"Straight out of West London, Like a Loaded Gun"

Hard-Fi came out and rocked the Mercury Lounge last night. I had high expectations for this show, and Hard-Fi didn't disappoint. They're music is very high energy, as their stage performance demonstrated. The best description of their music would be upbeat Britpop meets The Clash, with their dubbed-out reggae roots. Richard Archer clearly wants to be a star, and his stage presence channels that. They played their singles "Cash Machine," "Tied up too Tight," and "Hard To Beat" (the first two are available on the US-released Cash Machine EP), and went through other songs off of their brilliant album Stars of CCTV including "Stars of CCTV" and the closer of the set "Living for the Weekend." They even regaled us with their dubbed-out version of "Seven Nation Army" (Central Village had an mp3 here). I think these guys are primed to be big - check them out at Rothko tonight before they start playing bigger venues in the future.

The rest of the night was ok. Nine Black Alps played their pop-punk with precision. They have great melodies on top of jarring guitars. Sam Champion was average stoner rock, and their best song was probably a cover of Tom Petty's "Refugees." I could only stay for two songs by The Cribs, but what I heard, I liked.