It might as well have been billed the Battle of the (Almost) Cover Bands, because you’d be hard-pressed to find two groups that more blatantly wear their influences on their sleeves than the ones that shared the stage Monday night at Johnny Brenda’s. In one corner: New York City up-and-comers Robbers On High Street, who have been catching constant flak for sounding exactly like Spoon since they formed in 2001 (one Pitchfork reviewer quipped, “Does [Britt] Daniel live on High Street?”). In the other corner: British Invasion imitators the Redwalls. When I first saw the Redwalls in 2005, their British accents and Beatles/Stones posturing was so spot-on that I walked out convinced they were from Liverpool. (Try Deerfield, Ill.) All right, guys, let’s keep it clean.

Robbers On High Street quietly took the stage first with a few shy waves to the audience, and the fresh-faced five-piece looked every bit like a romantic, literary, indie-pop band. Dressed down in T-shirts and jeans, with two members wearing wire-rimmed glasses and another sporting long, recently shampooed hair, you could have sworn they’d just been pulled mid-cigarette off of the steps outside UPenn’s English department. Without even a “hello” to the crowd, frontman Ben Trokan picked up an acoustic guitar and the band launched into “Crown Victoria,” one of the new tracks from the upcoming album Grand Animals. The boppy, organ-drenched opener got the crowd nodding along, even if no one was rushing the dance floor.

For all the Spoon comparisons, Trokan’s voice didn’t really sound all that much like Daniel’s. Maybe his vocal cords were a bit sore after six back-to-back shows, but his usual stuffy-nosed/faux-British lilt had eroded into a soothing growl. He sounded more like a poppier version of the Walkmen’s Hamilton Leithauser, especially when the band kicked into the jaunty piano tune “Bring On The Terror,” during which his raspy wail struggled to find the right notes. Raw and emotional, Trokan helped balance out the sneaking suspicion that the rest of his bored-looking bandmates would rather have been sitting back in the van reading Kierkegaard.

The band started to look a bit more alive after Trokan traded in his acoustic guitar for an electric one midway through the set. At the first stabbing, staccato chords of “The Fatalist,” the audience began to fill up the dance floor, shuffling to the jerky, syncopated rhythm. Sure, the song sounds like a Spoon rip-off, but it’s so good that no one seemed to care, especially considering Spoon hasn’t written anything this dark and catchy since 2002’s Kill The Moonlight. The band finished the set with a few more songs from Grand Animals, including the nervous falsetto groove “Married Young” and the upbeat ballad “You Don’t Stand A Chance” before finally putting down their instruments and walking off the stage, never having said more than a few words to the audience in the past hour. It wasn’t the most rousing live show, but the band can write some good tunes, and that’s half the battle.

The other half, not surprisingly, was supplied by the Redwalls. In total contrast to Robbers, the brash four-piece bounded onstage, smacking on gum, strutting around yelling to the crowd, “How’s everybody feeling tonight? Alright?” Although the band seems to have finally dropped the fake British accents, not much else has changed. Their wardrobe was still pulled straight from the album sleeves of Abbey Road and Sticky Fingers (faded jeans, tight floral tops, ’70s dinner jackets, sharp-toed leather boots), and the music, well, it’s just what you would expect from a former British Invasion tribute band. They had their “Twist And Shout”-style vocals (“It’s Alright”), Stones-y blues licks (“Thank You”) and electric-era Dylan shuffles (“Colorful Revolution”). They even threw in a little Doobie Brothers-esque yacht rock to boot (“Game Of Love”).

Obviously, the band is fully aware that there’s not an original thought in its entire repertoire, and that’s the Redwalls’ main appeal. But they’re such good chameleons that it’s like playing Name That Tune to an hour-long classic-rock medley. Give them credit for having the musical talent, not to mention the balls, to pull it off, but it’s hard not to wish that the Redwalls would devote a little more of their energy to trying to write songs even half as good as the bands they imitate.

And winner of tonight’s (Almost) Cover Band Smackdown? Robbers On High Street, hands down, because substance will always beat style, no matter how convincing. Even after listening to some Redwalls songs on their MySpace page 10 minutes ago, I still can’t hum a single melody. On the other hand, I can’t get a few of the Robbers’ songs out of my head. Or are those Spoon songs?

—Miles Britton