Afternoon shows at the Bottom of the Hill, like Saturday's Earlimart Noise Pop show, are so excellent -- the buses are running, the sun is out, you don't have to worry the whole time that you'll become a poignant entry on the SFist Blotter ("Ladyfest becomes Slay-dee-fest as music lover is killed: Victim loved jangly guitar-driven pop") -- and, if you're fortunate enough to run into SFist Emily on the way in, you can grab a coffee at Farley's and hear about her interview with the headliners! Well, we did almost get mowed down by some aggressive sparrows (it was like The Birds, only embarrassing), but it was a great afternoon.

Earlimart is a Fresno band with five members, many of whom rotate through various instruments (it is darn cool to have two drum sets on stage, can we just say?), who crank it up and play dreamy wall-of-sound indie rock, in that My Bloody Valentine/ Creeper Lagoon/ Dealership kind of way. This is Earlimart's third Noise Pop outing, but, as lead singer Aaron Espinoza noted, with a tone of genuine amazement, "This is our first time headlining." The show was jam-packed full, with not only the usual coterie of Bay Area indie scenesters (ironic t-shirts, layering with hoodies), but Earlimart's other mass following of LA Silverlake scenesters too (exposed midriffs, jean jackets with shearling linings).

People solemnly shaking their moneymakers, digital cameras artfully tilting above the crowd, and a whole mess of instruments, after the jump.

Map of Earlimart, California off mapquest.com

Because of our coffee-and-sparrow foray, we didn't see much of the opening bands -- though we did catch part of the Henry Miller Sextet quartet and their alterna-friendly Live-105-ready set. We also caught the very end of metalish prog-rockers Parchman Farm's performance too. (We apologize if that last song is not really typical of their genre and they're actually a bunch of sensitive British electronica geeks who have one metalish prog-rock song that they end their set with -- such are the perils of in/out privileges.) Giant Drag also played -- we're sorry we missed them, their website is hilarious.

We got back from Farley's right in time to watch Earlimart lugging up all their equipment onto the stage -- one drum set, two drum sets, one keyboard, two keyboard ... three basses? It looked like GuitarWorld was moving locations in the teeny-tiny narrow Bottom of the Hill hallway. And it was one of those crowds where it's like, lots of room, lots of room, and then ---ttthhwwwp --- all of a sudden everyone's crowded around you and someone's bag is digging into your ribcage. Lots of bloggers -- or at least, lots of people with digital cameras holding them up at random angles to get "live" shots of the band. (Note to our friend two rows up -- you're going to have a lot of shots of the band's feet.)

Earlimart seem like really nice folks -- Aaron repeatedly thanked everyone for coming, thanked his father for driving up to SF, thanked Noise Pop for booking them, and thanked the Bottom of the Hill and the bartenders for being so great. Totally sweet. Plus, they must be beating off the groupies with a stick -- the whole front section was filled with ladies staring intently at the band member of their choice, mouths slightly agape, hips swiveling like pendulums on grandfather clocks; and rumpled-looking boys longingly gazing at Ariana.

The songs were beautiful -- all noisy and loopy and overwhelming, like if Elliott Smith had been more outgoing -- and you know, it's pretty cool that everyone seems to be able to play every single instrument. If someone had pulled out a clarinet, we're sure someone in Earlimart would have been able to play the beginning of "Rhapsody in Blue" too. And mad, mad props to Earlimart for saying, "this is our last song," playing it to hell and back, and then going off stage for good. This milking it for the encore thing has got to stop (and the tape track they played to end the show was awesome too).