Nothing gets me more excited than chicks who play guitar and do it well. So it’s no wonder I got off the couch Sunday night to watch No Joy at the Jackpot.

Before No Joy took on Lawrence, US Beefheart took the stage.

This is one of those bands where various folks from different local bands get together to experiment and try a little something new. I honestly and genuinely hope this isn’t just some temporary experiment, because these guys were AWESOME.

It started out with some roaring over a beautiful wall of noise, then suddenly got fast and intense. They spent much of their time thrashing onstage while steadily increasing the pace, and the roaring and wailing never stopped. Their energy was through the roof! I love it when I go to a show to see a band, and then the opener blows me away (especially when they’re local). If they get together for another show, for the love of God SEE THEM. You will have a most fantastic time.

If you are a young adolescent woman and you want to play guitar, you’d want to be in No Joy. These women were truly the queens of cool, from the mess of tangled hair covering their eyes to the mess of pedals at their feet. They were dressed as though they stepped straight out of the 90’s grunge scene and utterly did not care. They played enough reverb to make my ears bleed, and their songs were one long continuous section of noise connecting to another.

It seemed so effortless for them, I half expected them to do this with their eyes closed. The fans that were there were few, but dedicated, nodding their heads in agreement with the sleepy-eyed maidens onstage. I couldn’t help but join in, I was developing a major crush on these women. They reminded me of everything I wanted to be in high school. In fact, I wish I had known them in high school. They reminded me of Best Coast, but instead of being cute and polite, they were cool, calm and didn’t give a damn.

At the end of their set, they started packing up while noise was still coming out of their amps, without so much as looking up at the crowd. It was that “Let’s blow this taco stand and get the hell out of here” kind of attitude. Like one of those scenes in an action movie where the star walks away from an explosion without looking back. Normally I’d take offense to an attitude like that, but it just worked for these women, who had me eating out of the palm of their hand.