It is on.

I've been really lucky the past few months. There's been such great music coming through the city, and I've seen some fantastic shows. Last night was no exception.

USE was playing at Schuba's last night and while I do love me some USE, I hadn't really been planning on going to the show until reading a couple reviews of the New York show. Factor in the fact that it was only $8, and the fact that I'd been laying pretty low the past couple weeks, I figured this it it. It is on.

When we got there Tha 446 was on stage. We only caught the last couple songs but it seemed like fun. Tha 446 were rolling deep. There were at least 15 people onstage. Several were passing the mic while the ladies danced and a guy in an owl mask stood in the corner. They didn't do anything particularly groundbreaking, but they were high energy and fun. Apparently they're opening for the Go! Team on the 29th, but like you, I'll be at Otto's rocking to Figora.

We had missed the first "band" Pleaseeasaur. I had seen Pleaseeasaur open up for Neil Hamburger at Schuba's sometime in the past year, and all I really remember is a yellow plush costume, puppets, and watching the show for the car wreck spectacle of it. They weren't good. Seeing as how they were here at Schuba's again opening a show, I figured he was just a wacky local, so you can imagine my surprise when I heard that he was from Seattle like the two headliners.

As the third band was setting up, I noticed that several people were drinking Sparks. While I know that the hipster New York bars serve Sparks, I hadn't seen it outside of a liquor store, convience store or my apartment here in the Chill. With a high energy show from USE on the way and a yawning Girlfriend on my arm, the choice was clear.

After being told that we could only get Sparks at the bar upstairs, we headed up, ordered a couple, and stood there as the bartendress ignored the $20 we had slapped on the bar. After a few quizzical looks at each other and the bartendress, we realized that the Sparks was free!! I mean, Free Sparks and a cover of less than $10? How can you beat that?

By the by, our first round was actually Sparks Light. It was free and it helped me on the road to tipsy, but aside from that, I can't recommend Sparks light. It tasted way to artificial sweetener-y to me. I made sure the next one was as sugary as could be.

So the third band to rock was The Divorce, also from Seattle. They were good, solid, upbeat, power poppy Indie rock with just a dash of keyboard, and although it took a few songs (and/or a few swigs of Sparks) for me to warm up to them, by the end of their set I was really digging them.

Then it was time for USE. Wow! I haven't pogo-ed, bounced, or fist banged so much at a show in a long time. You'd kind of expect a band called United State of Electronica to be made up of nerdy laptop peoples, but in fact we had full band action- two guitars, bass, drums, keys/vocorder, and a couple rockin' babes. They brought the house down the whole time with their upbeat dance rock stylings. Plus, these guys could give Chromeo a run for the money on Vocorder overload.

All in all a fantastic, happy, upbeat, and yes, totally joycore show. If you haven't checked out their album, let alone their live show, I highly recommend it! Even if they didn't play "La Discoteca".