I had no idea Stereo Total were going to be so goddamn adorable. I've somehow missed the band whenever they've come through town previously—possibly because, although I've loved various singles of theirs over the many years they've been a band, I've never really fallen for an entire album of theirs until 2007's concisely awesome Paris-Berlin. Too bad, because their live show is a total blast.

Brezel Göring (the gentleman of the husband/wife duo) is tall, lanky, and hyper-animated (animated like bugs bunny is animated), with a long shock of hair flopping in front of his face, and a tie loosened over first a stylish buton-up shirt and then later a sweaty t-shirt. He played guitar and keyboards, but by far the instrument he worked the hardest was a ribbon controlled synth hooked up to some echo, which sounded a bit like theremin only with more precisely controlled glissando. Göring played the thing, sliding his fingers up and down the ribbon with a kind of manic charge, and it was in his hands a fun, showy instrument to watch. Françoise Cactus was a far more subdued, almost coy stage presence. She wore a loud green blazer, bright red hair, and glasses, looking kind of like a cooly subversive school-marm. She sang (they more or less omitted any of the songs with male lead vocals) and played drums and a heart shaped guitar (Göring's guitar was one of those rectangular ones that looks like its made out of a washboard or a cardboard box).

The duo, who have been recording together for nearly 15 years now, had an easy, affectionate, and fun rapport both with each other and with the enthusiastic crowd (Ryan Donnelly, who was working the door last night, observed that tonight's show had drawn out a fair amount of French and/or Francophone kids). When Cactus flubbed the transition into the second verse of "Plastic," she and Göring playfully negotiated how and where to restart the song, Cactus waving off with her hand the idea of taking it from the top, indicating that the crowd would be bored to death. Better still—and the highlight of the set, really—was when they brought a girl up from the audience for "L'amour a Trois." As the song opened, the girl (Claire) and Cactus sang while Göring turned his back to the crowd and embraced himself, running his hands up and down his back in that funny way that makes it look like you're making out with another person (I haven't seen anyone do that in years, and I'd forgotten how terrifically silly it looks). Later, Göring and Cactus sandwiched Claire in a little hip-thrusting, ass-bumping conga line, caterpillaring back and forth across the stage. It was pretty cute.

That the band didn't play my favorite tracks from Paris-Berlin—"Lolita Fantome," "Ta Voix Au Telephone," "Patty Hearst," or "Baby Revolution"—is a minor complaint. They did play "Plus Minus Null," the excellent retro rocker "Holiday Inn," a version of "Satisfaction" (and maybe another cover that I'm forgetting now), and, finally "Wir Tanzen Im Viereck" and an awesome, repeatedly extended version "I Hate Everybody in the Discotheque" with a crowd of audience members pulled onstage to dance along. It was a great show; and I agree with Matt (Fuckin') Hickey, who suggested someone should bring them back for Block Party, which they would kill. I also agree that it's insane that these guys were opening rather than headlining last night—insane.

Which brings me to the utterly detestable, electro-clash throwback Leslie & the LYs. I only had the stomach/gluttony for punishment to watch like one and a half songs—the tail end of some spectacle in which her sequined, stoned-looking back-up dancers hung suspended in some kind of human-sized diorama, and then a song about how one ought not to blame Leslie but rather blame her ample booty. Whatever you want to blame, Leslie & the LYs certainly sounds like ass. This joke isn't funny anymore.