The Bay Area’s Music for Animals and Please Do Not Fight were joined by Canada’s Winter Gloves for a night of good old dance pop at the Rickshaw stop on April 30th. Check out concert pics, mp3s and a brief review after the jump.

Winter Gloves:

Montreal’s Winter Gloves kicked off last night’s show at the Rickshaw Stop with the work ethic you might expect. In other words, they refused to be intimidated by a U.S. audience that had likely never heard of them. Not only were Charles F’s vocals spot on, but he danced circles around glockenspiel harmonies with ease – ok, so he fell once, but it was all in good fun. Vincent Chalifor even somehow managed to use his wizard fingers to play bass lines on various synths while tossing out the band’s CD for free.

Please Do Not Fight:

However, the night was hands-down stolen by Please Do Not Fight who enjoyed the perks of a hometown crowd full of fans. After blasting a cover of M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes,” (complete with gunshot and cash register samples) the band invited everyone on stage to sing “On the Other Hand, Fight! Fight! Fight!” Hence, the grainy photograph of the guitar player in my face. All the more impressive was the fact that they had a guest bass guitarist sit in – if you have chops, sounds like they are hiring…

Music for Animals:

That’s not to say that Music for Animals didn’t close well. Guitar cranks and synchronized lights gave off a Springsteen meets the Killers vibe that reminded me of several parties where I drank too much grain alcohol. It got even more packed for their set, and Ryan Malley owned the drums all night. The crowd got what they paid for. But in the end, I felt more likely to hire PDNF to play my birthday bash.

MP3s: