WPTS brings the noize

Mooney Suzuki, Raveonettes, Longwave and White Light Motorcade

Tonight, 7… Mooney Suzuki, Raveonettes, Longwave and White Light Motorcade

Tonight, 7 p.m.

Club Laga, $5

All ages

WPTS has sponsored quite a show for tonight. The Mooney Suzuki, Raveonettes, Longwave and White Light Motorcade arrive in the Steel City as part of the Advance Warning Tour brought to you with help from CMJ and MTV2. And it’s all available for only five small bills.

While bands such as The Strokes and The Vines took center stage in the past year, Mooney Suzuki have proven over and over that, although they aren’t on the cover of Rolling Stone, they are anything but a second-rate garage band. The others may enjoy extensive radio and video play, but Mooney Suzuki earned their fans through touring before they even had a record.

In 1997, Sammy James Jr. (vocals, rhythm guitar) posted a musicians wanted flier while attending art school in New York, the band’s hometown. Graham Tyler (lead guitar) soon answered the ad and the two immediately began playing their beautiful music. Eventually, Augie Wilson (drums, vocals) and Michael Miles (bass, vocals) joined the pair. Strangely enough, Tyler couldn’t play the guitar upon joining the band but soon rose to lead stature.

The band toured tirelessly for more than two years, often traveling up and down the East Coast playing ’60s dance nights after being snubbed by the regular venues in the area. It’s fair to say Mooney Suzuki wouldn’t be here without the mods of the nation. The guys realized that they could tour from New York to Boston to Canada and finally to Chicago just by frequenting bars’ “mod nights” as the live band.

Now, more than five years since its origins, Mooney Suzuki performs a famous live show that rivals the likes of the Hives who pride themselves on such things. James formerly remarked that the band doesn’t compete with other bands but, instead, competes with the Met, MoMA and even crack. Since their show is better than drugs, people can’t resist. The addition of a fairly fantastic album to the mix doesn’t hurt, either.

Electric Sweat, the band’s second full-length release, mixes a little ’50s rhythm and blues with some serious ’60s rock ‘n’ roll. The tracks move from swanky dance songs to smooth rock anthems to swooning ballads a la senior prom of ’59. Their solid songwriting skills combined with James’s penetrating voice is a perfect match.

The Raveonettes, who formed in Denmark in 2001, follow in Mooney Suzuki’s stripped down rock sound. But, their rhythms are more low key and lusty. Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo work for a hazy male-female vocal mixture that is as beautiful as it is eerie. The intensity of simple three chord songs is astounding.

Another band in its early stages, White Light Motorcade, will also set foot onstage. With only a few years of experience, they’ve already toured with Alice Cooper and even managed to win over the Cooper crowd after only a few songs. They, like tour mates Longwave, share a love for rock that shows through on their albums and onstage.

If there’s one thing this tour will be notorious for, it will be bands with great stage presence. Like the name says, this is the “Early Warning” for bands that will no doubt blow up in the very near future.