Sometimes simple is best and San Diego’s Soft Pack clearly proved that Wednesday night at Minneapolis’ 7th Street Entry. The group, formerly known as the Muslims, brought their small but explosive catalog to the Entry and played a show that provided a glimpse at a band proudly carrying the “garage rock” torch. With a great opening set by rising local act Red Pens, the night proved to be one of the most consistent and rewarding straight up rock and roll shows I have seen in a while.

Arriving shortly before Minneapolis band Red Pens took the stage I unfortunately missed Teenage Stranglers, who were added to the bill at the last minute. Red Pens just re-released their debut album Reasons this week and have quickly become one of my favorite local bands. Howard Hamilton’s guitar playing was a face melting array of noisy but melodic riffs while Laura Bennett’s kept the songs moving forward with her energetic drumming. The band played a really strong 40 minute set that highlighted most of the songs from their debut, finishing with a new song “I Run This.” The layers of effects and manipulated feedback from Hamiltons’s guitar was a stark contrast to the Soft Pack’s minimal sound, but the strong, high energy set from the Red Pens was a great lead in to the headliners.

The Soft Pack are a four piece who do garage rock right. Watching the band up on stage at the Entry gave me a distinct impression that their sound was based more on catching the moment and having fun than nailing precise notes or wowing the crowd with their mastery of their instruments. During their raucous set, the Soft Pack didn’t utilize much more than a handful of chords, but they used them well and showed the many ways to write a good song. At one point lead singer Matt Lamkin broke the D string on his guitar, but continued on playing the rest of the song (and set) without it. When his band mates asked if he wanted to stop the set to change the string on the guitar, he gave a lighthearted shrug and said “let’s keep going.”

The group played material from their Muslims EP, along with quite a few new songs. For a band that I had heard were sloppy to the point of being hard to listen to, I found their set to be fairly tight sounding. The music ranged from scuzzy garage stompers to some slight psychedelic and surf rock turns to battered and bruised soul music. Highlights of their 45 minute set included “Extension,” a rousing version of “Flammable,” “Parasites” and “Move Along,” which saw the band adding some keyboard sounds to the mix. The crowd was small but was receptive to the band, who in turn talked about how much they loved being in Minneapolis (the only bad experience was the fake weed that lead guitarist Matty McLoughlin bought). The Soft Pack are a band who deftly walk the line between chaos and control, and Wednesday night they showed that their constant touring has allowed them to find a great mix between the two.

The Soft Pack: MySpace
Red Pens: Official | MySpace

Also: Red Pens “Reasons” Review