Move over Cain’s Ballroom. Stand aside, Metro.  And CBGB, you must have seen it coming.  There’s a new place to get your fix of the hottest new music – emphasis on hot.  It’s the local Wal-Mart Garden Center.

Australian rock trio Sick Puppies played an acoustic set in this inexplicable location on Wednesday to promote the release of their new album, Tri-Polar.  The set also featured a signing and photo-op, where those that purchased the CD at Wal-Mart that day received a free autographed poster.

The band were in high spirits, despite the muggy greenhouse conditions, onlookers scattered among aisles and lawn furniture, and unaware shoppers weaving through lugging toilet seats, groceries and gawking children.

Lead singer Shim Moore did all the talking for the band, bantering between each song and affectionately poking fun at some of the children in the audience who weren’t as enthusiastic as the adults with them.  The band played several songs from Tri-Polar, as well as material from their previous albums, including the one that put Sick Puppies on the radar, “All The Same” (from the famous “Free Hugs” YouTube video).

The crowd of around sixty – give or take a few sleeping children – was subdued but attentive, and the line for the signing stretched through the Garden Center after the set.  Most of the people in line held copies of the CD purchased at Wal-Mart, which Shim encouraged to help the album’s chart debut.

Some, however, were reluctant to purchase the CD at Wal-Mart because of the chain’s practice of editing albums with explicit lyrics.  “I’d rather buy it at the show and get the real album,” said one long-time fan after chatting with the band.

“The show” took place at Cain’s Ballroom, where Sick Puppies played along with Hurt, The Veer Union and Tunnels To Holland.  Sick Puppies played a full set that showcased their energy in a way the earlier acoustic set could not.

Unlike many over-produced rock bands of this generation, what you hear on the album is what you get live.  These kids are a rock band in the purest sense of the word, with a genuine quality to their music that makes them endearing. Bassist Emma Anzai is a wonder to behold, an aggressive yet attractive and feminine presence onstage alongside Moore’s brash frontmanship and drummer Mark Goodwin’s driving beats.

One fun highlight of the Puppies’ set was a cover of Destiny’s Child’s “Say My Name” mashed up with the  riff from Green Day’s “Brain Stew.”  “All The Same” got a rapturous response, with the entire crowd singing along.  Toward the end of the set, Moore stepped back for Goodwin to indulge in an arena-caliber drum solo and Anzai to let loose with some jaw-dropping slap bass licks.

By the end, Moore had heated the previously lukewarm crowd up to a jumping, screaming furor, encouraging them to release their frustrations at a society that looks down upon those who are “different.”  A recurring theme of the night, and throughout Sick Puppies’ work, is a refusal to abandon one’s individuality in order to fit in or please others.

The crowd at the Cain’s was certainly buying what the Puppies were selling, with the line to meet the band after their set still going strong as Hurt took the stage.  That passionate stance, however, makes the Wal-Mart gig that much more of an irony.

It seems we all have to fit in at some point.

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Sick Puppies are on tour through September.

See more Sick Puppies photos after the jump: