Tonight: We Were Promised Jetpacks & The Twilight Sad Up at Fitz

And here, folks, is where I will be tonight (specifically, Thursday, November 13th). I’ve been waiting very literally for years now to see/hear Scottish post-punk rockers We Were Promised Jetpacks, and when I saw their name appear on the list of upcoming shows over at Fitzgerald’s, I very nearly went through the damn ceiling in excitement.

Their 2009 album, These Four Walls, is one of only a handful of albums ever where I like each and every track (okay, some more than others, sure, but still), and several of the songs have lived on either my iPod or iPhone for these past five years without interruption, especially “Ships With Holes Will Sink” (the first song I ever heard by the band), “Conductor,” “Quiet Little Voices,” and “It’s Thunder and It’s Lightning.” If you gave me only enough time to hear one more song before I die, those four would be at the top of the pack.

The music’s sharp-edged and spiky but still humble and low-key, the band seemingly playing without really giving a damn what you think but still smiling slyly off to the side. And through it all, there’s singer/guitarist Adam Thompson‘s rough-yet-tuneful voice and awesome, awesome accent.

That first album was an oddball, meandering and bouncing around like Gang Of Four if they just got good and comfortably drunk; second album In the Pit of the Stomach was a different beast entirely, a much more full-on “rock” affair, and I’ll admit that it took me some time to get into it properly. And yes, “Medicine” and “Hard To Remember” are flat-out incredible songs, I swear.

Now We Were Promised Jetpacks are onto their third full-length, the brand-new Unravelling, which — to my ears, anyway — seems to bridge the gap between the two. The rock fury is still there for a lot of the album, but the song structures point further backwards to These Four Walls; I don’t have a favorite track or three yet, but it’ll happen, probably soon.

Also playing tonight are fellow Scots The Twilight Sad, who I’m shamefully, shamefully new to, I must confess; I’ve been listening this week to also-brand-new release Nobody Wants to Be Here and Nobody Wants to Leave, and holy crap is it good, like what Mogwai could sound like if they were less cinematic and more focused. Gonna have to get there early for that.

Anyway, all I’ve got left is this: GO SEE THIS SHOW. Do it. I mean, c’mon, they’re both indie bands from Scotland; it could be another several years before they’re here again.

Oh, and I can’t resist throwing in a couple of videos, for “Quiet Little Voices,” off These Four Walls (and which my now-10-year-old daughter once told me she loved, BTW), and “I Keep It Compoised,” off Unravelling (which I’m told comes in swanky yellow vinyl, FWIW). Here you go:

See y’all tonight, hopefully…