The Front Bottoms: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

When I first saw The Front Bottoms, I was stunned, as 350-plus singing/shouting clubgoers repeating compassionate verse after complicated verse back at singer Brian Sella. And then it happened again at a hot sweaty club in Philadelphia, and later in D.C., and then again in Baltimore. The community that’s formed around these songs, total strangers purging deep emotions in a public space. It’s a beautiful phenomena, a testament to the passion and compassion that this band radiates. A testament to the nerve that’s gets pinged with lines cried out, ’I wanna be stronger than your dad was for your mom’ or the phrase in one of this years best songs ’Twin Sized Mattress’ “ I wanna contribute to the chaos I don’t wanna watch and then complain ’Cause I am through finding blame That is the decision that I have made And when you hear the but pretty memorable, you realize that the talent in this band isn’t about instrument craft and years of playing is about the shortest distance f