Black Tie Dynasty, What Made Milwaukee Famous, The Boxing Lesson, PVC Street Gang

Quite the quartet of semi-local, well-respected indie acts assembled on this particular evening—and the headliner might be the least interesting of the bunch.

While Black Tie Dynasty makes the girls go crazy with all sorts of retro chic, Austin’s What Made Milwaukee Famous doesn’t need to plunder the graveyard of the ’80s in order to be appealing. Like Spoon and The Arcade Fire, WMMF channels all manner of inspiration into its heady mix of alt- and art rock. The band’s 2008 release, What Doesn’t Kill Us, was just a couple of songs away from being one of the best records of the year.

Joining WMMF on the travel up Interstate 35 is The Boxing Lesson, a spaced-out foursome whose frontman, Paul Waclawsky, is originally from Los Angeles. Once he wisely relocated, Waclawsky found some likeminded Texans who shared his love for David Bowie and Pink Floyd. Wild Streaks and Windy Days, The Boxing Lesson’s most recent opus, is dreamy, rich and hallucinogenic, a neat amalgamation of sounds from several eras, each one of them assimilated into the whole—not just plagiarized from a record collection.

Starting off the night is Denton’s PVC Street Gang, a gleefully cynical combo who might have the best single song of any act on this bill: the wonderfully deranged and catchy “Cutlass.”