Maybe 65 people were at Sokol Underground last night to see Protoculture play the best set I've ever heard them play. If you were around the stage, you saw the hi-jinx between the crowd and band, that at one point forced them to start a song over. Kooky. Great sound, though, and always fun to watch (though they didn't play their Kite Pilot cover as drummer Koly Walter has promised.).

STNNNG had a tougher time. Halfway through their set, something went amiss with one of the guitar amps. It killed the momentum the band had gathered up to that point with their brand of hard-edged post-punk. Frontman Chris Besinger was in his usual bizarre form, looking like a dwarfish sex deviant straight out of Times Square circa 1971. With his scream-bark, leather gloves and piercing eyes, he looked like a homicidal street lunatic ranting at an imaginary friend, pointing and grimacing and storming around the stage. Meanwhile, a small moshpit formed up front, consisting of five or six young guys stomping around elbowing each other. Whatever happened to the slam-dance culture? STNNNG’s new songs are bleak, intense and filthy, at times creating an intense groove with Besinger playing the role of punk shaman. And man, it was loud.

Tonight at O’Leaver's, Chin Up Chin Up, with Skull Fight and Electric Needle Room. $5, 9:30 p.m.

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