Okay, first things first: we missed both opening acts. This was disappointing, but pretty much unavoidable with a show that started at 6:30 p.m. on a weeknight. We were sad to miss Tom Daily, about whom we've heard good things (see Irving Bellemead's review), and even more disappointed to miss Chicago's OK GO, whom we've enjoyed on previous occasions. They seem to be booking at least one gig a week now, though, so it's not as if we won't get another chance.

Davey vonBohlen, in one of the better pictures our digital camera has taken.

The Promise Ring take the stage at around 9:00 p.m., by which time Metro has almost filled to capacity. PR haven't headlined the Metro before, but it's obvious that only sub-zero temperatures and the fact that it's a "school night" kept those final hundred audience members from squeezing in. It's a good-sized crowd, but not as densely packed, giving us the rare luxury of more than a foot of personal space in any direction.

PR greet the audience and rip through "Happiness is all the Rage" and "Emergency! Emergency!", giving rise to the suspicion, eventually disproved, that they're going to play Very Emergency straight through from beginning to end. A pair of teenage girls directly in front of the Official Splendid Standing Space, one of them massively coiffed, conversed excitedly, clearly thrilled to be able to conduct their conversation at a Promise Ring show instead of at home on the phone. At one point, George bumps into the big hair and is treated to a furious glare before the girl snaps her attention back to the stage, knocking over a scrawny youth in a Burning Airlines t-shirt.

Guitarist Jason Gnewikow works the audience a little bit. We feel uncomfortable writing about Jason Gnewikow, though, because we always type his surname, look at it, mutter "damn, that looks wrong..." and stop to check the spelling. He must have had a hard time in school. The audience, however, loved him as they loved their mothers.

The only-slightly-less-awkwardly-yclept Davey vonBohlen was the true owner of the audience. VonBohlen offered a stream of frequently hysterical between-song banter, at one point detailing his (mock) frustration with label Jade Tree, who won't let him gain weight or grown his hair out because skinny short-haired guys are...well...what sells.

When the band dips into their debut album, Thirty Degrees Everywhere, for "A Picture Postcard," vonBohlen has a comment ready. "Everytime we play that 'Picture Postcard' song, the tough guy part of me wants to kick the crap out of the sensitive guy part of me. I should write new lyrics to that song.'", he jokes. The band proceeds to dish out "Living Around" and "Happy Hour". VonBohlen undulates around the stage in a curiously angular, mechanical fashion, like a guitar-wielding robot, while bassist Scott Schoenbeck and drummer Dan Didier remain rooted to their respective spots (not surprisingly in Didier's case), concentrating intensely. Perhaps they're thinking about the fact that Davey is just a scrunched-face and a tooth-gap away from being a dead ringer for Flea.

This group shot is far more typical of the results we get from our digital camera. At least this time the lens cap mechanism didn't break. Isn't technology great?

Regardless of their mental processes, the Promise Ring prove themselves to be a tight ensemble, ably filling the Metro with their sound and reassuring doubters that they are a punk rock band, dammit. We expected them to look lost on Metro's relatively voluminous stage, but they took it over.

After closing with "Things Just Getting Good", the band returns for a fierce two-song encore that raises their energy level exponentially. VonBohlen even climbed up on Didier's drum kit in at the end. Very rock and roll. However subdued and polite these guys might seem to be, they made it clear that they can dish out the rock as and when required.

While they performed for less than 60 minutes, the Promise Ring delivered one of the best sets we've heard in ages...and for a band whose albums rarely crack the 35-minute mark, an hour is more than enough time to satisfy the audience.