BY NICK GAW

In print | September 20, 2007

Welcome to Fall 2007 season at Olde Club. This semester’s lineup is a dazzling array of great independent music, from melt-your-face-off rock to thoughtful, innovative hip hop. This semester, more than ever before, Olde Club will be a rocking party. The best part? All of this great music is free with a Tri-Co ID.

Earl Greyhound is headlining this semester’s inaugural show on Sept. 22. The fiery three-piece from New York has already captured critics’ and fans’ ears. There is something timelessly “rock” about a band like Earl Greyhound – it resides in a space carved out by rock and roll in the 1970s that remains classic today. Earl Greyhound will melt your face and make you move. The performance is not to be missed.

Supporting Earl Greyhound is Pora! Pora!, which is not your typical Brooklyn quartet. Pora! Pora! matches Earl Greyhound’s ferocity and is, if anything, more danceable.

If Pora! Pora! isn’t your typical Brooklyn indie experience, the Oct. 6 show featuring Brooklyn’s My Teenage Stride certainly is. That certainly is no mark against the quintet. Their live performance promises to be full of interactive merriment. My Teenage Stride’s MySpace indicates that the audience is a sixth member of the band, responsible for “intermittent percussion, lascivious onstage dancing, schadenfreude.” Fair enough.

Both Hands and Knees and Monarch will be opening for My Teenage Stride. Hands and Knees is a Boston-based indie band with a little country twang. Despite all that the other bands have to offer, Monarch is poised to be the jewel of the evening. Monarch is a beautiful collaboration of Andy Stack and Jenn Wasner, who together blend many musical talents into pure pop gems.

The Oct. 26 show features Washington Social Club, punk-inspired rockers from the district. Washington Social Club has had a lock on the D.C. circuit for some time, but their latest album, “Bigger Than Your Boyfriend,” widens their appeal. Their sharp sound is led by Telecaster-touting Evan Featherstone and the band’s front man, singer Martin Royal. Washington Social Club will certainly get Olde Club moving with their infectious rock and roll. The Dance Party will be backing Washington Social Club on their visit to Swarthmore. Similar in style to Washington Social Club, The Dance Party will certainly do what their name promises with their palatable, danceable rock.

On Nov. 16, Olde Club will host Malajube, the critically acclaimed band from French Montreal. Unlike Olde Club favorites Nous Non Plus, members of Malajube can claim a certain legitimacy to their French-ness. But just like Nous Non Plus, they will get Olde Club moving, if only in a different way. Malajube has a sound defined by their melodic craftwork with a knack for balancing simple riffs against complex vocal and musical layered arrangements.

The last show of Olde Club’s fall season changes gears with Philadelphia rapper The Last Emperor on Dec. 8. The Last Emperor writes about Philadelphia and the state of modern hip hop with an unusual set of images more commonly found in comic books. His love of comics fuels the intensely narrative quality of his work, even while not explicitly driving his lyrics. The best part of The Last Emperor is that his creative approach to hip hop works.

This fall’s Olde Club season promises to be a great semester of sound. The one thing that all of these acts have in common is that they will shake Olde Club and everyone in it. Olde Club booking director Madalyn Baldanzi ‘08 worked on one basic principle when securing this semester’s acts: “I want it to be a party.” With these kinds of acts, Olde Club looks like it will be that party.

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