With the Killers gone arena-roots and the Bravery recording with Pearl Jam/Springsteen producer Brendan O’Brien, somebody’s gotta keep the dance-rock-circa-2004 flame alive. It’s a job this LA quintet seem up to: Ima Robot’s sophomore set is full of expertly shrink-wrapped electric guitars and live drums that throb like a drum machine. Listen past the surface sheen, though, and you’ll hear signs that frontman Alex Ebert and his mates are more interested in mocking dance rock’s bad-boy excess than paying tribute to its retro-futurist style. “I climbed all the highest mountains, I done every drug in reach,” Ebert snarls in “Cool Cool Universe.” “I made love to pretty women while the sun set on the beach.” That’s a good line, but Monument’s tunes — none is distinguishable from the next — don’t offer enough of them to create effective satire. There’s just no reason to listen to Ima Robot when you can go back to Hot Fuss for the 400th time.
Ima Robot + All-American Rejects | Framingham State University, 101 State St, Framingham | October 22 | 508.620.1220
