About tonight

Japandroids’ second LP, “Celebration Rock,” is the type of inspired record that can only come from a driven refusal of letting a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity go to waste. For starters, it wasn’t even supposed to happen.

The Vancouver garage duo was about to call it quits when its last-ditch effort and first official LP, 2009’s “Post-Nothing,” unexpectedly took off and allowed the band to live its dreams of touring.

Two years later, Brian King and David Prowse woke up with more than just memories — they had found massive acclaim, an international fan base and reason to go for their magnum opus.

It is this now-or-never outlook that fuels “Celebration Rock,” an honest, coming-of-age effort and a shoe-in as one of 2012’s finest. King airs out his anxiety about future uncertainties on opener “The Nights of Wine and Roses” and remembers more audacious days on “Younger Us,” but is ultimately concerned with one thing only on “Celebration” — tonight.

Similar to “Post-Nothing,” “Celebration” consists of just eight tracks (including a cover of the Gun Club’s “For the Love of Ivy”) and clocks in at a little more than 35 minutes, but it’s absolutely seamless this time — held together by the impenetrable strength of two best bros’ tobacco- and liquor-enhanced clarity at 3 a.m.

By Steven Arroyo