Smile Politely. Speak Directly. A Champaign-Urbana Culture Blog

Where the gawd-love-it is Anniversary Plaza?

After a quick Google search, I discovered that Anniversary Plaza is somewhere by the Illini Union. And while I am not totally sure where, my guess is that if you show up in the vicinity tonight at around 6 p.m., you'll be led to it based on the extremely intricate and terrifically fantastic math-rock indie-esque-type music coming from somewhere around there.

So Many Dynamos will make the three hour trek from St. Louis today to perform for us, and they do so on the brink of what is bound to be some level of success: their last studio sessions were tended to by one Chris Walla of Death Cab For Cutie, whose own band will be performing at Assembly Hall on October 12.

After an extended hiatus, a few bumps in the road and a stellar sophomore album, So Many Dynamos seem poised to take the best parts of the last four years and roll it into one tight joint, light it up and smoke themselves silly while they seek new fans on the road.

The result of those aforementioned sessions is The Loud Wars, due out sometime in the near future on a yet to be named label.

Upon hearing an advance of the record, I can safely say, it will be received well by kids who dig bands like Death Cab and Don Cab — though not just because the two bands have the word "cab" in their name; they toe the line nicely between straight up indie-pop and the type of math rock that makes people scratch their heads whilst sipping PBRs.

This show is free and as such, the only reason that you wouldn't be there is that you actually didn't want to go. And that's understandable: with all the shows coming up in town, you'd be wise to save your eardrums.