Popped! Philadelphia

Lamenting the Dutch's loss earlier, I sought consolation and music at Popped!. I arrived at the Drexel campus to see Crystal Castles (pictured above) take the stage. The booming base driving the crowd as the lead singer bleated into the microphone. Full of life and energy, and definitely worth seeing in a more contained environment where their music would even more easily consume the crowd.

Following them, Mates of State, disappointed. Their cute synth-pop, delicate and intricate on their excellent album Re-Arrange Us melded into a blob of noise. At times they brought a cellist on-stage, but she was drowned out and barely audible. The trumpeter suffered similarly. Clearly better suited in-studio, much like the Dutch, their effort lacked rhythm and couldn't deliver at key moments.

More than the music, I was struck by the youth of the crowd, or perhaps by my agedness. Not a surprise that a concert on a college campus would be populated with kids, but it's a scarce occasion that I'm considerably older than 90 percent of a crowd. I fear this will become less and less rare as time continues to pass.