Ladytron for me; The Virgins for you?

You got lucky.

I mean, if you missed their opening spot on the Black Kids tour through San Francisco back in October, The Virgins are back, playing at the venerable Popscene for their Holiday Gala 2008. TONIGHT!

The Virgins at myspace

They've got a sound where The Strokes comparisons are inevitable (and I think that's mostly a good thing), but to mix it up for the here-and-now, The Virgins have thrown the occasional disco-y beat or Clash-y guitar syncopation behind most of their tracks. And these are also good things; their shizz is catchy, while still being fresh and a little raw (more on that later)..

I also appreciate that a few songs -- including their huge hit, Rich Girls (video) -- emanate a bluesy-sexuality, a la The Rolling Stones.. and, luckily, the lead singer has the looks to make it all work. haha. Ah -- just a heads-up that the Rich Girls video is semi-safe-for-work, given that some scenes contain a model gettin' down to her skivies. ;)

So, with all that said, let me submit that this is the last time you'll see them at a venue so small.. unless you're deep in certain artscenes of the LES -- their home-hood -- where you might still see them play at a party/gallery once they're back from touring. Yeah, they seem to be getting more and more air/face-time on the radio, on the TV, over the past couple of months, so I'm only expecting a good 2009 for these guys.

To be honest, part of that (predicted) success is due to the "slickness" of their self-titled debut album on Atlantic records. The label/studio really got to them, and not in a particular good way for my tastes. That is, they didn't capture the "freshness" and "rawness" I mentioned earlier; they didn't capture that sound that I heard when I first caught a couple of tracks off their original, self-recorded EP (after a friend told me about them this past January).

No matter.. whatever they want to do professionally is fine by me. I'm not asking you to buy their album. But you *should* see them rock-out live -- hear their music the way it was meant to be heard -- in that hot, sweaty, 18+ box of musical taste: Popscene, tonite; doors at 9:30pm, so it's gonna be a late night of getting your dance-on!

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By the way, I would totally join you tonight at Popscene, but I already have tickets to the Ladytron DJ set featuring Reuben Wu at Mighty (playing with San Francisco's own Sleazemore). Maybe I'll see you there?

The show is presented by the good folks at Blasthaus; check out more from them here.