Nathan Means, Philip Manley, and Sebastian Thomson formed synth-rock band Trans Am in 1990 near Washington, D.C. The band, which started as a side project of a ska collective, signed to Chicago-based independent record label Thrill Jockey. Their self-titled debut album, recorded after only a few rehearsals in 1996, was mainly instrumental and incorporated sounds of bands from the 1970s such as Boston and Yes. Since then, the group has toured with bands like Tool and the Bronx as well as released seven other albums, solidifying a more rock and roll sound with nods to Kraftwerk, Can and New Order. Their latest album, Thing, was released earlier this year.

Local support: Megachurch

Megachurch are a heavy rock band from Ohio who employ two bass players and eschew vocals in favor of televangelist samples. Bassist Mikey Baranick (late of the Ohio pop band Machine Go Boom), bassist Brian Michael Hill (formerly of the respected This Is Exploding) and drummer Dan Price (who Ringo’d both of those bands) convened after their groups went boom and exploded and decided to try making music without their six-strings. It turned out massively heavy, but with incredibly accessible riffs – both of the prior bands were damn fine hooksmiths – and they made a big splash in Northern Ohio right out of the gate with their March 2009 debut show. Within months of their formation, they were featured on the cover of Cleveland’s alt weekly Scene Magazine and selected to be the lead-in band for the legendary Mission Of Burma at Cleveland’s annual very-big-deal Studio A Rama festival. Their latest album, released in May, veers close to a sublime hybrid of great pop’s intelligent construction and great sludge-metal’s visceral gut-punch.

Summer in the City is sponsored by Ohio Natural Gas, Kia Motors, Time Warner Cable, KeyBank, Jim Beam and Twisted Tea.

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