Recap Black Moth Super Rainbow and School Of Seven Bells at High Noon Saloon

Black Moth Super Rainbow and School Of Seven Bells didn't say much to the crowd at the High Noon on Thursday night. More literally, BMSR didn't say anything, and one of School's singers (either Claudia or Alejandra Deheza—they're identical twins) said "thank you," and "this is our last song." But, to use to the old adage, both groups let their music do the talking, and their projection screen full of psychedelic imagery and abstract short films do the… walking?

Shattering heads behind its 2008 debut, Alpinisms, School Of Seven Bells made a hell of a lot of beautiful noise, considering it's only a trio. The screen was afire with rotating code ciphers, spinning blue light cubes, and Egyptian-style wings—imagery fit to outdo any Journey album cover—while tunes like "Iamundernodisguise" howled and blasted out in thick waves.

The Deheza sisters, one hiding in the shadows and the other in full light (shiny jacket and all), layered their vocal harmonies on top of guitarist Ben Curtis' walls of reverb and let the mixture spread across every square inch of the club. By the time "Face To Face On High Places" rattled the floorboards, it was clear that SVIIB's shimmering, synth-laden dream pop was almost too bright and big to be contained.

Before taking the stage, Black Moth Super Rainbow treated the fans to a short video intro that ran the gamut from a montage of Insane Clown Posse fans (that's juggalos to you, sir) in full makeup to a video-blog entry by a man listing his top five worst bands. He never got past Black Moth Super Rainbow, whom he lit into for being "half-retarded douchebags" and making "music for printers," before being interrupted by Eric Wareheim (of Tim And Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!). Wareheim suggested a name change for the band (Black Reignbows, because they're dark and gothic like The Cure) before reassuring fans that they are not douchebags ("not even d-bags") for listening to BMSR.

From there, the band stomped into "Born On A Day The Sun Didn't Rise," the opening track of the new Eating Us (due out this coming Tuesday), from which it drew a large chunk of the night's set. BMSR's songs are sunshine-dappled, woozy, and ramshackle, always teetering on the edge of organized chaos. It proved a mysterious crew onstage, with a ski-masked drummer and people named Father Hummingbird and The Seven Fields of Aphelion frantically playing impeccable synth melodies, pushing buttons, and turning knobs. Lead singer Tobacco huddled up stage left and buried his vocals in mountains of vocoder effects. Where guys like Kanye and T-Pain use Auto-Tune to adjust for all-too-human limitations, Tobacco uses his tricks to create something alien, and the result mixed perfectly with the accessible but slightly off-kilter freak-pop and demented visuals on display.

As BMSR poured out song after song, the screen behind the group kept up with some truly funny, frightening, and shockingly original video. Men with skeleton hands, yoga classes transforming into rainbow stripes, instructional films on makeshift haz-mat suits and pest removal, and a green-screen music video featuring two apparently drunk middle-aged couples goofing off with straw hats all shared a homemade creepiness that spurred lots of nervous laughter. Through it all, BMSR kept booming its subversively slinky grooves, unloading on everyone's senses and filling the evening with more than enough shock and stimulation, with nary a word spoken.