The Dirtbombs and TV on the Radio played to a sizable all-ages crowd Tuesday night at First Avenue. I haven’t been to an all-ages show in years, it’s a bizarre experience. The only open bars are upstairs, where one feels like they have done something wrong and have to serve a time out; at least they serve alcohol in detention. The only sensible course of action is to quickly drink a large beer before the show and grab a spot on the floor downstairs, and that’s just what we did.

I only caught the last song from Detroit garage rockers The Dirtbombs, but I liked what little I heard. TV on the Radio promptly took the stage at 8:45 PM and opened with “Young Liars,” and proceeded to go through a mix of roughly half material from Dear Science and half from the rest of their catalogue. The setlist was quite similar to the previous night; the first half of the set was identical. Not surprisingly, “Wolf Like Me” really got the crowd moving, and the energy from the crowd and band remained high for the duration of the show.

This band’s sound is complex, dense metallic-y rock that is unique in today’s music scene. Before going into the show I didn’t think the new material would hold up that well in a live setting. I was partially wrong, Tunde Adebimpe’s powerful voice shined as the rest of the band weaved in layers of sound to create a sonic wall. Incorporating horns into the live show was smart, and it worked. Still, something didn’t connect. I may be in the minority, but everything felt distant even as I stood fifteen feet in front of the band.

The band played a crescendo of an encore, starting out with some feedback issues, and playing “A Method”, “Let the Devil In”, and ending with what is still their best song, “Staring at the Sun”. The amorphous feeling this band engenders in both their studio albums and their live show is perhaps why I felt such a disconnect to the music. The show is the perfect metaphor for the lives of the teenagers and twenty-somethings in the audience, it’s confusing and complex and at times detached, but it’s still fun. The concert ended at 10:10 PM.-Chase Turner