[phlipcam video] The Positronic Rays of One Night Band

One Night Band returned to the Middle East in Cambridge for some well-crafted sloppy seconds over the weekend, and we can't remember a local music event this big being so damn positive and uplifting. The brainchild of the essential Boston Band Crush music blog, One Night Band rounds up 40 local musicians, randomly assigns them into eight groups of five and gives them an afternoon to write three news songs and perform one cover, all presented later that night in front of... EVERYONE. The novelty factor is, naturally, through the roof, and there's great appeal within the local scene to see its own players mixed and matched like this with only hours to create musical magic. But for the second straight year, it kind of set in early on during the night that these newly-minted bands are actually pretty damn good, making it almost a shame these One Night Bands don't become more of an ongoing romantic fling.

If we were to see a few additional shows from any of the participants on Saturday, it could very well be from the Positronic Rays, who spit in the face of Green Day and whipped up an intricate on-the-fly rock opera for the ages. The Rays were comprised of Benny Grotto of Motherboar on drums, Jim Collins of MEandJOANCOLLINS on bass, Nate Leavitt of Blizzard of '78 on guitar, Mike Epstein of the Motion Sick on guitar, and Sophie Innerfield of Highly Personal Trash on vocals and keys. They looked and sounded like they were together long enough to have once played the Abbey. 

Check the phlipcam video above (don't mind the scowling face of the Luxury's Jason Dunn on the side), and for check the flyer scorecard below for the full list of band lineups. Additional videos have been popping up on Facebook since the show wrapped up -- make a note to listen to 10 Hours of Chaos' spin on Michael Jackson's "Thriller" -- so go "like" the Boston Band Crush fan page to either re-live the magic or peep what was missed.