Last night I went to the Three Dollar Thursday at Old Ironsides, or as I like to call it, “343,” since you get three bands for three bucks. (I shoulda had a career in ad writing!) Anyway, the bands were Bright Light Fever, Prieta and Broken Poet. Broken Poet offered up with a serviceable, if unremarkable, set of poppy punky music. It was OK, just not all that exciting. Bright Light Fever is one of the few bands on the local level right now who seem capable of getting a label deal from somewhere. They are tight and have some cool songs in the modern indie rock vein. To me, they sound like Hot Hot Heat only more rockin’.

But the band I really wanted to see was Prieta. (You can check out more on Prieta at http://www.myspace.com/prietaslays, although no music is posted as of yet.) They are a relatively new band, but I caught them at a recent show with Bridges and they totally kicked butt.

They did not fail to please last night either, even though the singer announced after the first song that he was totally drunk. These guys are kind of old school hard rock with a bit of indie quirk flavor. They are all good musicians, very tight and seem to enjoy themselves up there on stage.

One of the things I noticed though was that the indie crowd seems to like them a lot. That’s not a bad thing at all, but the music these guys play is closer to Hot Pistol than to Bridges. Yet, if Hot Pistol was on the bills I’ve seen Prieta on, the indie crowd would have turned away with their noses in the air. The only thing I can guess is it’s based on looks. Prieta looks and dresses like indie rockers while Hot Pistol looks more like Lynyrd Skynrd. Sad, but indicative of where the world of music is these days, with so much of a band’s appeal tied into looks.

Anyway, if you’re into hard rockin’ or indie rock or just plain good bands, I recommend you check out Prieta.