As referential to Tom Tom Club and The B-52s as they are to Pavement, L.A. indie-rock group Cheekface is tongue-in-cheek but never mean-spirited. With vocalist Greg Katz’s trademark sprechgesang, “America’s local band” makes danceable numbers that offer clever commentary on the decaying state of the world but still make you want to groove. On Podium, their July release, Katz asks, “What if we kissed and held hands on the hostile street furniture?” on one song, before slant-rhyming “Erewhon” with “There is a God” on the next. On “Best Life,” from 2021’s Emphatically No., he coolly declares: “Due to personal reasons, I said nothing in therapy.” This kind of memetic songwriting might be grating in lesser hands — but in Cheekface’s, it’s cathartic fun. Philly ska band Catbite opens.
8 p.m. at The End
2219 Elliston Place
