These are the good times people! Music can be fun and certain bands make it fun. The pairing of St. Joseph, Missouri rockers Dsoedean and out-of-towners The Please Please Me from Austin, Texas proved that at the Cafe Acoustic in St. Joseph on January 19th.

Dsoedean is a good-vibes outfit led by Zale Bledsoe. On this day, Bobby Floyd would be on drums and Colby Walter would pull double duty on bass and keyboards. Regular bass player Marcus Words was double booked but Walter had no problem filling the void. As Dsoedean has prepared for their upcoming first full album release, named Continue To Move, they have been on a short hiatus, without a formal show in about four months.

It was nice to hear Bledsoe once again backed by the pounding drums of Bobby Floyd. Floyd is essential to Dsoedean and his drumming really sets them apart from other similar bands. On songs like the new “Daylight” and “Parachute” from their first EP this is apparent. The band would push through many new songs set to be on the record like “Continue To Move” and what may be Bledsoe’s best vocal performance yet, “Perfect World.”  They would also play several songs the crowd for the local band would know by heart like “Shuffle Your Feet” and “Undertoe.”

Dsoedean opens for The Please Please Me on 1/19/13 in St. Joseph, MO.

The Please Please Me made their second trip to St. Joseph to a very good crowd response. The all white Christmas light strands draped along the wall fit the band perfectly as they pushed the barriers of how different sounding good pop songs can be. The trio is led by charismatic front-woman Jessie Torrisi who drives the band with her sultry vocals. She is backed by cellist Alissa Schram, who plays both conventionally and occasionally manipulates the cello as a stand-up bass or percussion instrument. Rounding out the band is the emphatic drumming of the only male member of The Please Please Me, Agustin Frederic. Torrisi herself would even take breaks from playing guitar to do a little bit of drumming of her own at points.

They would start with one of the best indie-pop songs you will ever hear, “Hungry Like Me.” It is from Torrisi’s “solo” album Brûler Brûler from 2009 and is instantly an intoxicating tune with its great hooks. Torrisi would pull her sunglasses off of her head and wear them during songs like “Runaway Train.” With her sunglasses on and her cherry red guitar shining among the Christmas lights it felt like you were on the set of a music video shoot.

The Please Please Me play live on 1/19/13 in St. Joseph, MO.

The band would play many songs from their upcoming EP Shake A Little Harder as well. These songs would have a little less of a country tinge and focus more on enticing the audience to dance. The band would dedicate the the hazy imagery of “Dreamin'” to their opening band on the night, Dsoedean, as the openers cheered on the headliners from the crowd. The Please Please Me would even pull out a perfectly chosen cover for the band’s sound. They would borrow the song “Relator” from the Pete Yorn/Scarlett Johansson collaboration Break Up and do a phenomenal job with it.  Before performing a well deserved encore they would plug their new EP by playing a song from it “All Danced Out.”

The Please Please Me proved on this night that pop songs don’t have to come from a cookie cutter. Their completely original take on upbeat pop tunes is a perfect pairing for a band like Dsoedean and the Cafe Acoustic was the perfect environment for the meeting of bands to take place. It is always refreshing to see a band having fun making music; and it makes the songs that much better too.