It’s clear that Tokyo Police Club was one of the hotly buzzed bands at Bumbershoot — their performance at the KEXP Music Lounge (tucked away at a secret location, as Eddie Argos is so fond of saying) was packed so full they were turning platinum passes away. It’s a bit odd that this band is so buzzed because they’re not necessarily an easily accessible band — they’re an unabashed art band with some trappings of pop and perhaps emo (it’s all a matter of semantics of what you want to call the keyboardist’s screaming). But they’re not an indulgent art band, they’re tense with energy and pack each of their tight, trim songs full with ideas, so that they provoke as much as they evoke, then they pull the plug immediately after their point is made. Unfortunately, they were plagued by some equipment problems in this special showcase gig broadcast on the radio, as the guitarist battled an ailing pickup, leaving the vocalist to battle dead air — dead air that he recognized as soon as the place went silent. A KEXP DJ helped kick start the conversation and the singer immediately showed how likeable he was, cracking wise (’you have seasoned chops’ ‘what is that, a culinary term’) and polling the crowd about the best thing at Bumbershoot, launching into a brief, mildly amusing Gogol Bordello anecdote. He, along with the rest of the band, was utterly charming, and the band seemed less like a collegiate folly than a real working band, just figuring everything out — including how to deal with botched pickups and dead air. They’ll be recording their full-length debut starting on the 10th — and even with all the mishaps, this set offered a bracing reason why this is an eagerly anticipated debut.