Mathstorm, Voot Cha Index

For two suburban indie-pop bands losing members to higher education, the college town setting and former college-radio DJ acting as MC was perfectly appropriate. Indie-poppers Mathstorm and Voot Cha Index commemorated the end of life as they know it Friday by rocking Denton's Rubber Gloves with Frequency Down's Frank Hejl cracking jokes as host; the event was both an EP release and goodbye party for Mathstorm. The septet played xylophone-accented power-pop through confetti blizzards as friends and a guest trombonist danced onstage and off. Guitarist Aaron Weits was especially strong, but Mathstorm's songs often felt cluttered, and the crowded band couldn't have improved without sloughing off a couple of members. The breakup is probably the least painful way for the talented players to grow musically and for those who were just fucking around to find something else to distract them from academia.

Voot Cha Index will soon shift players around and add upright bass, flute and another guitar as guitarist Jan Michael Guerra succumbs to the temptation of college. VCI didn't appear too preoccupied about the forthcoming rearrangement; lead singer Neil Sanzgiri flailed about like an ADD patient who saves his Ritalin for the weekend, and multi-instrumentalist Sasan Babypants capably switched from violin to keys to behind-the-head bass. Opener "Talking House"'s nonsense lyrics, chiming xylophone and jangly guitar established the band as ambassadors of pure, meaningless fun, and any cynics in the crowd were converted by the closing "Accordion Song." The number of people singing along with the "I-I-I-I'm a tangerine!" chorus was inversely proportional to the number of people who knew what the hell it meant.