So The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and TV On The Radio played a free show at City Hall Plaza last Thursday. In Internet time about a billion years have zipped by since then, but why not jump in the wayback machine for a few minutes on this pleasant Monday afternoon?

Since I am a hard-working man, I wasn't able to skip over until about mid-way through The AV Club's set. The acoustics of downtown Boston were not very kind to the Brooklyn boys-I love me some late-night Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes, but it was hard to hear anything but LOUD from where my friends and I were standing. A few of the non-Bloodthirsty songs did catch my ear, and I remain pissed that limeys get to enjoy Return To Cookie Mountain before us 'Mericans (they're from BROOKLYN, for Pete's sake! That's EASILY worth at least 10,000 hipster sales...oh wait, hipsters are pirating scumbags. nevermind). I missed the anti-military cracks reported here (in the Phoenix's usual Smug), so I can only tell you that since I could not hear them, they did not exist, making that reporter is a lying hater of freedom of speech and a character assassin of the lowliest sort. I don't believe in anything I can't experience for myself...um, except Jesus.

Annnyways, there was a bit of a lull between bands, during which obnoxious radio personalities from WFNX asked us, the adoring public, to drop t-bombs on some number to gain access to an after-party with the musicians. I am too lazy to do anything but attend free shows, so my phone remained snug in my Dockers (this marked the second of two shows in a row where I looked like someone's defense attorney). Speaking of pants, I was also introduced to the mystery that is skinny indie boys wearing girl jeans. And I am horrified. Not because of the gender issues-it's because they make these poor boys look like expensive scarecrows ("They're so REAL!").

Finally the YYYs attack the stage, experiencing little to none of the muddy mix issues that plagued my ears during TVOTR. Karen O bouncing around like a de-winged hummingbird and Nick Zinner bonesawing his way through the stormclouds that quickly gathered overhead may have also grabbed my attention a bit more forcefully this go-round. Highlights included "Phenomena," "Cheated Hearts," and a track that wasn't found on the two records I own (the major label ones) that rocked my ass (he said, vaguely). While I had to cut out before "Maps" (because I am The BALLS), the set reminded me to remind y'all out there that there is life after Fever To Tell, and it is fantastic.  Show your money in the direction of Show Your Bones, a long-player that doesn't make your non-indie friends think you've been brainwashed into listening to pretentious crap.

Overall, it was free, and I stayed far enough away from the more obnoxious elements of the crowd to not want to break things. Well, except for those high school kids (I HOPE) and their ironidancing routine a few feet in front of me. I believe this is the second time I have mentioned such dancing on the blog-it can be best identified by a look on the face of the dancer that screams "LOOK AT ME WHOO I AM A FREE SPIRIT LOOK LOOK AND WISH TO BE ME!" and it needs to be banned, Darwin-style.