As one of the first nights since the Hurricane has started experimenting with regular 9:00 start times, the only downer about this show was that it took the crowd well into the second set before it began to really fill the place up.

Mi6 made the most of it anyway. One of the most disarmingly unpretentious hardcore bands I’ve ever seen, Mi6 rocked hard and playfully--lead singer Ken Peterson lying at the feet of the patrons playing guitar while bassist Aaron Riffel took a vocal. Peterson punctuated this moment of extended lunacy with a series of false endings, revving up a final chord progression again and again from his place on his back on the floor.

But the band was far from done. Mi6 then dedicated a version of Jessie’s Girl to the Glitter Kicks, calling it Tawni’s Girl and playing Rick Springfield by a loud fast rules ethic that might just redefine all of his early ‘80s hits. Most welcome was a cover of Joe Jackson’s "Is She Really Going Out With Him?" played as amphetamine ska and somehow seeming all the more genuine for it.

Then the Glitter Kicks took the stage, tearing through most of the album, *Love Everything*, in sequence. Without the additional wizardry of Ed Rose in the studio, it was particularly wonderful to hear all of these songs fresh as live cuts. The way Chris Wagner’s bass will search and fill in a space that opens up in the mix that Ed Rose’s guitar will either counterpoint or support and the way Craig Haning’s drums go beyond providing support to blast holes in the song structure, all of this combines to show the real kinship between the Glitter Kicks live and on record--this is a band that uses tight song structures to force its creativity in unlikely directions.

And at the center of it all is Tawni Freeland, singing stronger than ever before and holding the stage like never before. Freeland’s voice always had a distinctive charm, and her self-conscious stage manner has always hopelessly upstaged whoever she performs with, but she is growing beyond all of that now. Without losing any of what makes her seem genuine, Freeland looks more relaxed, sings with more elasticity and plays with more abandon. The new song, "You Belong to Me", coupled this bravado with an ambitious melody and wide open vistas for the future of the band and Freeland as an artist.

Of course it was great to see buddy Kristie Stremel hit the stage for a late-set cover of Jenny Jenny (867-5309). Freeland’s playfulness shined as she changed one verse’s lyric to Kristie, Kristie, you’re the girl for me. At the end of the set, Townshend-like, Freeland kicked up a remarkably dangerous storm of feedback addressing her amp with her guitar . . . nothing she hadn’t done before, but somehow every move she made suggested more power, more assurance, more rock future than we can imagine.

--Danny Alexander