Cold War Kids "Hair Down" from With Our Wallets Full Live at The Annex Madison, WI June 1, 2006

Tapes 'n Tapes are the latest hipster buzz band to come rolling through Madison -- so buzzy are they, in fact, that their show had to be moved from the Journey to the Annex to accommodate ticket demand. The band with the lucky task of opening for them on their current tour is Cold War Kids, a sort of Modest Mouse soundalike from LA. They got a great reaction from Ryan over at Muzzle of Bees, and I think I would've felt the way if they'd only played a handful of songs. Their first three or four were really energetic, wild and great -- punctuated most notably by their guitar player also using a maraca to bash a cymbal that had been set on top of a wooden crate -- but the stuff after that started to sound a little samey. It might be that I'm just getting of that early Modest Mouse/Wolf Parade sound, but I came away just thinking they were good after a great start.