Band of Horses rocked Great American Music Hall last night. That sentence sounds cheesy, but it’s the most apt description of last night show, and we’re sticking by it. Lest you think we’re saying it lightly we’ll use the fact that we observed a new phenomenon we’re dubbing the “Hipster Headbang” in full effect last night. Sure, the beautiful people won’t dance much, but we were a little worried abut brain damage from the force of the head movements that were going on. Props to both the band and the technical crew for making the sound the most full bodied and rich we’ve ever heard at the venue.

If you’re not familiar with Band of Horses, its time to check them out. We originally heard about them in an interview with Molly Sims (mock all you will, but InStyle occasionally is a helpful lifestyle mag). Their first album, “Everything All the Time” has been one that we haven’t gotten out of our head since we started listening to it. Ben Bridwell’s vocals have a resonance and clarity to them that belies the underlying intensity with which he delivers them—and this quality was even more pronounced live. Describing BoH’s sound is hard—the best we can do is that it is exuberantly melancholy. What they’re singing about isn’t always happy, but the orchestration, delivery and perpetual crescendo of the music make it seem hopeful, as though the ennui will soon past. Perfect music for summer time, really.

In addition to favorites music off their first album including “Weed Party”, “The Funeral”, and “The Great Salt Lake”, the band introduced songs of their new album which is due out in October—we’ll be racing to buy it as soon as its released. During their second “this is the part where we pretend to leave, but don’t worry we’ll be back”—a refreshing acknowledgement of the compulsory dual encores that are set fair these days, the band covered a Fleetwood Mac (we think) song that finished the night in riotous fashion. We’ve heard that BoH aspires to be the greatest band from South Carolina. SFist is happy to give them that title—but we think they should set their sites even higher. Southern rock may be the future, and these guys seem ready to lead that charge.