Thursday was my first trip to The Rock Shop in Park Slope, and I started my night out in the sports-ish upstairs bar. It had a bustling feel to it despite the relatively small crowd there, and I treated myself to the Brooklyn Summer Ale. Patrons in their upper twenties were eating burgers and fries, playing pool, watching the Yankees Game, preparing for a the first night in New York that really felt like Summer. A small, boxy outdoors  patio overlooked Mission Dolores next door, a vibrant bar in a converted garage that was having a busy happy hour. Overall, the bar felt friendly and neighborhoody, if a little empty.

The showroom itself was a cool, cozy square room with pews along the walls, a dark red bulls-eye painted on the dance floor, and a small stage jutting out into the audience. The vibe was relaxed. Although the show started an hour late (of course), no one seemed to be in a rush.

The first opener was Deleted Scenes, a powerful indie rock quartet from D.C. Their mix of ambient chords, a shoegaze haze of guitars, commanding vocals, and sweeping arpeggios hit the spot. Lead singer Dan Scheuerman puts his entire body into his clear, resonant voice. “Fake IDs,” is a slow wave of a song bubbling with nervous energy underneath Scheuerman’s smooth, soaring vocals. It’s a fantastic song, and the best of a fantastic set. Kelly Knapp saw Deleted Scenes when they headlined at an earlier Rock Shop show, and for a more in-depth take on this awesome band’s music, take a look at her fantastic review.

Deleted Scenes was a perfect start to the night. I was stoked for the next band, Generationals, a five-piece indie pop band that’s been thoroughly mining the revival of Beach Boys and early Beatles sounds. They have that Beach Boys bounciness, square strumming, and those blissfully naïve love song lyrics that have been coming back strong all over country. Their sound was heavier than most of these similar bands, though, with walloping drum beats that gave them an edge. The drums covered up some of the more subtle things in their repetoire, as well as some interesting synth samples that would have given Generationals further definition. Still, it was a fun set, and the sold-out crowd seemed to love it.

Headliner Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. has been making it big, and for good reason. BestNewBands.com’s Daniel Kohn has reviewed their album It’s A Corporate World, and he points out how surprising it is that this “indie-dream-pop” sensation comes from Detroit, an area more known for its hard rock, undergound Hip Hop, and more recently for various sub-genres of Techno and House. They’ve got an amazing stage show. Somehow, on the tiny Rock Shop stage, they managed to fit a pair of giant “JR”s fitted with lightbulbs, a bubble machine, a drum set, and their usual bank of keyboards and amps. They went on stage dressed as NASCAR racers, but quickly stripped off the jumpsuits to reveal standard suits underneath. The onstage banter of Josh Epstein and Daniel Zott – two equally interesting and equally powerful frontmen  – focused on a (fake?) power struggle between the “Team Josh” and “Team Daniel.” “It started out as making fun of Twilight,” Epstein said, “But now we actually hate each other.”

One set of the J and Rs

The flashing “JR” lights, the bubble machine, Epstein and Zott’s stage presence, and the bands consistently full sound made this one of the most over the top and enjoyable live shows I’ve ever seen. The overwhelming sense of Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.’s show was of loudness and noise, but with perfectly tuned harmonies and quirky guitar lines that gave their music direction and a unique voice.

The best number of the night was Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.’s raucous cover of “God Only Knows,” the most outrageous and glorious Beach Boys cover I’ve heard. Though it started fairly normally and completely recognizably, they were soon adding in strangely aggressive drum fills and distortion totally removed from the original. By the end of the song Epstein had layered the well-known vocal lines on top of each other while the harmony devolved into a mess of distorted noise. It was a hell of a lot of fun.

Overall, Thursday was an amazing night of indie-rock; The Rock Shop lived up to its name. Next time I get over there, I plan to do what most show-goers did, visit Mission Dolores to soak up the pre-show ambience. I’ll let you all know how that goes. Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. is on a big U.S. tour. If you’re interested in catching them in New York, They’ll be back at The Rock Shop on Sunday the 15^th. Otherwise check their myspace page: they’ve got dates through mid-June all across the country. The Generationals are touring with them, but it’s not clear for just how long. Deleted Scenes will be back in New York on Jun 19^th at Cameo, one of my new favorite venues. In the meantime they’ll be in Baltimore at The Ottobar on May 28^th and in D.C. at the Red Palace on June 10^th.