How does a band occupy its time in the decade following the
release of a synth-rock milestone? In the case of Omaha's the
Faint, the answer involves mediocrity and laserbeams. Shitloads
of laserbeams. I expected to be amongst a mass of shaking
booties and spilled cocktails, but the light show had the crowd
at the Roseland on Saturday in a near-epileptic state. No
ambulances were dispatched to the event, however, so I think
we're in the clear.  2001's Danse Macabre was a gloomy, oddly
danceable dose of "disco punk" that existed several blog years
before the Rapture and LCD Soundsystem turned the term into a
punchline, but its formula of retro electronics and spiky
guitars draped in a goth-y veneer has not yielded greatness for
those bold enough to trade their Marshalls for Moogs—present
company included. The show opened with "Animal Needs", an anti-
commercialist cacophony of screeching strings and thumping bass
that's on par with the rest of the group's post-Macabre work:
rigid beats and a heavy-handed dose of