Friday looked like a fine night for rock at the Elbow Room, with a lineup full of acts that neither Ryan nor myself had seen live, so we left $5 on the altar of the quadri-horned god of rock and checked out the roster.

The bar wasn’t very full yet for Toronto based pared-down prog metal band Sonica, but they looked like they had a good sense of how to adapt their energy to that, playing it more low key to the small crowd without half-assing it. Lead singer Kristy Munro seemed to have found a way to splice some fun into what probably originated as a goth band, but it felt kind of sad that the drummer was only using half of his GIGANTIC kit.

Chrome Mali then took the stage for some good old fashioned rock. They definitely got the crowd rustling and Ryan and I were both pleased to see that their bassist appeared to be the tiniest, hottest girl ever to handle the low end. Sadly, it did not occur to me at this point that I had my camera, but you can check out her hotness on her Myspace, where her uniquename, incidentally, is bassvixen.

I did remember that I had my camera, however, when I noticed that Jason of the Von Bondies was hanging out a few tables down, and he was tolerant enough to pose for a fan-photo with me in which my usual Just Say Cheese expression of delighted hysteria looks somehow crazier than usual. Said photo can be seen below.

Then came the raucous ass kicking that was the Beggars, who completely stole the fucking show. Lead singer Steven started things out in a satin USA jacket, with highly charged ramblings about the band’s feverous allegiance to North America. This pseudo-political hilarity was only the beginning of what was to be one of the best rock sets I’ve seen in months, full of more energy and bombast than you can shake an empty bottle of tequila at. Every song was catchy, hard-hitting, and high-energy, and it didn’t hurt that Steven gyrated and fist pumped and flopped around like Mick Jagger crossed with a pro-wrestler. In a world where every other musician acts like he’s Billy Corgan (who’s an asshole in the first place), it’s heartening to see some die hard servants of the shit-kicking cause really get up there and make damn sure their show is the loud, hot mess it’s supposed to be. No too-cool-to-care bullshit from these guys: bassist Face Frehley was so bent on audience participation that he took a walk right into the crowd.

Because of the Beggars set, the mood in the bar went up a notch and random audience members were suddenly inspired to jump all over each other in happy drunken antics as-yet unseen that evening. Next up was Eugene and Rusty, who rounded things out with a nice combination of originals and covers of 50’s tunes. It was fun and low key, thought they did persuade many of the night’s musicians to join them with a handful of fans on stage, at which point Damon added the only thing left that the evening needed: more cowbell.