I am going to be doing these entries as a time line. I hope it works…

Thursday:
8:25 p.m.-I arrive at the Krannert Art Museum about 10 minutes into Oxford Collapse’s set. I have to admire the setup the festival has at the museum. The stage is right in the lobby and only six inches or so off the ground. It is a roomy stage though, and Oxford Collapse dances around the whole thing.

The band’s dance-punk music may not be the most original thing, but it is fun, especially with the energy of bassist Mike Henry anchoring the set. It is also a bit rare to see a bass be a lead instrument, but they pull it off. Now if only they wrote choruses for their songs…

The band has a bit of amplifier trouble in the middle of their set, but they are able to resolve it and continue on. The set ends with the band only playing about 35 minutes, but it was a good start to my Pygmalion experience.

9:15-Evangelicals take the stage. I watch them and immediately think The Cure did it better. I leave after three songs.

9:35-I head over to Canopy Club and walk in during the middle of Robots Counterfeiting Money. I saw this band open for Colour Revolt back in August, but I don’t know if you could have called them a band then. Then, it was just Patrick Mangan playing all the band’s songs acoustic…in the same mode of the band (punk, hardcore, metal, with a bit of glam thrown in). It didn’t work, and if it was ironic, it shouldn’t have been.

This time though, the full band is here and it is a vast improvement. The band’s songs may not be very good, but they are entertaining to watch (two drummers, two guitarists, one in a hot dog suit, and a bassist). It’s everything a joke band should be, and this time, I got the joke. Well done.

10:30-Monotonix starts their show. The band sets up their gear in the audience it goes from there. The drummer starts playing a beat, and the guitarist comes out to dance. The lead singer comes next, and the rest is an insane blur.

Monotonix is a three-piece Israeli garage rock band, known for their crazy antics. They are not in short supply during the show either, as lead singer Ami Shalev prances around the band in a circle.

Very little of their 40 minute set is spent on the actual stage. Instead, they prefer to get up on the Canopy’s divider railings, grabbing audience members and shaking them up. Shalev is everywhere at once, playing pranks on drummer Ran Shimomi the entire time (at one point, Shimomi gets garbage dumped on him. This is real garbage too. It smells).

The antics are such an integral part of the show, that the music almost get overshadowed. It doesn’t though, and their brand of 60s garage rock shines through. Guitarist Yonatan Gat and drummer Shimomi are able to keep a tight groove going, no matter what the next move is.

As the show wears on, the band starts moving closer to the exit doors. The drum kit is moved, and Shalev starts leading people out into the lobby/bar. He is still going crazy (as was the audience), but it doesn’t stop there. Eventually, the crowd ends up outside the venue, yelling and going crazy.

All this while keeping a steady drum beat. Impressive, and safe to say one of the best shows I have ever seen.

11:27-Dark Meat starts three minutes early. I thought the bill could not get any crazier after Monotonix, but I was wrong. While the band’s set may have not be as good, there is no doubt it is just as crazy.

Dark Meat is a band that usually has about 10-17 members onstage at any given time, and the count tonight seems to be about 13 (if I am wrong on that, please tell me). There are guitarists, a bassist, two drummers, a keyboardist, and a lot of tambourines and wind instruments. Even just by looking at them, I can tell it was going to be insane.

And it was. The best way to describe Dark Meat’s live show is a harder rocking version of the Flaming Lips. There may not be as many props, but the band is always in high spirits, and confetti is being shot off everywhere (I will still be finding it in my underwear days later, guaranteed).

The band’s 50 minute set is so loud, it’s hard to discern what instrument was playing what (this reporter’s ears are still ringing, at 2:15 p.m. the next day), but the spirit of the band and the songs themselves are enough to carry the show.

By the end, lead singer Jim McHug is in the audience, acting like Ian MacKaye. He was screaming and body slamming (while other members of the band got into the audience to dance and play a sousaphone), but the high spirits are kept up. The band puts on a show, and so far, this is one of the best bills I have ever been at.

1 a.m.-Dan Deacon finally starts. Originally slated to start at 12:30, he was pushed back a little bit since Dark Meat ran long and he is having sound issues. Once he “fixes the sound issues,” the show begins.

But the sound issues are not gone. Throughout the entire set, the music sounds like one big blur. It’s hard to discern any music in there, and after I had heard how Deacon put on an amazing live show, I leave unimpressed.

I will say, however, that it may have be his fault. Deacon is known to set up his show in the audience, and tonight is no different. He encourages people to dance onstage during the show. However, about three songs in, the stage collapses. That’s right. Canopy Club’s stage collapses. I saw it myself. The wood splinters and when I leave, it truly is broken. Security spends the rest of the night keeping audience members off of it.

Deacon seems to know there were issues, so he kept demanding the house lights be on, just for safety. From there, the show turns into less of a dance party and more of a punk rock show. The dancing gives way to moshing (especially when Dark Meat joins Deacon on his last song), and crowd surfing ensues.

Earlier in the night, I had asked a member of the security team if she was worried about this show. She said no, and that Motion City Soundtrack the night before was awful. I am now wondering if she really meant that, after seeing the response Deacon got. I leave the show being let down, and hopefully I can see him in the future in a better situation.

It is a shame that 75 percent of Colour Revolt’s audience Thursday night at The Highdive was from other bands on the bill. It was a small turnout for a band that did not deserve it

Nevertheless, Colour Revolt did their business well during their 45 minute set. The band’s three-guitar attack worked even better live than it did on their record, “Plunder, Beg, and Curse,” and to their credit, they came off like a Southern-y, poor man’s version of Built to Spill. They noodled around quite a bit, taking the songs to a better place.

Lead singer and guitarist Jesse Coppenbarger stayed glued to his microphone for the majority of his set, but there was an intensity in his performance that was matched by the rest of the band. Their noodling and strong interplay gave songs space to breathe, and songs like “Naked and Red” and “Moses of the South” sounded fantastic. Meanwhile, the rhythm section of Patrick Addison and Len Clark also kept a steady groove going as well, and they were loose but interlocked the whole time.

Unfortunately, not all of Colour Revolt’s songs are as strong as the aforementioned ones. Their performance was strong, and the record is no doubt good as a whole, with some songs being quite exceptional. Still, not all of them reach the high levels of their highs.

I am convinced, however, that the band is on a good path and will really flourish if given the chance. They come off as a career band, and I wish them the best of luck. I just hope other people wish them luck as well as they continue to tour, because they deserve an audience larger than 10 people.

The same, however, cannot be said for opener Robots Counterfeiting Money. The band consisted of Patrick Mangan and his acoustic guitar, but the music was played in the style of post-hardcore bands such as At the Drive-In and Fugazi. The songs just were not there though, and unfortunately Mangan came off as, well, annoying. He’s a good guitar player, and may be a good singer, but Robots Counterfeiting Money did not cut it.

DeKalb band Light Pollution fared better, with a good mix of smart songs and eclectic instruments (violin, mandolin, trombone and accordion, more than one often used in the same song). Finally, Javelins provided an energetic set full on propulsive drumbeats and yelp-y vocals. The songs weren’t there though, and I didn’t find myself humming any of their tunes after their set was over.