Three dudes wearing silver masks with sleeveless black hoodies, effeminate by a rad and sexy post screamo, blonde bombshell demon-chick – Nashville’s Five Knives have an erotic aesthetic that fuses industrial power chords, hip hop undertones and a chemical pool of synthetic low fi swagger, upstaging the Yeasayer show downstairs. Many ticket buyers left Yeasayer sluggish midway into their set, filling the outdoor smoking porch to the brim and many eventually ditched, catching the second half of the raging Five Knives set upstairs in the newly renovated High Watt or meandering toward the Johnny Cash cover band Cash’d Out in Mercy. Birthday boy and High Watt manager, Brandon Jazz, struggled at the start of his performance earlier in the night and even dodged a cup of ice or two before Cherub‘s Jason Huber, who was also celebrating a birthday, joined him for a version of “In the Air Tonight” that miraculously brought the crowd in. After waiting around expecting one of the Yeasayer guys to step up to the DJ booth for a set upstairs, most of the crowd had grown tired of the night’s attempts at shock value. The only thing not shocking about everything was Yeasayer, who have barely been able to re-master the energy of the tours following their 2007 SXSW breakout performance. – Dh Wright
