It was Wednesday, hump day. What better way to unwind than seeing a concert? Surely that was the idea of the half-full M-Shop crowd during the Anniversary, Hot Rod Circuit, Selby Tigers concert. Unfortunately, even the live music wasn’t able to bring the audience out of its stupor.

After two semi-vigorous sets from openers Selby Tigers and Hot Rod Circuit, the stage was primed for the main event — The Anniversary.

The Anniversary is an emo-style band and have recently finished touring with another well-known emo group, the Get Up Kids. Short for emotional, emo is a style of music highly influenced by punk, but focusing more on melody and feeling.

Minutes before The Anniversary started, the audience crowded around the stage, but it still managed to remain rather placid.

Early in the show, singer/guitarist Josh Berwanger showed a little humor when he asked the crowd if anybody wanted to go see the free screening of “Charlie’s Angels.”

As the show went on, The Anniversary was flawless. The group blasted through songs like “D in Detroit” and “Heart Is a Lonely Hunter,” from their debut album “Designing a Nervous Breakdown.” Harmonizing vocals and tight transitions made for a charged performance. But the night was not without its problems.

Aside from an inability to connect strongly with the audience, mic problems plagued all three bands as the instruments overpowered much of the vocals. In addition, Adrianne Verhoeven’s Moog synthesizer, which provides The Anniversary’s trademark sound, was drowned out for much of the show.

With The Anniversary’s powerful riffs and strong technical abilities, the band managed to get the crowd more involved as some of the audience swayed hypnotically to the music.

The Anniversary is a tight-knit group, able to produce a unique sound of its own.

The punk band Selby Tigers opened for the night. Despite an energetic set and a few bobbing heads to the distorted in-your-face guitar licks, the band still came off feeling sort of flaky. Many of its stage antics looked over-rehearsed. Not seeming too interested in Selby Tigers, the audience clapped politely at the end of each song.

Next was Hot Rod Circuit. Compared to Selby Tigers, whose sound was dirty and in need of adjustment, Hot Rod had a much cleaner, beefier sound, proving that it is a punk group with promise.

While the songs had a definite punk feel, Hot Rod also put out undistorted interesting melodies and riffs, and helped to set Hot Rod apart from the punk norm.

Guitarist Casey Prestwood was enjoyable to watch as he flailed about on stage, rolled around on the floor and repeatedly stuck his head in one of the amps.

Flying spittle and bulging neck veins were the most memorable aspects of the frontman Andy Jackson as he belted into the mic.

The audience still seemed to be in a daze. As a result, about half way through Hot Rod’s show, bass player Jay Russel stepped to his mic and asked, “How many people here go to college?” To which the audience responded by raising their hands. “Then fucking act like it,” Russel said, still only managing to get a few more heads moving.

With its strong guitar playing, good vocal harmonizing and energetic performance, Hot Rod Circuit was finally able to win over a larger portion of the audience by the end of its set than Selby Tigers.