NXNE Live: Charlemagne THE RIVOLI - JUNE 9 The guys from Charlemagne look like five blue-collar kids who work the nine to five and love their beer. Then lead singer Max Kerman blurts, "Hey guys. We're Charlemagne and we work the nine to five in Hamilton. We make steel and love our beer! Yeah!" Indubitably. So it seems fitting that the boys open up with their album title-track "Deadlines." A copious blend of blues, funk and pop bottled me over the head and left me for dead. I came to and wanted more. Who were these Steel-City cowboys who sounded like a '70s sitcom theme on steroids? The feel-good frenzy continued with "Oh, the Boss is Coming," "Tragic Flaw" and "The Ballad of Hugo Chavez," all mish-mashing Christian garage rock with a Southern twang. You could've jumbo-dropped an army of manic depressants in here and Charlemagne would've fixed them up nice and good. Plainly, this band is the cure to the sad-sack indie gloom that seems to be everywhere these days. At last, some prime soul-rock that white men can dance to. The show slowed down with the Travisesque "Abigail," radio-friendly pop with punchy power-chords over creamy keys that made all the girls melt with glee. And there were girls by the bushel. Therein lies their lure, I thought; Charlemagne can rock the roof off and at the same time manage to court the entire female front row without breaking a sweat. After the climax of "Champagne Socialist" (think Blind Melon meets Dave Grohl's vocals), Charlemagne was through with us and waved goodbye. I then imagined them running away in skinny suits from hordes of hungry groupies like The Monkees. They're still young and devilishly naive, but if they keep this up, Charlemagne will take over the world.