Bishop Allen

Little hipsters need cultivating, too. They must be planted in untenable soil, nourished on the sparse nutrients available, then regularly watered with irony and detached from sunlight. One day the wonderment occurs, and a little sapling in too-tight jeans spreads his frail leaves and declares, "The radio sucks!" Such is the cycle of life. The 2008 film Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist might as well be a training video for budding music snobs, with its high school protagonists forever in search of a band so indie they refuse to even disclose where they will play. Of all the contributions to the movie's killer soundtrack, one of the standouts is Bishop Allen's interminably catchy "Middle Management," which infuses their low-fi indie rock with the raw buzz of electric guitars echoing off cinderblock garage walls. Bishop Allen, the brainchild of Harvard grads Justin Rice and Christian Rudder, will keep on educating the young 'uns when they play an all-ages show early Monday evening (still plenty of time to finish that homework). The Triple Rock usually, well, rocks, but this night it will be filled with the barely perceptible, ambient hum of self-satisfaction and a sea of appreciatively bobbing heads. It's one to Miracle-Gro on. With Miniature Tigers and the Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band. All ages.
Mon., March 30, 5 p.m., 2009