[live recap + video] Craft Spells + Gardens And Villa + Dirty Dishes @ Great Scott

Having to work in the morning didn’t stop people from coming out to Great Scott last night to see CRAFT SPELLS and GARDENS AND VILLA, a West Coast duo -- Seattle and Santa Barbara, respectively -- currently on tour across the country together. But despite the far-away origins of the touring package, the night began with some local flavor.

Boston's THE DIRTY DISHES were highly focused and in-sync, simultaneously methodic and energetic. The early-'90s-raised skygaze quartet style opened the show not as a filler to wait for more people to show up, but a driving force that got everyone in the room to stop and listen intently.

Craft Spells’ dark, lo-fi tunes were turned up loud and busted out with lots of hops and grins. The highly compressed drums and crackly tape vocals were out in full force, making it a very different experience than the record, but equally as awesome. Unfortunately, frontdude Justin Vallesteros didn’t break his guitar or jump off the stage like he said he would in the interview, but he probably would have hurt himself if he did, so it’s probably for the best.

Gardens & Villa was Cali-everything. Not only did I spot them before the show in Allston’s vegan Pan-Asian Grasshopper restaurant (I didn’t know who they were at the time; they stood out), but singer Chris Lynch performed with an array of Native American flutes in a flamboyantly embellished case which he wore over his shoulder. And you know, they had funky haircuts and all that. Though they didn't look much like the locals, they felt welcome at their first ever show in Boston. After a few (see: many) tiffs with the sound guy, G&V performed one of the tightest sets I’ve heard all summer, much to the audience’s enjoyment.