#jopassed

With two albums under their belt, stellar reviews of their latest release from two big dogs--Rolling Stone and our insufferably polysyllabic friends at Pitchfork--and 350,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever is on the verge of musical stardom.

Mark my words, within two years, expect these guys to achieve all the markers of indie pop success--CD's available at your local Starbucks, a dope Mazda commercial, hey, maybe they'll even transition to solely playing music mega-festivals!

Thus, it was no surprise that they rocked the house Thursday night at the Doug Fir. But there were other surprises in store.

To start, they were not the post-punk beatniks dressed from head to toe in black and leather that I was expecting. Instead, they all had their own style, a refreshing treat in a scene typically drenched with hipper-than-thou coolness. Frontman Joe White even bears a shocking resemblance to the late, great Steve Irwin, though in a sexy guitar player kind of way.

In fact, they came across as utterly approachable. "We went to two waterfalls today and they were fucking amazing," one said near the beginning of the show. Later White joked about merch--"Come by the booth for the things. Kombucha. Life insurance. T shirts mainly."

Another surprise was the most multi-generational crowd I've seen in a long time. At one point, standing close to the front row, I looked around and was surrounded by a sea of grey hair. Tell me the last time you got to hang with people your parents' age at a rock n roll show.

But perhaps the biggest surprise was the opener, Jo Passed.

Picture this. Jo Hirabayashi standing proud with a mop hairdo, flanked by Bela Bébé and Megan-Magdalena Bourne, all strapped with white instruments (not to mention Bourne's massive platforms!). It started as a solemn affair, each band member playing their parts diligently. But by the fourth or fifth song they were jumping off amps, falling on the floor, and doing headstands--all while ripping. After finding the tallest stack on stage to play a solo from, Hirabayashi exclaimed, "I sat really high! How rockin?" The next song, the antics came to a crescendo as he flung his guitar 360 degrees around his neck by just the strap. To see all the ways this could go wrong click here #magic amiright?

SPICE LEVEL: SPICE CITY for anyone with a thing for Crocodile Dundee impersonators and magic tricks