[This post originally appeared on Team Tinnitus]

You might be thinking, “Where the hell is the Towne Lounge?”. You think that because it’s a very new venue and it’s hard to find. It’s right by PGE Park on a little side street kinda and until recently there was no sign, just a small green lite on a post telling you you’d found it (now there’s a sign that simply says “Lounge” which is probably still mysterious enough to retain cred).

The inside of the place is pretty awesome. It has a kind of dark and musty feeling that reminds of the ever-more-dearly departed Blackbird. The walls are green and the ceiling is gold, which is a very decadent and weird combination that somehow works. There’s tables and a very small stage. I really like the feel of this place, so when I found out the A-Frames were playing there I pee’d a little.

I pee’d because the A-Frames’ new album, Black Forest, is one of the coolest things I’ve heard this year. It gets me all pumped up in the same way I got pumped up singing “Your God is dead” etc with Trent Reznor in high school. That pump comes from the deep deep post-apocalyptic pessimism running through the lyrics and the death-knell machine-punk that backs it up. Part of me also wants to see all of humanity erased, and the A-Frames let me release that beast while simultaneously bopping around my living room.

I saw them live a while ago, opening for Country Teasers (awesome band) at Dante’s. I hadn’t heard any of their albums at that point, and was kind of interested in the live show, but not super impressed. My friend thinks their live show sounds like “just another punk band” and I can see how one might. Maybe it takes the solitude of home listening to understand this band’s icy brilliance, or maybe their new stuff is just significantly better than the old. Both probably.

Anyway, this show was really fun. The sound system seriously sucked – you couldn’t hear the vocals at all, turning up the level led to feedback = LAME – but no one really cared. The drummer smacks the living bejeezus out his drums, sometimes laying down a cymbal over the tom for added industrial krrrang. The singer/guitarist guy can whip out some lazer-sharp anti-riffs. They played mostly older songs that I didn’t know and wasn’t as into, but which were still fun to move around to. People were drunk and some people were being loud and the singer smiled at all of it, so I guess they’re not total death-to-humanity assholes. Whatever they are, they’re awesome. See? Woop woop A-Frames, my death-disco release since 2005.

Drinks drunk: 2 beers (read: hella trashed)