A sizable portion of the crowd appeared to follow Scale the Summit home after their set, which was a shame. L.A.'s Intronaut capped the evening off with a spectacular show, replete with lasers and video projections. That was all window dressing to the group's tight rhythmic interplay, which produced potent grooves in odd time signatures that sounded massive over the club's PA.

Intronaut coasted on some excellent vocal harmonies early on, but got meaner and heavier as the set wore on. When drummer Danny Walker cut loose, the band coalesced into an overwhelming wall of sound that blew my hair back a bit -- highly impressive after a night chock-full of volume. Friday night's lone mosh pit finally exploded toward the end of the evening as Intronaut finally pushed the crowd to unfold their arms at last. The band had more than earned each push and shove.

A little sad, then, that so many Scale the Summit fans missed it. Though the night indisputably belonged to the local shredders, they were topped onstage Friday by their elder tourmates -- and that's no slight to Letchford and the gang, either.

Personal Bias: Despite the quality of Intronaut's punchy sludge, I couldn't help but wonder if Thorr and friends were having more fun downstairs.

The Crowd: Mostly young. Mostly white.

Overheard In the Crowd: "I'm getting that guitar, dude."

Random Notebook Dump: It was still hot outside on the balcony at midnight. Thank God for Karbach Weisse Verse Wheat.