I am not a morning person—I hate walking, people, sunlight and mostly, crawling out of my huge ass bed to the bleeping of my alarm clock. I am ESPECIALLY not a Monday morning person. But yesterday’s workday didn’t seem as bad as it typically would, with not even my dash to the Metra stop bugging me as much as it normally would have. The workday breezed by, and before I realized it, it was time for me to skedaddle to my big hoorah for the evening; Tokyo Police Club’s set at the Metro.

I’ve had a mini band crush on these indie rock poptarts for a while now. I caught them for the first time back at Lollapalooza last August and managed to sneak in leadman Dave Monks’ solo acoustic set at the Current tent at SXSW this past March. Their 2006 EP A Lesson in Crime is a classic example of my kind of songs—short and sweet. Their razor sharp electrified guitar/keys pop ditties are fun, danceable and addictive as hell.

I wasn’t sure what to expect with their Saddle Creek debut Elephant Shell, but I was both a bit equally pleased and bummed to find a more mature, less electric sounding collection of pop rock gems. The album’s good, but your stereo/iPod/vinyl player’s got NOTHING on the live show.

The first opening act was Maps and Atlases, who I regretfully caught a bit too late. The last couple numbers I did manage to pop in for did make me wish I had shown up earlier. Xylophones and jam sessions are always an interesting mix, almost reminiscent a tiny, tiny bit to Broken Social Scene, if they were a jam band—or maybe I’m completely wrong here—but regardless, I caught their closing number a bit endearing.

Following Maps and Atlases, but warming up the crowd for the TPC fan base was the adorable sister duo (or are they officially a trio now?) Smoosh. Smoosh had initially caught my eye back in ’04 when they dropped their debut album She Like Electric. Every time I’ve seen them live I’ve always wondered how they’ve held up so well to potentially dangerous older drunkish crowds, as I witnessed them hold their own both at SXSW ’05 and Lolla ’07; but last night was perfectly harmless. They have progressively improved their live set each time I’ve seen them, and their cover of Bloc Party’s “This Modern Love” never ceases to bring a big ole’ smile to my face. They played a couple new tracks, a bunch from Free to Stay and maybe a number or two from She Like Electric. To my disappointment, “Rad” was not played. Boo, Smoosh. Boo. But all in all, stellar, tight set—especially for a trio of young ladies not old enough to get their drivers licenses.

But back to the reason I showed up for the first place. I think it’s pretty safe to say that Tokyo Police Club blew my face off, as well as several others of those in attendance. Their upbeat electro synth key, guitar heavy tracks were on the mark, never missing a beat. No one seemed too cool to dance last night, and that’s impressive for the hipster elite these days. TPC brought their noise quick and hard. Not only were older favorites from their past two EPs all accounted for, but they represented for the majority of Elephant Shell as well, bringing forth a whole new level of appreciation for the new record.

Since 90% of the songs in their music catalog wrap up under the 3 minute mark, TPC had their bases pretty covered with their hour long set. Their live sound is a hard, if not impossible one to beat for their dance rock pop genre. Amazing set, amazing show, amazing guys. While they weren’t much for banter, they did offer multiple rounds of “Thank you guys’,” and “It’s so good to be in Chicago’s,” but unlike so many other bands, I actually believed them. They closed off their hour long set with a 2-song encore including my personal Elephant Shell favorite, “The Harrowing Adventures Of . . .” and theme song anthem “Cheer it On.”

Myspace: Tokyo Police Club
MP3: Tokyo Police Club – “In A Cave”

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