22

SUNDAY

Numbers might never receive accolades for pushing musical boundaries, but the band’s a great guilty pleasure. The San Francisco-based trio’s latest record, In My Mind All the Time, doesn’t stray too far from the formula that made the first album work: Guitarist Dave Broekema and drummer Indra Dunis continue to belt out every scratchy chord and kick-drum/hi-hat dance beat in the book of late-’70s postpunk, keyboardist Eric Landmark adds in the requisite New Wave Moog, and everyone still gets a turn tonelessly singing about consumerism and/or his or her own social anxieties. But Numbers’ childish approach to songwriting and obvious nods to influences are exactly what make the group so charming. When a band doesn’t put up the pretense of originality, there’s not much to attack, and everyone’s better served by accepting the end result for what it is: an ass-shaking, if not entirely thought-provoking, good time. Numbers play with the Mates of State and Da Hawnay Troof at 8:30 p.m. on the Black Cat’s Mainstage, 1811 14th St. NW. $10. (202) 667-7960. (Matthew Borlik)