It’s actually 409 miles from this band’s Cincinnati base to Memphis, so that’s the first bit of disinformation you encounter.
The next, if you hopped on board for their self-titled debut, is that this is still a great rowdy cow-punk bar band; not so much anymore, at least on record. Their third and latest studio effort, We’ve Built Up to Nothing, is much more polished and punk-inflected (yes, that should be an oxymoron). The transition isn’t all that different (or any more beneficial) from fellow thematic travelers the Old 97s, who turned from wonderfully sloppy cow-punk to professional twang rock with equally ambivalent results.
With Pullman Strike, Evelynn Rose and My Captain. $8. Tremont Music Hall