I always find shows at The Social to be cozy and intimate: a nondescript front door, steeply-pitched wooden ceiling, and raised second level floor next to the bar always make seeing shows there a pleasure. I’ve been fortunate that I’ve never been there with a packed house, but in any case, Friday’s show featuring Here We Go Magic [pictured below, photo by Ben Ritter] and White Rabbits was no exception to my opinion.

We arrived just after Here We Go Magic started to play; their hazy and dreamlike indie folk instantly filled the space. Unfortunately, although their somewhat psychedelic style and tribal drumming occasionally reached climactic peaks, they never seemed to reach a point of real focus with the crowd. A joke about whether the Orlando Magic had won (“you know, because Here We Go Magic”) fell flat, and their set seemed to rambe. Of course, I’ve never made it all the way through their album, either. It always seems promising when it comes up on shuffle, but I lose interest quickly when listening to it in its entirety. Their live set was much the same.

White Rabbits, on the other hand, entered the stage energy on high with “Foxhunting,” a B-side release off the “Percussion Gun” single, and never stopped once throughout the evening.

This article appears in Apr 14-20, 2010.