I went to see the Pernice Brothers last night at Iota in Arlington. Anything that gets me to disrupt my usual JD Salinger-esque social life is a special event, indeed, and they didn't disappoint.

The set list was heavy on the past two albums - all of Yours, Mine and Ours and all but one or two songs from The World Won't End, only a couple of songs from Joe Pernice's previous albums. The sound quality at the venue left a little to be desired at first, obliterating the harmonies that make "One Foot in the Grave" such a great song, but they improved vastly as time went on (the harmonies at the coda of "7:30" were almost perfect). The band themselves are much, much louder in person than they are on record, but it's a bright, nondistorted sort of clang that really fits Pernice's songs well.

Highlights for me were "7:30," "Baby in Two," which actually sounded better live with some searing guitar from Peyton Pinkerton, and the encore: Joe Pernice on solo acoustic with "Bum Leg," "Flaming Wreck," which they played the hell out of (the drummer actually broke a highhat at the end), a sublime cover of the Pretenders' "Talk of the Town" and the immortal Scud Mountain Boys' "Grudge Fuck." Great show, and I highly recommend seeing them if they come to a town near you.