mean streak of doom metal interludes, Scout Niblett slowly built up the thunder. Yet through her songs of hard living and Master of Reality riff apologies, there were moments of quirky rebellion told through tales about a would be life on the run. "Wake up in the car, outside of the bar, which way to Mexico?" she cooed.

Citay brought its massive ensemble to the stage. Sometimes it sounded like your favorite forgotten west coast California sun pop band, then the next moment you swear it's a moment from Another Green World or Taking Tiger Moutain by Strategy. (Which reminds me, why couldn't Brian Eno have headline this damn festival?) These folks have the passion but their prowess put me to sleep. That said, I'm waddled over to catch the 33 outbound at 18th and Church.