Not that this came as a surprise, but Optimo totally killed it at Don Hill's last night. They played for a little over three hours, and started pulling out the hits about halfway through (though I was pumped to hear the Bush Tetras early on). Among the highlights - Dinosaur's "Kiss Me Again" (natch), the Stooges mixed into Sons and Daughters, a wicked remix of the Smiths' "How Soon Is Now?" (!), the instrumental mix of the Human League's "The Things That Dreams Are Made Of" (which I was raving about just a few weeks ago), and of course lots of DFA - the "Slide In" and "Rise" remixes, Lindstrom's take on "Tribulations," and, near the night's end, the Juan Maclean's "By The Time I Get To Venus," which totally sent the crowd off. The end was wild - the crowd refused to go quietly and pulled not one but two extra tunes out of Twitch and Wilkes. All in all it was quite a night, and thumbs up to the newly renovated Don Hill's, roomier now than ever before. This was the third Nighttime party I've been to there, and each has been a blast.

Optimo are in Philly tonight, and then they're back in NYC tomorrow for Motherf*cker at Avalon, with the New York Dolls also on the bill. Should be fun!

In other news:

- As promised, we've got two pairs of tickets to give away to Kelley Polar's March 8 gig at the Knitting Factory with Morgan Geist and Dan Selzer. Interested in winning? Just send an email to onelouder@gmail.com by midnight Monday to enter. The catch: you need to recommend one 2006 release that you think I should check out. (I haven't heard many of this year's new albums yet, so I need help deciding where to start.) We'll pick the winners randomly.

- I have heard the new Belle and Sebastian, though, and it's outstanding. I hear The Life Pursuit as a more realized version of Dear Catastrophe Waitress. They're more comfortable with their new sound now, and it's made for their best album since The Boy With The Arab Strap, or maybe even If You're Feeling Sinister. Early favorite song: "White Collar Boy."

- The Junior Boys' Last Exit still gets regular attention on my iPod, partly because it's still great, and partly because I have no new material to replace it with! That'll start to change on March 21, when their new song "Max" gets released on the See You On The Moon compilation. They also hint at a "very big announcement" coming soon on their site - perhaps a new full-length? We can hope.

- Best of all - I bought my plane tickets to Austin this week ... I'm going to SXSW! It'll be my first time, and I'm sure the crowds will be overwhelming, but I still can't wait. The preliminary schedule up on the SXSW site has me salivating.