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Perhaps its residual fallout from Gas Food Lodging, but last Saturday the downtown music corridor had two great multi-band lineups. SoGo presented Deadboy and The Elephantmen with Get Set Go and Duwayne Burnside and the Mississippi Mafia, while the LSU Delta Journal (the annual undergrad literary arts journal — support your future frustrated writers and pick up a copy) held a fund-raising concert with Shark Attack!, The Dimestore Troubadours and The Highway Kind at Red Star. Had we an elaborate zip line mechanism steching across town, or say, a monorail, I would’ve caught everything. But since we have merely a levee and a nice night for walking its length, I had to pick and choose.

I caught up with Deadboy’s Dax Riggs before the festivities got underway at SoGo for an interview to appear soon in glorious color in the next 225 print, and caught the opening set by Get Set Go (http://www.myspace.com/getsetgo). I think they were a late addition to the bill – they went on exceptionally early for a Baton Rouge show and played a deft set of modern rock styles, from souped up 80s alternative anthems (with violist Eric Sumner intoning the keyboard parts) and, more effectively, Wilco-esque sunset art-pop, with one of the guitarists even doing a reasonable facsimile of Jeff Tweedy’s nasal twang. Everything they played was good, and really, I am pro-ecclectic and I vote – but the swapping between different strains of semi-slick adult-alternative made me feel like I was listening to XM Radio instead of seeing a band. Still though, these boys sound really great, and do push the envelope on the modern TV-soundtrack indie pop a little. (They did land a song on “Grey’s Anatomy” recently) Like if you like Marah, (like I do) despite their not being able to contain their wandering eye, you’ll like these guys.

On to Red Star to catch as much of the Delta Journal thing as possible. Those loveable scruffy surf divas Shark Attack! (http://www.myspace.com/sharkattacksurf) started the show with a kidney punch. I really love the dynamics in that band. It’s like they’ve found that secret tunnel between Dick Dale and Black Sabbath, and set up their guitars in its cavernous environs to create deafening cascades of swivel-ready reverb. My favorite moment was when Andy Gibbs applied a beer bottle to the neck of his guitar for a deliciously serpentine “Eat People.” Pound for pound, more fun than most bands in town.

Caught a couple numbers by Dimestore Troubadours (dimestoremusic.com), a mix of banjo, guitar, accordion and euphonium (I’m guessing it was the same player that sat in with Dirfoot last week, either that or I better get my list of “descriptive terms for euphonium solos” ready for the onslaught) They do that scratchy chitlins-and voodoo southern blues vaudeville rock like that infernal Tom Waits continues to crank out. I dug how the horn and the banjo played over the drummer to create a lurching life raft from which singer Jospeh Kees hollererd the bats right out of his belfry. Its funky, jazzy spooky business, and I would’ve liked to hear more, but the call of the dead was in my ears.

Deadboy and the Elephantmen, a duo of Dax Riggs on guitar and vocal and Tessie Brunet on drums took to the oversized stage, looking like they were way too far apart for the intimate connection these two have in song. The show opened with “Stop I’m Already Dead” of their latest We Are The Night Sky and while I love the album I didn’t realize until I saw them that Dax can really sing. And I don’t mean the approximation of singinging that most indie rock folks can wail out to good deconstructed effect – this boy opens his mouth and belts his songs out. In fact, I was struck by how much Dax sounds like, dare I say it, Neil Diamond (the sweaty spooky Cracklin Rose neil, not the syrupy “Turn on Your heartlight” one) giving each tune a spectral gravity. Plus the two souls up there belting it out in that big stage could not have looked any more vulnerable and dead sexy (I haven’t heard that many catcalls since the ladies of Livingston parish invaded the Varsity for Dwight Yoakam last year.)

The acoustic numbers went especially well with Dax wailing over the songs’ quivering skeletons (especially on “Evil Friend” where the boy left vapor trails in the air), but the song of the night goes to “What The Stars Have Eaten” which came on like a freight train. For two people playing pretty stripped down instruments, Deadboy and the Elephantment made for one of the fullest sounds I’ve heard in a rock show all year. Here’s hoping SoGo puts this show up on their website like they did with the North Mississippi All Stars third-eye-opener from January.

Deadboy is laden with hype right now, including upcoming appearances at big profile events like Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza in Chicago and the Austin City Limits festival, but if tonight was any indication, this group live up to it.

Endnote: You know, in other cities like Houston and San Fransisco, clubs and concert promoters have caught on to the well-guarded secret that some of us have jobs to get to in the morning, and have taken to doing early shows to open up the nightlife opportunities. Just sayin’