We attended the 3-year anniversary party of Parafora Presents at Backbooth last night-and partay it was. Basements of Florida started us out with not one, but TWO drummers face-to-face on the floor, accompanied by three (yes, three!) bass players, with no need for vocals or guitar to get this party a rockin’! While Yip Yip may not be our cup of tea, you gotta hand it to them for their originality and unique sound. Being big fans of Brad Register, we were excited to hear his latest band, The Tenant. While some technical difficulties brought them down for a bit, they still had a good set, delivering well crafted and thoughtful indie pop.

If there was a such a band to hit it big via hype, then Surfer Blood would be one of them. Being my first listen, I became excited to hear what all the hullaballoo was about. Pretty solid musically, but the vocals never really took shape for me. My friends tell me the album is awesome, so I’ll judge later.

Which leads me to the craziest headliner to date-Monotonix. Insane comes to mind, but probably best described as man flesh madness, since none of them were wearing anything more than gym shorts and body hair. They brought down the wall between performer and audience, groping their way through the crowd, onto the streets, avoiding the stage wherever possible. Your almost convinced this is some sort of performance art, as at one point, man and drum were actually held aloft by the crowd. My first thought is definitely a show to see, not to hear. But as the band was was asurf in a tide of raised hands, spinning and rolling, they never missed a beat. Considering the chaos at hand, Chris Anderson of Parafora Presents said it best “No one can follow Monotonix.”