By Michael GsovskiThe Daily Northwestern

In this age of indie music, hearing an electric guitar, violin and trumpet in the same performance is nothing extraordinary.

What you might not expect, however, is a music-producing empty fire extinguisher, a dancing drummer and rubber balls bouncing off the stage and into the audience.

In student group Niteskool’s winter concert Friday night, bands Man Man and Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s showed that using these non-traditional instruments can lead to a unique musical experience.

About 450 people flocked to Northwestern’s Norris University Center for the event, resulting in the second largest audience in Niteskool history – exceeded only by last year’s sold-out concert featuring The Wrens.

“The issue was getting the word out there,” said Niteskool president and Weinberg junior Jeff Goodsmith. “It was really a crunch time; we had a week and a half to plug the show.”

Niteskool is a student organization devoted to helping NU bands by organizing concerts and helping to record music videos.

Friday’s performance opened with The Monocles, a four-piece student rock band that won Niteskool’s most recent Battle of the Bands contest.

The band was followed by Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s, an eight-member band who performed songs centered on themes such as drugs and depression. The band moved through a series of songs featuring heavy guitar riffs topped by trumpet and violin playing above the main melody.

But it was when five-man band Man Man took the stage in their trademark matching white outfits and war paint that the audience began roaring with applause.

The band performed their frenetic, percussion-heavy music for about an hour without pausing between songs.

However, the audience didn’t let them off easy and brought them back for a three-song encore.

Because of the difference in the bands’ genres, not all audience members cheered throughout the entire concert, Goodsmith said. The audience’s cheers and applause often went to specific bands, he said.

Weinberg junior Carla Reyes said she wasn’t a fan of Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s.

“I just came to see Man Man,” Reyes said.

Jonathan Schwartz, Weinberg ’05, said he preferred Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s.

“I liked their songs better, they were more tame,” he said. “If I had been drunk, I might have liked the third one the best.”

Reach Michael Gsovski at [email protected].