Few concertgoers will ever experience the ecstasy of a private concert, whether by coincidence or luck. Fewer still will find it at Skrappy’s on a Sunday night.

While Neko Case was rocking the Rialto on Sunday, Nov. 13, a far smaller (in fact, a nearly non-existent) crowd enjoyed some breathtaking noise from Tucson’s own The Goodbye Kiss, whose melodic, mostly instrumental sound comes as a welcome alternative to many of Tucson’s all-ages friendly bands.

They were preceded by three bands of varying experience: Attis, who played their first show to a fistful of friends; 70s80s90s, a bouncy, Hot Hot Heat-inspired East Side group; and touring act Renee Heartfelt, making for a night deserving of many more attendees than it received.

Unfortunately, I missed the first band, Attis. I arrived just in time to witnesss 70s80s90s take a stage that was mysteriously lined in plastic, pumpkin-shaped trick-or-treating buckets. They lived up to their name, delivering new-school keyboard rock with nods toward ‘70s glam, ‘80s eyeliner pop, and a hint of ‘90s grunge. They later offered the pumpkins as merchandise to a few clumps of bemused fans.

Renee Heartfelt, all the way from Virginia, had a highly polished set of charged-up emo songs. I might be cynical, but I couldn’t tell the difference between any two of them; their strong, blurry sound might be too much of a good thing.

As mentioned above, the venue was nearly empty by the time the more purely emo Goodbye Kiss began setting up. If they were deterred, there was no sign of it. From the opening chords to the last bubbling amp effects, the music was alive. Beautiful guitar rifts melted into humming bass lines that truly provided a foundation for the music; the volume rose into climax and crashed into quiet. Transitions between songs were muffled, indistinct vocals, controlled (in simple terms for we non-electronic savvy) by switches in the floor, lending an otherworldly element to the set.

“We’re not trying to set ourselves apart just to set ourselves apart,” said Petie Ronstadt, lead singer and guitarist, in a phone interview. “We write the music we want to hear, and I think that in that, we sort of [break the mainstream mold].”

Break it, they do. Not many live shows feature not one, not two, but several songs that breach the five-minute mark. Vocals are scarce, but often beautiful. Composure is tight, but not limited. Watching these boys in action is like a cross between observing a casual jam session and sitting in on some kind of emo symphony; their composure alone penciled fans onto the dance floor, giving the illusion of a crowd.

When I say boys, I mean it: not one of these young men is a day over 25. The drummer, Sam Abate, is still in high school. How does so much youth stay fresh in a world of stale ideas?

“Most of our influences existed in the ‘90s, and except for The Appleseed Cast and a few other bands, I think most modern music is pretty generic,” Ronstadt said. “Bands you hear on the radio – Senses Fail, Hawthorne Heights, etc. – all follow the same formula. None of us are really into the mainstream.”

And where does a band uninterested in major labels turn? To the indie ones, of course. The Goodbye Kiss’ self-titled EP is due out in December under Goodcore Records, and with the miracles of the Internet and DIY touring, is sure to grab the attention of music-lovers across the board.