Playlunch

Jangle-pop and post-punk keep each other honest when you let them share a song -- too much sweetness and you drift, too much spikiness and you clench -- and Playlunch writes right down that seam. The Melbourne five-piece makes tight Australian indie, the kind of catalog that earns a small devoted cult on every continent it actually reaches. The Casbah on a Thursday is the right room for the US run: two hundred capacity, the bar that's been the bar for thirty-five years. Bring the friend who imports records and makes you listen to them in the car. The crowd is the indie kids who already have the songs plus the Casbah regulars who show up for whatever sounds promising on a Thursday. Doors at eight, openers at eight-thirty, Playlunch around ten. Fifteen dollars at the door, Thursday in San Diego.