I’ve only lived in the Cincinnati area for two years, so I’ll have to use that fact as an excuse for why Tuesday’s show at the Southgate House was the first time I’ve ever been to its upstairs room, named “Juney’s Lounge.” I don’t know why it hasn’t happened before, but now I definitely hope to see more acts here.

Smaller and more intimate than the ballroom, without a raised stage but with a bar right at the back, the setup of the room ensures that the audience is closer and more connected to the band. People stand on the seats of benches on either side of the room to get a better view, and the crowd in the middle is pressed together with bodies, sound, and cigarette smoke.

I’ve already written about show openers Weakness and 20th Century Tokyo Princess here on Each Note Secure, and the bands sounded much the same as they did a few months ago opening for the Guitars. However, the bands’ respective vibes translated a lot better in this smaller, enclosed environment. They seemed more comfortable surrounded by sweaty bodies on the floor of Juney’s Lounge than they did on the large, exposed stage of the ballroom.

Weakness were able to use their angular post-punk rhythms to constantly explode outwards, and the cramped quarters made their energy more intense and visceral. Twentieth Century Tokyo Princess, still relying on thumping drums, rumbling bass lines, screaming bursts of guitar, and Jon Spencer-esque blues-man one-liners, seemed to thrive surrounded by an affable audience bobbing their heads and laughing good-naturedly at their jokes. They sounded best towards the end of their set, when they allowed an infectious bass line to carry the song and managed to convince (most of) the women in the crowd to move to the front and shake their hips in time to the music.

Austin garage-rock group Harlem finally took the stage with great bravado (and a little bit of staggering) a little before midnight. They’ve garnered a good amount of attention in the blogosphere over the last few months, and it was clear that many of the people in attendance have been paying attention. People danced and sang along to the incredibly catchy “Someday Soon,” and “Be Your Baby;” songs from their new album, Hippies, which has only been out for a few months. Although it’s new, the record has clearly caught on with listeners in a concrete way.

Soon after, Harlem unceremoniously launched into the opening chords of “Gay Human Bones,” the catchiest “song” from Hippies and, honestly, the closest thing to a truly perfect pop song I’ve heard in years. The fact that they tossed it in to the middle of the set instead of milking it as a closing number just added to their vibe as exuberant, grateful, passionate performers; they were more interested in tearing through rock songs than playing it cloy. And rushing their closest thing to a “hit” didn’t seem to matter; they rocked the room for the rest of the night with one raging song after another and the audience ate it up.

Harlem are an exciting band to watch because they’re able to mix punk energy with 60’s-era rock n’ roll in the same transfixing way a band like Nirvana mixed it with Black Sabbath-esque heavy rock, or the White Stripes mixed it with the blues. And like those bands, they’re able to stir up a thunderstorm of energy as performers that amounts to so much more than the sum of their parts or the content of their songs. They could go on to be a huge band, and I’m glad I got to see them now, standing in an upper room of a rock club, pressed between speaker stacks and convulsing fans.

I’m going to be keeping an eye Harlem from here on out; I might get to brag one day about seeing them so close and so young.

-Review by John Crowell @terriblesounds