Frontier Ruckus’s songs are dense and full of empty space, universal and intensely personal, intimate and wide as Michigan skies. They put out one of my favorite albums of 2010 in Deadmalls & Nightfalls, and they were wonderful when I saw them in January; they were just as wonderful last night. I find it hard to do them justice in words, because their music is such a study in contradictions, and it’s hard to describe the way one of their songs can sound light as air, simple as a child’s toy, when you’re watching them craft it out of a dozen instruments — or vice versa, songs complicated and heartwrenching, out of two instruments and a pair of harmonized voices.

They are lovely, is what I am saying, and as perfect as they are in studio, they are even more perfect live. It was a magical set, and I even had the pleasure of sitting down with three of the guys before the show for a great interview that I’m hoping to share this week. Frontier Ruckus: go see them. And if you can’t go see them, my full set from last night is here.