It’s weird seeing two shows in the same week. Sometimes it can be exhausting, and my developing tinnitus seems to be angry when this happens. One of the nice things about it is when the music is so different from the stuff featured in the earlier show.  Walking into Thursday night’s concert featuring The Mountain Goats and Nurses at The Grey Eagle, I knew that it’d be different from the metal battle royal that I witnessed on Monday.

First things first: the crowds at indie rock shows in Asheville, NC have to be the most self-involved douches in the country. When they aren’t constantly texting and Facebooking during bands they talk. Loudly. The near sell-out crowd was a sea of touch screens, keeping these hipsters up-to-date on what other hipsters where doing in other locales and letting them speak loudly to each other about whatever thing was happening in their lives instead of the great music being played in front of them. Before the show, I navigated my way up front though a throng of kids just sitting in circles waiting for the show to start. For some reason this angers me thoroughly at shows. I pray that my knee goes all wobbly and nails one of these kids in the face at some point.

Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s talk about the music. Yes, it wasn’t the full body assault that Anthrax, Testament and Death Angel were responsible on Monday night, but it was a damn exciting show. Each band brought their own sound to the evening, and it made for a night of music that didn’t feel monotonous.

The opening act, Nurses, was a revelation. I’d only heard of them via promotional emails from publicists, but they played a nice blend of white indie funk and nice melodies. Their songs built around awesome grooves between the bass and drums and then were rounded out by spare guitars, reverb-y vocals, keyboards and samples that helped accent the sound. I expected guys coming up and singing about their feelings or something, but what I got was awesome bedroom rock for guys in Western Shirts and glasses. You can’t fuck to Pavement, but you could fuck to Nurses – that’s a good thing. I don’t have a copy of their album Dracula, but its added to the top of my to-buy list after last night’s show.

The headliner, The Mountain Goats, came out next to a hokey gospel sing along. From there, they rambled through an off-the-cuff (no setlist!) performance that was energetic and fun. If I sound a bit meh about the performance, it is because the band’s music has always been about John Darnielle’s excellent lyrics. The guy is a hell of a writer. Songs like “You Were Cool” and “This Year” really stuck out and rang over the crowd. The rest of the show was great, but Darnielle’s words were getting lost amongst the chatter near the bar and the enthusiastic shout alongs near the front of the stage. But it was still a good-to-great performance. Darnielle himself looked pleased with the band’s performances after a few songs (especially after “Psalms 40:2”, where he mouthed “wow” and complemented drummer Jon Wurster and bassist Peter Hughes on their performance).

It was a good night of music, and although I spent some of the night trying to focus on Darnielle’s excellent writing and trying to distract myself from the fact that he looks so much like The Daily Show’s John Oliver, I really enjoyed The Mountain Goats, but Nurses put on a far more interesting and surprising set.

At the end of the show, the crowd filed out. Some stopped to pay bar tabs and others stopped to buy merchandise and meet John Darnielle. I lingered near the stage for a chance to speak with Mountain Goats drummer Jon Wurster, who also drums for Superchunk. We talked for a few and I begged him to come back to Asheville to play (the Chapel Hill-based band hasn’t played in town since 1995). Wurster was friendly and funny, remarking that he thought my camera was a radio while we subtly made fun of the drunk guys trying to turn their smart phones into cameras. Here’s a picture.

I think I’ve said before it was a good evening of music. It was. I was happy driving home. Indie rock may not be the punch in the face that a metal show is, but it can make for a good night.