What was once the instrument we all looked up to and idolized its players, the guitar, has taken a decided step back recently. Hell, Austra didn't even have a guitar (well, besides the bass) onstage for their performance, a trait I've noticed with quite a few of these up-and-coming indie bands.

It's kind of a terrible thought to think that the kids these days won't ever have a Clapton or Hendrix, Slash or Satriani, Frusciante or Morello. I think Katy Perry played a guitar once; Taylor Swift too. Can't wait to hear those classic guitar riffs 50 years from now.

Personal Bias: Any band that can instantly pep me up from a long, hungover day of watching movies and napping on the couch gets an A++ in my book. Plus, my Houston music foil, whom I love entirely too much as a person but pretty much feel the exact opposite about his taste in music, calls this band his favorite. If you drew up a Venn diagram of our musical tastes, Austra would fall in that very tiny splash of grey area in between with the likes of Radiohead, Devo and Metric.

The Crowd: Lots of leather. Not like a motorcycle gang, but that ironic plastic-looking leather/pleather. There were also a few mesh shirts. Like, more than zero mesh shirts. Which, in my world, is the limit of how many mesh shirts should be in a room at any given time. Combat boots too. When did those make a comeback? In five years, people are going to be wearing JNCOs again. Calling that shit right now.

Overheard In the Crowd: In reference to my taking pictures: "Hey man, I wanna put you on my shoulders!" First off, not even "Would you like to get on my shoulders?"

Apparently he'd already made up his mind that I was getting on his shoulders before even asking. I'm a pretty big dude. This guy was significantly shorter and smaller than me in every way. He was also apparently inebriated because he kept stumbling back and spilled half of his beer on my feet. No dude. I don't ever want to get on your shoulders, or really anyone else's for that matter. That sounds like a disaster.

Random Notebook Dump: After Austra, I walked upstairs for the last few songs of Jonathan Tyler & the Northern Lights and was pleasantly surprised. They had a funky, jammy rock vibe and made mincemeat out their own originals and covers of the Stones' "Honky Tonk Women" and Zeppelin's "Bring It On Home." It was a completely different affair than what was taking place downstairs, but a nice juxtaposition of musical styles.

Something Fitzgerald's has been really good about since reopening three years ago is bringing a wide variance of acts to its two stages. It's refreshing to be able to see so many different genres represented on any given night. Keep up the good work, Fitz! [And happy third re-anniversary this week, too - Ed.]

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