I was more than a little intrigued to bear witness to the arrival of Mouse Fire’s first born, Wooden Teeth, a freshman effort that nevertheless came out kicking, harmoniously vocalizing, and like it or not, feverishly chain smoking along with the rest of us.

Fathered through the pairing of four musical luminaries from Lakeland and the ambitious independent label, Lujo Records (Español pronunciation please), Wooden Teeth certainly fared well in its live rendition. Having leant an ear to a smattering of their recorded tunes on MySpace before the show, I was interested to see how the band would sound minus the crisp layering of sound afforded by the studio atmosphere. Rather astoundingly, Mouse Fire managed to come off sounding super-clean in an enviable pop perfection kind of way, despite their straightforward rock quartet lineup. When these boys jammed, it was all feel-good vibes from the stage down to the audience, and I couldn’t help but thinking that theirs were some of the most radio-worthy tunes I had heard from local effort in a long time.

I was also revved to observe Mouse Fire’s label-mates and hometown neighbors, The Dark Romantics. One of my personal favorites on the Tampa scene, The Dark Romantics manned up to the musical task at hand despite missing not one, nor two, but all three of its lovely female counterparts due to pregnancy, sickness and a simple case of MIA— though not strictly in that order. Mouse Fire graciously filled in the gaps of DR’s dependably throbbing rhythm section, and judging from the rapt attention of the modest but healthy crowd at Crowbar that night, DR offered a kind of deep satisfaction normally only afforded by things such as deep-fried snickers bars and late night episodes of Erik Estrada-infused “CHiPS.”

Recounting the events of the evening in reverse order, to confuse you just a little, the other two opening acts delivered quality performances that made me more proud than usual to be a Tampanian. With an influx of heartfelt, solidly crafted tunes, local cats Brer lulled me into that laidback mood that seventies-era Rolling Stones always effects upon my psyche. The only out-of-towners on the bill, Hatchet, Pike & Gun, hailing from the panhandle, added a slight touch of thrash to the evening for good measure.

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