Hotpants Romance

Imagine a car with a stuck throttle that can only go 100 miles per hour. Put that car in a food processor--set to frappe--that's being dropped from a B-52 bomber. Then, in the ensuing maelstrom, imagine three women shouting at the top of their lungs about lipstick, dancing, love, candy and hell. While wearing hotpants, of course. This Manchester, U.K., band is so hugely, awesomely, wrongly out-of-tune and gloriously punk--they have the kind of fun only a band named after short-shorts could. And if that isn't enough for you, Nashville, they even have a song called "Effin' and Jeffin'," which, in addition to its inadvertent reference to a beloved local brotherhood, extols the listener: "You should start a band if you need to shout." Worked like a charm for them. Happy Happy Birthday to Me labelmates Cars Can Be Blue are also on the bill, along with locals Ocelots and Velcro Stars.
Mon., Aug. 18, 9 p.m., 2008