Submarines/Morning Benders

The Loft — a multi-media performance space located on the University of California, San Diego’s ample campus — may be on the small side, but they already have one hell of a roster.

On this night in particular, the lineup was LA’s (read: this reporter’s) favorite husband and wife team The Submarines, and Berekely’s darlings The Morning Benders, the two bands uniting for a month-long US tour starting in San Diego at The Loft and ending in LA at The Troubadour.

While they are definitely very different in sound — The Submarines are cheery while The Morning Benders possess a moodier feel — the bands put together a solid show for the mostly student crowd, a modest but respectable number, who showed their love by crowding the merch table at the show’s conclusion.

The Submarines, who opened, played their trademarked catchy melodies, puling mostly from their most recent album, Honeysuckle Weeks, and looked like they were having just the most fabulous time.

“You go to a beautiful school,” Blake Hazard, The Submarines’ lead singer, commented to the crowd during a lull in the set, “mostly because it is filled with beautiful people like yourselves!”

Hazard herself personified cute, as usual, in her vintage dress and cowboy boots, teal electric guitar strapped across her shoulders — no folk-girl acoustic for her! She sang with a perpetual, toothy smile as husband John Dragonetti, on backing vocals, looked a bit more serious working their accompanying Mac laptop and his own guitar. J. Stare, on drums, beat a hearty time as the trio ripped through their 45-minute set.

After a brief break, The Morning Benders took the stage with Chris Chu, a fey fellow with a bowl haircut, leading the way. These guys, voted Best Indie Band of 2008 on iTunes, sound not unlike The Arctic Monkeys if they happened to employ the late John Lennon in his similarly mop-topped days. Chu’s voice, which possesses an almost Bono-like inflection, sounds older than he appears, and the rest of the band chimes in with sophisticated, harmonic backup.

Energetic — albeit in a sightly serious manner — and heartfelt, the Benders didn’t have to do much coaxing to get their fans singing along to their catchy tunes. As Chu ducked his head in the low spotlights at a song’s conclusion, they burst into applause.

Despite a string break and some sound issues, the Benders’ set went well — crowd pushing the edges of the small stage as the band finished up before the venue closed at 10:30pm.

Some tour dates for those who want to (and should!) catch the show:

02.03.09 Austin, Texas – Stubb’s BBQ
02.04.09 Dallas, Texas – Pontiac Garage
02.06.09 Atlanta, Georgia – Drunken Unicorn
02.07.09 Chapel Hill, North Carolina – Local 506
02.08.09 Washington, District of Columbia – Black Cat
02.09.09 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – Johnny Brenda’s
02.10.09 New York, New York – Mercury Lounge
02.11.09 Brooklyn, New York – Bell House
02.13.09 Boston, Massachusetts – Middle East
02.14.09 Montreal, Quebec – Il Motore
02.15.09 Toronto, Ontario – Drake Hotel
02.17.09 Chicago, Illinois – Schuba’s
02.18.09 Minneapolis, Minnesota – Triple Rock Social Club
02.20.09 Denver, Colorado – Hi-Dive
02.21.09 Salt Lake City, Utah – Kilby Court
02.23.09 Vancouver, British Columbia – Biltmore Cabaret
02.24.09 Seattle, Washington – Chop Suey
02.25.09 Portland, Oregon – Doug Fir
02.27.09 San Francisco, California – Slims (Noise Pop)
02.28.09 Los Angeles, California – The Troubadour