The Daily Toreador - Student Newspaper of Texas Tech

It's rare that I get to spend Valentine's Day with two of the sexiest punk rock bands in the contemporary Texas scene. Lucy Loves Schroeder, a 3-piece girl-fronted pop punk band from Dallas, and Invitation to Failure, a four-piece all-male punk rock band from Lubbock, entertained dates Feb. 14 at Klusoz.

As a part of the follow-up to the KTXT 88.1-FM DJ Date Auction, the two bands performed a Valentine's Day soiree and surpassed expectations with flying colors.

The first band was Invitation to Failure, a local group of mostly Texas Tech students (a few members formerly of White Guy from Chips). They performed a heart-pounding set of punk rock songs, with a few surprises in store. As an avid ITF follower, I was highly impressed by their closing single, with the brilliant addition of a U2 cover thrown into the middle for kicks. By the end of the set, the entire bar was singing along.

Lucy Loves Schroeder is fronted by Sara Radle on guitars and vocals. Their influences range from the Donnas to the Ramones, and even at times, a lesser-known East Coast band Discount. With Radle's vocal stylings, she's very reminiscent of Discount's Alison Mosshart, just slightly more poppy.

Radle and the members of Lucy Loves Schroeder have constructed a set of very chunky pop songs with very little edge or degree of angst, but nonetheless, entertaining to listen to-and really, who needs all that angst on Valentine's Day, right?

Even so, one has to wonder how much red clothing those three kids really own.

[five stars]

review by Meredith Tucker

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