The Blood Brothers with Dance Disaster Movement

Monday, May 9; Mississippi Nights (914 North First Street)

May 4, 2005 at 4:00 am
Sometimes you just want to light an aromatherapy candle or two, gently plunk a few bath beads into a warm tub, slide into the bath's womblike embrace and relax with some soothing music. Unless that bath is full of broken glass and your candle is the flame under a heroin spoon, it's safe to say that the aforementioned music would not be played by the Blood Brothers.

You might find their latest full-length, last year's Crimes, filed under "punk," but that designation would tell you nothing about Jordan Blilie and Johnny Whitney's dueling razor-lunged vocal screams, nor about the band's gut-wrenching rhythmic swerves and surges. Not since Clark Kent have such mild-mannered, well-meaning young men been transformed into creatures of such power. But unlike Superman, and with songs like "Love Rhymes with Hideous Car Wreck," their hearts aren't quite 100 percent pure.

In a world where everyone's a rebel, where Kelly Clarkson can don the mantle of nü-wave alienation without being promptly tarred and feathered by snaggletoothed peasants, the Blood Brothers' unholy clamor separates the zealots from the poseurs. Which side are you on?

Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10-$14; call 314-421-3853 for more information.