Every now and then, a blatantly commercial band comes along that somehow manages to make music with heart and soul despite its best efforts. (STP, anyone?) In 2009, Taking Back Sunday is arguably that band. TBS's music oozes out of your speakers glistening and shiny, as if it were sprayed down with lubricant for smooth passage down the Clear Channel pipeline. Nonetheless, the Amityville, Long Island quintet knows how to go straight to the pleasure centers of your brain with its guitars and melodies. Every pop band on the planet shoots for this kind of hooksmanship, but only one in a thousand nail it. And nail it TBS does - over and over, song after song.

Taking Back Sunday plays Wednesday, June 24, 7 p.m. at Water Street Music Hall, 204 N Water St. $25-$28. 325-5600.