Optimist Punk

For a while, it seemed that emo might be the only kind of punk germinating in Long Island, but Latterman meets at the post-hardcore/pop-punk crossroads those crybabies are trying to get to. Bringing their own spin to suburban teenaged pain and the injustices of the world, the four boys of Latterman hold back their tears by going the stoic way of Gainesville groups like Hot Water Music and As Friends Rust. The band has dedicated its latest album, No Matter Where I Go...!to positivity, friendship, and community and hopes it will take a strike at bigotry and societal imbalance. Somebody's bound to laugh at them for laying that out there, but with a scream-along, pounding punk machine backing it up, Latterman can get away with it. This is the stuff that gets kids into their scene, and it's the stuff that keeps the rest of us coming back.

Latterman plays at 7 p.m. Wednesday, October 26, at the Hideout, 7200 N. Dixie Hwy., Boca Raton. Tickets cost $6. Call 561994-9494.