Bangles, fluorescent pink wigs, tacky dresses and a half-naked guitarist all face me and a sea of sweaty bodies. It's Wednesday night, the band is yelling at me to "get down, down, down" and somewhere in my head a voice repeats, "there's a sharp sensation stretching from your right shoulder to your chest but until you start hyperventilating, you're dancing through the pain."I scribbled these thoughts down late Wednesday night, sitting down after an explosive show at Cholmondley's sponsored by the Radical Student Alliance featuring campus improv faves Bad Grammer, B-52s cover band Hottpants, Jukebox! and two fledgling post-punk acts hailing from Washington, D.C, Backtalk and How We Tie Knots.

It was apparent from the crowd's reaction that the night belonged to Hottpants, Jukebox!, which consists of singers Josh Russel '06 and Tahlia Orbach-Smith '06, guitarist Daniel Duffy '07, bassist Mayank Puri '08, keyboardist Cora Mae '04, drummer Arthur Bergevin '08 and dancers Courtney Rand '07 and Maria Pinto '07.

They introduced themselves, offering the disclaimer that they had only practiced once. The opening riff of "Rock Lobster," with its kitschy rockabilly crawl, negated the need for such modesty-the spirit of Fred Schneider and Co. instantly came alive in an octet making no stabs at seriousness.

Throughout that song and the rest of the set, Russell paraded around Chums, dancing with fans and on the bar while his bandmates' near-operatic shrills emerged from the stage. For the crowd, who might've treated a lesser performance with the lack of enthusiasm reserved only for bad cover acts, never stopped dancing, their flailing arms and gyrating hips mirroring the absurdity of the band standing before them.

Hottpants, Jukebox! didn't need to be taken seriously-their three-song set's infectiousness and energy were rare for a college cover band, providing a performance that campus bands will strive to equal in future shows.

The rest of the night was another story. Bad Grammer's brief set seemed plagued by first-show jitters. After introducing new members Matt Hope '09 and Will Friedman '09 by having the audience stare at each member's backside, they played a number of acting games-all your standard improv fare-that mused on subjects ranging from the edibility of Creepy Crawlers, a partying succubus and the world's worst peeping toms, Aramark employees, Goosebumps titles and X-Men.

Later, bands Backtalk and How We Tie Knots offered short but dynamic sets, taking cues from both their native city's experimental strain of post-punk and San Francisco's East Bay punk scene (which spawned Operation Ivy and Rancid). Following Hottpants, Jukebox!, the crowd emptied out, but the two acts trudged on.

Backtalk went first, playing three originals and a cover of Grimple's "A Fucked Up Beautiful Day." Their songcraft was simple, but their delivery inventive-keyboardist and singer James Murphy filled in for the absence of bass guitar with some deep Moog riffs.

At first, How We Tie Knots sounded much more abrasive, but a melodic sense more characteristic of the most popular punk acts of the mid-'90s eventually emerged. The formula was simple: harmonized, gang-esque vocals, soaring guitars playing three-chord hooks and lyrics focused around anarchism and blasting militarism and capitalism. And while the band offered nothing remarkable, they echoed a point made clear by Hottpants, Jukebox!: Music should never be a chore. Sometimes it's better to turn off your brain and dance.