Saturday night: The Trusty Knife

Like their good friends (and Riverwest neighbors) The Candliers last year, The Trusty Knife has become one of the city’s most notable indie-pop bands of 2008. On its excellent new self-titled full-length, which will be celebrated tonight with a CD release show at Mad Planet, the surprisingly spry fivepiece sounds like The Shins covering The Dave Clark 5: Get beyond the usual indie trappings—clanging guitars, self-effacing geekiness, xylophones—and what you have is a good-time rock ‘n’ roll dance band. (As in sock hops, not Studio 54.) “Now You See Me Now You Don’t” has an incredibly catchy melody, but what really drives the song is how Ross Bachhuber’s soulful bass flows into Brock Gourlie’s drums, creating a rhythm so simple and insistent that it all but drives you to the nearest dance circle populated by poodle skirt-donning girls named Sandy. So, obviously, the CD release show ought to be the most. Live, the band’s wiry hooks become even more spastic and thrillingly alive under the direction of frontman Zack Pieper, a livewire who recalls the restrained dementia of early David Byrne. That doesn’t really come across in this video for “It’s All Built In”—Pieper is working his laidback pelvis-thrusting side here, assuring anyone thinking of attending tonight’s show that you will not be the most embarrassing dancer in the house.