Fine Arts Benefit Show rocks, crowd doesn't

Four bands performed at the IU Fine Arts Student Association Benefit Show at Rhino's Saturday night, a gig organized by Christina Porfidio. The Polly Castros, the Tribute, the Bloodstream and the Swell were featured, and it was a top-notch, if a little too varied, lineup of bands.\nThe Polly Castro's ten-song set was really solid and fun. The guitar/bass droning on the first number by Cody Leitholt and frontman Nick Henning (whose vocals were of parachuting emotion) was very gloom-and-doom a la Interpol, and it made me want to applaud even before it was over. Drummer Dustin Wessel played a rapid discoing-Strokes beat to dance to and Jen Cooper on the keys (other times she played a bass part) transformed the band's sound into the Faint as they covered Billy Idol's "Dancing with Myself."\nAfter three gigs in two days and one more afterwards, the Tribute guys had weary legs after the weekend, yet their wall of sound and Marty McFly-level of onstage energy was unparalleled. The five-member group certainly has a penchant for synthesized effects, and besides one song where he rocked out a tambourine, Jason Campbell's supersonic choruses showered over singer/guitarist Dan Patton's angry Rivers Cuomo-esque whine. Together with Keith Starling's bullet shot bass, Chris Barker's surging guitar and enough intensity from drummer Scott Ferguson to turn cymbals inside out, I really enjoyed the band's catchy, dark dance/punk cannonades of youthful distemper.\nCalled the Bloodstream, three former IU students out of Louisville had a hip sound. Bassist Jarrett Burton had that boy-next-door voice that could be likened to Death Cab for Cutie's Benjamin Gibbard. His vocals took center stage, but as with most cool bands, his "pity-with-a-heartbeat" lyrics mattered way less than the up-tempo vibe, which was created by guitarist Luke Hobson's insinuating, kicky hooks and Toby Van Kleeck's snappy, loud sticks-breaking job on the drums.\nThe Swell have been given a lot of well-deserved attention and I was happy to see them finally. At first they reminded me a lot of early '90s rockers Urge Overkill, but as their set merged and traipsed into infectious funk-ska tunes and wafted in loose, sublimely syncopated reggae, I began to think singer John West sounded a bit like the reincarnate of Sublime's Brad Nowell. The trio was always in tight rhythm with each other and to Justin Shaw's beat, and classically-trained bass player Nick Wyatt especially impressed with his crisp grooves.\nWith energetic bands playing, the only thing I never understood all night was why the crowd never jumped in. The problem wasn't that the bands were apathetic and the crowd wanted something more -- maybe it was the night or the setting that was off. The alignment of the moon and the stars might not have been right, or maybe the audience wanted Simon and Garfunkel, who knows? It happens. All I know is that the bands were anything but apathetic; they were ready and willing to put on a show their audience would remember. You can't deny good energy.