Photos By: Brian Wong

When Zach Rogue, singer/songwriter of Oakland-band-with-national-following Rogue Wave, announced onstage at Bottom of the Hill, “Everyone sells out to dance music in the end… We sold out,” we thought we were in for a different kind of Rogue Wave show. When they opened with six decidedly more raucous versions of songs off their latest release, Permalight, we still weren’t sure. But when they launched into new single “Good Morning (The Future),” and people actually started, well, dancing – there had already been a bout of enthused handclapping during our new favorite, “Solitary Gun” – we knew it.

After three opening bands that failed to get the blood bubbling – despite some sexy vocals from Sacramento-based Two Sheds, occasional groovy 60’s garage sounds from Oaklanders Man/Miracle, and a couple memorable surfin’ tunes from otherwise synth-saturated Santa Monica band, Princeton – Rogue Wave still, and this is not a cliché often used for this band, set the crowd on fire. If you’ve followed them at all over the years, you know their catalogue is marked by sweet, buoyant melodies, often acoustic, and while you might sway in the car to “Lake Michigan” or secretly rock the fuck out to “10:1” (Descended Like Vultures), you’ve probably yet to turn Rogue Wave on at a party to entice guests to stop acting like awkward scenesters and jus’ shake it.  But the capacity crowd at Bottom of the Hill tonight, a little uptight at the start, was reduced to a grinning, sweating, rhythmically-lurching punchbowl by Rogue Wave’s new danceable sounds, in combination with the band’s standard warmth and subtle stage charisma.

The band’s new rocker, “We Will Make a Song Destroy,” is a rocker without irony, and a pleasant surprise in the midst of a run of old favorites including “Publish My Love.” “Good Morning (The Future),” was perhaps the most un-Rogue Wave of the new school tunes, and while on record it’s – really, most of Permalight’s – use of electronics could throw off an anticipant fan, live, the band’s good musicianship melded it seamlessly into the set, and it was definitely the melody to be whistled on the way home.

The generous encore closed with Permalight’s titular track, and, since it’s a “celebration,” the freshly loosened-up crowd was invited to get up right next to the amps and dance. Once the tiny B.0.T.H. stage was packed with revelers, many of whom just a couple hours earlier had been drink-clutching, nervous Bay Area music nerds, it seemed that when Zach Rogue suggested that everyone can sell out to dance music, he really meant everyone.