The District duo of Mellen Funke and Lyell Evans Roeder—known together under the clumsy and curious moniker Tigers Are Bad For Horses—not only draws a lot of comparisons to North Carolina’s Sylvan Esso, it seems to welcome them. It’s a useful comparison as there aren’t many other well-known electronic groups that sound more like jazz than dance music. Sylvan Esso uses space in creative ways to give its songs an open feel. TABFH ventures in the opposite direction, layering vocals, samples, synths, and piano to build dense pop anthems. “Messenger,” the lead track on its debut EP released this month, shows how the pair can take Funke’s vocals and twist them over glitchy beats to make simple melodies and verses dig deeper into your ear. It’s a combination that has TABFH primed for a quick ascent like Sylvan Esso. Give yourself an early Christmas gift and get in on the ground floor. Bonus stocking stuffer: Opener ITFLOATS (aka D.C. producer and composer Evan Oliver) provides more to dance to with his sample-heavy tunes. Tigers Are Bad for Horses performs with ITFLOATS at 8 p.m. at Rock & Roll Hotel, 1353 H St. NE. $12. (202) 388-7625. rockandrollhoteldc.com.