IndieArtElectroPop Extravaganza at the Croc Tonight: Apples in Stereo, Fol Chen, BOAT

Despite the blustery weather, I’m heading downtown for a special evening at the Crocodile tonight because Apples in Stereo are headlining, on tour for their new album Travellers in Space and Time, “50 minutes of songs about the wonderful world of the future, where we’ll all dance in interstellar nightclubs with ambassadors from other worlds, while still worrying about whether our boyfriends/girlfriends/robotic-love-units are staying faithful,” according to the A.V. Club.

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Middle set is from L.A.’s Fol Chen, the “most whacked-out concept band since GWAR.” Paste magazine praised their penchant for “electro-fey devices: cheesy ’80s keys, propulsive beats, sporadic strummy guitars that bounce between channels and, of course, xylophone,” but it’s important to note that they’re high-concept as well. Their album Part II: The New December picks up where John Shade, Your Fortune’s Made left off:

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The struggle alluded to in Part I has left Fol Chen’s world frayed–covered in ash, plagued by acid rain–and its population dazed. The members of Fol Chen, once a ragtag team of insurgents, are now bureaucrats forced to sit back and watch as the cipher they relied upon to defeat Shade mutates into a virus that eats words indiscriminately.

Opening is BOAT, which I don’t have to tell you about because they are beloved and local. Once called a “Best Bet at the Croc Tonight” by Seattlest, BOAT are stand-out purveyors of indie pop leavened with goofiness. Hugged and cheek-pinched everywhere they go, they get booked as openers on nights like tonight because they are one of the few acts that people will show up early for.