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Upcoming shows

Thursday 2.28
The XYZ Affair w/
Raleigh and all capitals
8 p.m.
@ The Hi-Dive
16+, $6

An XYZ A air to remember
The Big Apple can be so unkind. Just ask the burgeoning Brooklyn foursome, The XYZ Affair.

“It’s really tough to get any recognition in New York because it’s just so saturated with music,” Affair’s frontman and original member Alex Feder said. “It’s really hard to pull ahead, especially when we’re playing with what’s supposed to be, essentially, pop music, in a town that’s a little too cool for it at times.”

But even the coldest, most icy critics in New York and beyond have begun to warm up to XYZ Affair’s brand of smart — if not somewhat neurotic — “power-pop.” Or, as Feder calls it, “poppy arena rock, with, maybe a little more of a punk rock edge to it.”

One look at this well-groomed quartet of NYU music grads (Feder, guitarist Russ Maschmeyer, bassist Chris Bonner and drummer Sam Rockwell) hardly conjures up punk-rock images of studded jackets, pierced noses and Mohawks, but instead lends even more to their college-rock persona.

“We all went to music school so we’re trained musicians and we know that there’s usually more going on beneath the surface than one would realize,” Feder said.

On their debut album A Few More Pubblished Studies, big-banging background bass and drums, and keen, clean guitar hooks help build a perfect pedestal for Feder’s self-reflecting and angelic prophesies of climaxing insecurities. Feder’s vocals create an eerie isolation that seemingly feeds into his neurosis with songs like “Little Fool” (“This place seems so unwelcoming at night when I come home/ Here I sit pining away, waiting for you to come home”) and the hopelessly ironic “All My Friends” (“My name is Michael all the chicks hate my guts”).

But despite all the labels attached to the band by critics, The XYZ Affair remains without that most important of labels. As they prepare to begin recording their second album following their current U.S. tour (which includes an appearance at the South By Southwest Tour in Austin, Texas), Affair is still considering several recording studio suitors.

“It’s hard to keep your head above water, that’s for sure,” Feder said. “It’s been a little bit of an uphill battle for us, but we’re happy with what we do and just pushing ahead and hoping that other people catch on.”

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Built To Spill w/
The Meat Puppets
8 p.m.
@ The Gothic Theatre
$20, 16+

Friday 2.29

Bone Thugs-N-Harmony
w/ The Pack
8 p.m.
@ The Gothic Theatre
$25, 16+

Airbourne (recently
featured in Spin magazine)
w/ Endeverafter and
Stone Rider
9 p.m.
@ The Bluebird Theater
$10, 16+

Against Me! w/ Git Some
and Eyes And Ears
8 p.m.
@ The Aggie Theater
(Ft. Collins)
$15, 16+

Wednesday 3.5

Dropkick Murphys w/
Big D and the Kids Table
and Everybody Out
8 p.m.
@ The Fillmore Auditorium
$24, 16+

Slavic Soul Party!
7:30 p.m.
@ King Center Recital Hall
Free with valid Metro ID
All Ages