Drink Up Buttercup was barely three songs into its set at Cake Shop early Wednesday evening when Inevitable Bummer No. 45 happened: broken guitar string.

At this point, many bands would keep playing, out of tune. The musically considerate would pause and restring. Drink Up Buttercup, a quartet from Philadelphia that lunges joyously into every jangly chord and full-throated chorus, took the opportunity to go unplugged. Its members grabbed plastic maracas and a garbage can lid, headed into the crowd and proceeded to stomp, clap and vocalize.

A gimmick, yeah. But it brought a smile to every face I could see, and the bashing on that garbage can lid couldn’t obscure some genuinely pretty and expressive harmonies on “Lovers Play Dead,” which in a less spilled-beer-and-cellphones context could have passed as a folk song.

They made a real attempt to get the crowd to stomp and clap along, but most hands in their immediate vicinity were too busy texting and snapping photos.

Source: artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com