A three-band bill of indie rock made waves at The Lilypad on Friday, 7 October. The artsy Cambridge outpost is home to choice regular jazz offerings, but watch out for those indie rock bills too. The booker puts together a nice schedule of pazzy, joppy sounds that rank several levels above local bar band fodder. The night’s bill welcomed Baton Rouge’s SPLLIT, supported by openers Theadoore and Birthday Ass.

Live music is always an adventure and uncertainty is part of the equation. Theadoore was a last minute add to the bill after Landowner dropped out. Life happens, and some of the best bands you’ll ever see live might be the ones you weren’t planning on.

That being said, starting the show 30 minutes earlier than the advertised time is a big no no. Especially if you’re selling advance tickets online and don’t update the show listing! Fans who rolled up expecting 10pm doors and 10:30 start of show found the opening band already halfway through their set. Say it ain’t so, Lilypad.

It cut twice as deep because Theadoore ripped it up. The two-person artrock ensemble, including one guitarist and one drummer, crafts angular and intricate compositions that play around with conventional pop song structures like a cat pawing at its Fancy Feast. Extra points for a wild saxophone sit-in by a member of Birthday Ass. It was a real Jim O’Rourke-flavored blow out. Does someone have links to Theodoore’s music? The HDN Research Department can’t locate it on the Google.

The award for the band with the deepest roster goes to Birthday Ass. Six players? Maybe more were squirreled away beneath the floorboards. Picture this: drums, guitar, bass, saxophone, trumpet, and dedicated vocals.

The standout vocalist has clearly honed her live show theatrics, which include punk rock scat and surrealist performance art. At one point she appeared to be scolding a bass drum for sleeping in. The loose and lively stagecraft translated to a high energy affair.

Touring band SPLLIT brought southern-fried funk all the way from Louisiana, served alongside generous helpings of digital glitch and stiffwave. There was a nice, free-flowing, jazzy element to the set – the band could have jammed to infinity and beyond. You can hear what draws the jazz booker to indie rock acts like this. Improvisational flair, artrock attitude, and gigging competence. Band members switched instruments like they were playing musical chairs. Shades of Talking Heads meets Destroy All Monsters.