Pinback is at Riot Room tonight with Tim Kinsella

Mid-’00s contemporaries Modest Mouse and Death Cab for Cutie broke through to the mainstream playing a similar kind of cold, earnest rock, but no such luck for Pinback. The San Diego act is maybe a little too unassuming for the masses – no monster hooks, no sexy back story – but the dynamic interplay between core members Rob Crow and Zack Smith has resulted in some very smart, fresh, math-y (in a good way) rock songs over the years. Opening for the group tonight at Riot Room is Tim Kinsella, a veteran of Cap’n Jazz, Owls, Joan of Arc, and a few other bands that shepherded emo music into a more mature, musically inventive place.