Last Night: Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros at The Independent

Better Than: Joining a love cult.

By 4 p.m. yesterday, the $10 tickets for last night's Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros show at The Independent had sold out. By 8:30pm, scalpers were hawking them on the street outside the venue for $40. But this was to be expected, as one fan informed us while the headliners passed out cold Modelos to crowd members as they took to the stage. Although the band is finishing up its first tour, and just released its debut album, Up From Below, in May, nearly all of its shows in the past two months have sold out.

Last night, it didn't take long to see why.

The sheer number of musicians on stage -- eleven total -- was impressive enough in itself. But even more impressive was the fact that the high-energy melodies weren't drowned out by the band's big sound. Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros have the talent to make a big production work. And although performers were spilling off stage and into the crowd, they appeared comfortable in the cozy space -- even the accordion player didn't seem phased by the lack of elbow room.

Joseph Schell

​There wasn't much room on the dance floor either. Much of the crowd's energy fed off the smiling, bearded, and bare-chested lead singer Alex Ebert, who spent the set gyrating across the stage, and sometimes off stage, looking happily possessed. Between belting out anthems, Ebert wooed the crowd effortlessly, leaning into the people squashed against the front of the stage to pat them on the head or simply singing "I love you!" to everyone. By mid-set, most people on the packed floor appeared equally happy and possessed, hands waving in the air, hopping up and down in-time with the knot of hair bouncing around atop Ebert's head. "You guys are acting like children!" he shouted at one point. "Thank God!"