On Wednesday night you could have either watched Extreme Midget Wrestling at the Granada, or Born Gold at the Jackpot. But trust me, when it comes down to weirdness, Born Gold beat the heck out of midget wrestling.
 

Motorboater

 
The show started off calm and slow with Himalayan Adventure League, a band that was too poppy for their own good. But then Kansas City-based Motorboater came on and livened up the place.
 
There may be no more enjoyable synth pop band in the area than Motorboater. The electronic act performs as a three-piece. The singer, backlit by a strobe light, hopped up and down over steady beats and ultra dancey hooks. The band had a pleasant, smiley and upbeat demeanor onstage, which is almost always the case with musical acts bred from local label The Record Machine.
 

Born Gold

 
I knew something was up with Born Gold when they started unpacking their gear, which included helmets, stilts, some shovels and a mess of unrecognizable gadgets.
 
The 8-bit calamity known as Born Gold (formerly Gobble Gobble) started off with an attack on your senses. Drum machines invaded your ears while large bursts of lights waged war on your eyes. The leader of the trio remained on stage, wedged between the light machines, his curly bleached blonde mohawk flopping about. The minions, donning gold shorts, remained on the ground embedded within the crowd, banging on drums, prancing around on stilts and even battling with shovels.
 
What followed was an even crazier three-ring circus, complete with crowd interaction, bizarre instruments and some of the best dance music I’ve ever seen performed live (and I’m speaking as a “former” raver).
 
The following video is pretty dark until about 47 seconds in.
 

 
We were lucky to get this Canadian band in Kansas, and I’d say only about 30 of us were there to enjoy it. This was like Dan Deacon on angel dust (you heard me), but there were three of them. I doubt we’ll get a ravier band in Lawrence this year.
 
Enjoy the delightful freak show photo gallery below.