Cale Parks tonight in Allston w/ Lemonade

Seeing opening acts at shows is always tricky. Most of the time, the band performing is the last barrier to catching who you want to see (Me suffering through the Flaming Lips in Iceland while waiting for Suede). Other times, the experience is enlightening (An as-yet-unknown Strokes opening for Doves at the Dise many moons ago). Falling somewhere in the middle of that, though closer to the positive side, was catching Cale Parks open for Passion Pit a few months ago here in Boston. Parks was entertaining, but I really wasn't in the mood and wanted him up and off the stage so Boston's hometown dance-pop heroes could soak in their glorious homecoming with the hundreds of "friends" jammed into the Comm Ave nightclub. But the longer he played -- just him, with drums, guitar and synthesisers lined up proper -- the more I felt he was onto something. Just wasn't feeling it right then and there.

So I'm psyched Parks hits Great Scott tonight, headlining a fantabulous bill with the Just-add-Firefly-for-a-Will-Clark co-headliners Lemonade and the Ayad from Passion Pit-managed Earthquake Party. Allston electro duo Roguewaves drop the afterparty beats, and all in all watching Parks do his one/man/band thing in his environment in a smaller room without awaiting a bigger fish should be quite enjoyable. Parks is a darker shade to the dance culture, and I've joked he's kinda like if Moby had been raised on Bauhaus and Sisters of Mercy but with a shinier pop angle. Oh, and he looks like Ward Hayden from Girls Guns & Glory, so that's a plus.

This should be a fun drunken shitshow party, and has all the makings of an End Of Summer throwdown. "Tomorrow Never Happened," once again...