If you didn’t know, Wesleyan is in. Our musical alumni have conquered the world, or at least Brooklyn. Bear Hands and Boy Crisis are two of the leading lights of the post-Wes music scene. Both have garnered a fairly huge amount of buzz, especially across le pond. Boy Crisis just got back from England and is heading off to Iceland this weekend, while Bear Hands is about to head out on their first UK tour. But luckily, being slobbered all over by New Musical Express and that newfangled blog-o-sphere hasn’t made these proud sons of the Red and Black forget their roots. They returned once more to Eclectic last Friday to play for a capacity crowd.

After a raucous, shirtless set of sax-drenched electric slide-blues glory by current students (and up-and-coming press darlings) Bottle Up & Go, Bear Hands took the stage. Their percussive, Les Savy Fav-y indie-funk-punk translates beautifully live. The muscular set emphasized the “punk” part of Bear Hands’ DNA. The music was loud and fast, and the audience pogoed and moshed accordingly. Your intrepid correspondent got a little battered, but it was all in good fun. Even the bleeding people seemed to be enjoying themselves.

The dynamic changed abruptly when Boy Crisis took the stage. Their delightfully sleazy electro-funk has been carefully engineered and road tested in order to force you to dance. There were some mildly distracting problems with the mics, and the all-important synths weren’t mixed very well, but the band acquitted itself admirably in the face of adversity. The moshers disappeared, replaced by an ecstatic horde of dancers who clearly didn’t mind the bad sound. Boy Crisis clearly enjoyed their reception, and pulled most of the crowd onto the stage during the last song. Everyone wandered away sweaty and satisfied.

So thanks for a good night, boys. Have fun in Europe. Y’all come back now, ya hear, and don’t forget to write.