Hot Hot Heat

Sun., Sept. 5, 8 p.m., $15, with 22-20's and Hey Rosetta!, North Star Bar, 2639 Poplar St., 215-787-0488, northstarbar.com.

by K. Ross Hoffman

[ rock ]

These B.C. punky-poppers hit one out of the park way back in the "return of rock" heyday of 2002 with their Sub Pop debut, Make Up the Breakdown, which still feels impossibly urgent. Since then it's mostly been a long downhill slide up the milquetoast major-label mountain, but a recent demotion back to batting in the indie leagues has done them good: The new Future Breeds (Dangerbird) is more fun and more fierce than they've been in ages, a throwback to the jittery dance-punk firepower that earned them their name.