BigYawn

Talk about a band hitting it big. Wild Light(105) have toured with The Arcade Fire, Tapes n Tapes, The Killers, Doves(106) and will be touring soon with DAM! Festival alumni Stellastarr* and The Wallflowers. A pretty weird collection when you put it all together, but this band has some serious miles on it. After hearing them I can see how they fit as a good opener for some of the bands above, but I have to admit they didn’t quite seem right for Doves. We’ll assume there was some sort of label deal or whatnot to make this tour happen — bands from Manchester, UK tend not to hang out with bands from New Hampshire — so we’ll assume Doves did not pick these guys. I mean it wasn’t awkward, but it was pretty damn obvious no one in the sold out 9:30 Club crowd was all that interested in hearing Wild Light.

This of course, doesn’t mean the band was terrible. It just meant they weren’t Doves. After seeing the list of bands Wild Light is touring with, The Wallflowers seem more like a more sonically pleasing touring partner. Wild Light has a fairly straight forward alternative rock sound, neither terribly displeasing or exciting, just kind of is, if you know what I mean. The type of band that could certainly achieve success by being in the right place at the right time, and based on their touring schedule, they certainly have put themselves in front of the right people.

And then finally, Doves returned to DC. I haven’t seen them since June of 2002 when they played the Club with Elbow. I know they came back with Mercury Rev, but I missed it. So, very excited to see them again, even if I was not a fan of Some Cities. I haven’t given Kingdom of Rust the proper listen either, but initial feelings make me think it is a more appropriate follow-up to The Last Broadcast, one of my favorite albums of the 00’s.

Doves did end up playing a lot of music off the last two albums, but hearing some of this music live made me appreciate it more. They also mixed in a few songs from The Last Broadcast, and a couple tracks off Lost Souls. They even managed to work in an old Sub Sub track(”Space Face”), per usual. Not sure why they don’t play that material more often, but given the transformation of the band over the years, I suppose it makes sense.

While not in love with the song selection, I felt this was a great show overall. The crowd was extremely supportive, which I found interesting. Not only did the show sell out, but the fans were crazy, constant clapping and cheering. Not something you often see in DC. But they may have all simply felt like me, that it has been five long years since Doves came around. Hopefully they will come a with a new album or at least another tour before another five years has past.

While I was at this show a friend of mine asked me about good local bands. It has been long enough since I have been seeing a lot of local shows that I’m not sure I can name that many still together. But I think we were both pleasantly surprised that Ra Ra Rasputin(102) fit the bill, as a band I have seen mentioned probably 100 times in the past year, but only now got to see them.

I like these guys a lot, and I’ll tell you why. They don’t simply make dance music for the lowest common denominator. Too often I have seen bands make this dance/electronica music seem all about the beats and trashy lyrics. Ra Ra Rasputin seem more of a throw back to New Order and other Factory Records bands (Note: the band knows it too, even passing out show flyers with old Factory Records artwork on them). Not at all what I was expecting, but it is so nice to see intelligent music you can dance to, and coming from a DC band of all places! They list Q and Not U as influences on their myspace site, and I can see that, but where Q and Not U took their music further on the punk side, Ra Ra Rasputin go just as far with smart, almost euro-styled indie rock. I’m really looking forward to catching this band someplace better than the backstage of the Black Cat.

On the flip side of that equation, sort of, was the New Jersey band Real Estate(103). I also did not know what to expect from this foursome, other than they were liked by Love is All(104)’s people enough to play this show. Let’s face facts, this is a weird looking bunch of guys but their music has some interesting Sonic Youth qualities to it, but they really only seem to scratch the surface. It is no surprise to see them playing shows with Vivian Girls or Waaves, nor is it odd to see them playing shows at Death by Audio, the NY hipster recording studio/venue run by some of the dues from A Place to Bury Strangers.  Their music seems like a mix of all of the above, and then some. Sometimes saccharine sweet, sometimes loud noise, the band doesn’t seem to have too many songs that even sound remotely the same. But in the end, that is what makes them interesting. No where near as easy to pin down as Ra Ra Rasputin, I couldn’t help but be fascinated imagining what these guys do for day jobs. I’m pretty sure that could tell us a great deal more about who we’re dealing with here. In lieu of that it feels like I listened to an unfinished product, a band not entirely sure of what they are doing. But that’s ok too I suppose.

I am proud to say I booked Love is All for their first DC show ever at DC9 a number of years ago. I believe it was only their second or third US show total. Sadly, there were far less people at that show than at this one. Well, sad for me anyway, the band seems to have done just fine. Love is All have been doing quite well for themselves since, building a healthy fan base the old fashioned way, by blogs and touring.

What I like about Love is All most, is the inability to dislike them. They are simply too energetic a band, too genuine, too seemingly happy. Whether or not this is all true or simply a figment of my imagination I have no idea, but it certainly seems that way. I’m not sure I could even name a Love is All song, but I’ve heard all their albums and enjoy seeing them when they come to town. Something about LIA and other Swedish bands in particular, just makes them so lovable.

Perhaps Sweden has some secret experiments going on, and they are simply playing with our minds, making us fall in love with band after band, song after song, turning us all into some sort of Stepford consumer. Brilliant Sweden, brilliant.

This was not a show I had planned on going to. Cake(101), or CAKE, or whatever, are a 90’s alterna-band who have managed to keep going thanks to a few hit singles still getting airplay on whatever generic rock station your city has, plus the support of what I’ve learned is a horrifically rabid fan base, foaming mouths and all. Scratch that, I’m not afraid of an insane, dying dog with a familiar neuroinvasive disease. I am however deeply concerned about running into a Cake fan in a dark ally.

I was struck by not only that every Cake fan knew every single word, to every single song, but also by how often they jumped up and down singing these words to each other. I imagine a typical conversation going like this:

Dude #1: “Dude, I hope they play “No Phone” tonight.”

Dude #2: “Aww, me too, I love that song, I wish I won that tree, I knew it was a cherry tree, you know, like George Washington, right?”

Dude #1: “Yeah I — OH MY GOD!!! “No Phone!!!” Points to dude #2, “No phone No phone…”

Dude #1 and Dude #2: “I just want to be alone today, No phone no phone, Shaking quaking…”

Dudes #1 and #2 then go one to sing the whole song to each other, as if they just found out that Led Zepplin was playing a secret show that they just walked into. Remember Wayne and Garth? Yeah, well they were at this show…

Hey, I’m not gonna take anything away from Cake, nice career guys, way to keep at it, keep doing different things ( I guess). But seriously, drop the psycho fans. The last thing you want to be known as is the Rocky Horror Picture show of alterna-pop. Then, oddly, when the “singles” I remember from the radio got played, the fans were at their quietest. So, not only are they insane, but apparently Cake fans are also the snooty New England country club types too.

I blame my friend Molly for dragging me to this show, and for being one of the nutjob fans. And for being crazy enough to ask me recently if I wanted to go see them again. No, the answer is no.

And seriously, when did railroad conducter hats become in? Did Edaville Railroad have a sale?

Band number 100, how smashing. This sort of means this whole 333 bands thing is actually going to happen. I think. What was really exciting was that this show was one I was pretty damn excited about. Young Love(100) is so cheesy he is actually good. And he had never headlined in DC at all, which I was later to find out was for a very good reason. More on that shortly.

My 33 Black Angels(99) were the openers here, not counting a couple of local DJ types. Safe to say these guys couldn’t have sounded much more different from Young Love. Their loud indie rock, think Primal Scream for the younger set, certainly wasn’t poorly done. Admittedly I came in a different state of mind, so initially was a little turned off by their music. But after listening further, I actually liked their stuff a lot. Opening for a more compatible band will help them, the underage kids at this show were obviously not their for them. I haven’t the slightest idea how they ended up on the bill, as I heard a band member talking to a friend at the bar, saying he didn’t have a clue who Young Love was, but that sound check sounded pretty good. This is funny because DC9 never used to sound check the headliner’s unless the band pressed them on the issue. Welcome to Young Love.

Seriously, this is hard for me to write, because I hate chopping down a band I like. But the truth is the truth: Young Love, specifically Dan Keyes, is a bit of a spoiled brat. Dan is the main writer behind the music, and up until recently, didn’t even share the name with his backing band, at least not according to his press. But that’s cool, finally sharing the love with your bandmates is a good thing, even if you are the only eye-candy for all the press. But when you don’t even set up your own equipment even though they do? And you have your tour manager passing you guitars for the two songs you actually play them on? Lame. And let’s talk about how all tour manager seem to wear odd winter caps all the time…

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Young Love’s music is cheesy dance pop, as I stated above, so it is not for everyone. Hopefully it is for more than the 35 people in attendance at this show, but I really can’t tell what demographic this music is best suited for. I’m an anomaly, I know. The show was not as good as I expected, but that isn’t surprising, it can be hard to properly translate what is on record to a live show when you are so synth heavy and reverb drenched. Unfortunately the band played a fair amount off the new album out this year, and only a couple songs from 2007’s Too Young to Fight it. Understandable, but still unfortunate, as I prefer their debut to the new stuff. But, the fact of the matter is, they only played 9 songs. The band abruptly finished their set and walked off stage, no encore to be had, even if the few of us in attendance had torn the place down. I saw the sound guy look at the club owner with a “I guess this is it?” look on his face. The venue had no doubt expected more from them — and likely paid them a fair amount as well — so this had to be disappointing. And hey, I get that this show was likely a let down to the band as well, they had played  bigger venues throughout the tour, and DC9 was pretty empty and frankly felt cavernous for this show, given the few in attendance. It sucks, sure. But why be a dick? Again, some of us were there and excited to see the band, why punish us?

Anyway, doesn’t mean I’l stop listening to the music, but I will have to think twice about seeing them live again. And since this was my 100th band, I had high hopes. Consider however, that I have 233 bands left, I’m sure someone will make up for it.

As I’ve learned, you need to be careful when you review a friend’s band. People take this shit seriously, even if the 50 or so of you reading this blog don’t. Fair and balanced, that’s my motto.

In Technicolor(97) are not friends of mine, which is a good thing, cause I might have given them so tough love if that were the case. The epitome of a 60’s/70’s beach pop band, these guys take their nostalgia pretty seriously, especially the lead singer, who’s Leif Garrett/David Crosby/Andy Gibb looks frankly scare me a little. If he had only a little more hair on his chest we’d all be in trouble. The music isn’t bad by any means, it is very poppy and danceable, and is very, very light. So, That 70’s Show, check. Frost/Nixon, not so much. As the band themselves proclaimed, they are big hits with the teeny-bopper scene, and I can completely see why this is.

A telling moment was when the lead-singer (Drew Morris) talked about one song as something he “ripped off from a 50’s song.” The truth is, their entire set is ripped off from a previous decade not starting in an 8 or 9. And that is ok, as these guys handle themselves well on this material, and it obviously works as part of their shtick. BUT, and there is a big BUT, a band can only get so far on this sort of thing. Ask The Darkness or the Scissor Sisters. But for a regional college-type band, maybe these guys can hang in there long enough to make something of themselves.

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There are a couple of guys I know from the Beanstalk Library, the two founding members and writing force, Ryan Walker and Brian Kent, both pictured left. The rhythm section has recently been swapped out, and this was their first live show in months. As usual with the ’stalk, they pulled additional muscle from a number of bands, including Exit Clov(63), Bellflur and this show’s opener — who I missed — Typefighter(61). This arrangement seems to work well for the band, as they are able to swap out additional instruments to add layers to their normal four-piece sound. Aside from new band members the band was also highlighting some “new” songs they had recently debuted on a number of DC-based blogs. Some of these songs the band had been playing live for awhile now, but a couple seemed fairly new to me. The band’s material has always been steady to great, the Library really don’t write bad songs. The best are the ones that utilize Walker’s voice, often throwbacks to classic roots rock. I’m a sucker for ballads, and the band is very good at writing them, including one of their “new” songs, “It Has Made all the Difference,” long a personal favorite of mine. They have been playing this one for over two years now, but it remain a highlight of the set and has been augmented by a slightly new arrangement. A perfect example of a slowly layered song with an amazing crescendo.

I know the guys from the Library, Ryan and Brian, have been working hard on finally getting discovered; playing shows up and down the coast, SXSW etc. Their story is not uncommon, but their hard-work is. It is difficult to stand out in their genre, but those who do accomplish success do so via their songwriting. Luckily for the Beanstalk Library, this is one of their strengths. Hopefully the band that will catch their break sometime soon.

The last time The Field(95) was supposed to play DC, there was a run in with the always dodgy visa issues. His first album Here We Go Sublime was impressive for a few different reasons. For one, it was a techno album that Pitchfork and I could agree on. And, it was one that a lot of people seemed to hear about, even those not all that into dance music. I’m still not sure if The Field is really only one guy, Axel Wilner, or if, like the live show, there are more folks involved. Regardless, I really like his/their music and the live show was pretty rewarding.

It is always great to see DC folks dance, and many were, as Axel and co. went through through tunes old and new — not that I remembered any of their names — for over an hour, which is interesting for an “opening band” but not all that surprising since this really seemed to be a co-headlining type of show. I actually made my girlfriend miss seeing the Bangles to catch this show, and I think, or hope,  The Field was worth it for her.

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On the other hand, was the Juan MacLean(96). Looking deeper at this tour, it works on some levels, but stylistically not so much. On one end of the spectrum you have the straight techno thumping of The Field, with no vocals and almost no breaks between songs, the music itself barely ever stopping. Then you had the DFA dance-funk of the Juan MacLean, which like LCD Soundsystem, is pretty laden with vocals. Each track isn’t mixed together at all, making this less a dance party, and more just a straight up concert. Nothing wrong with that, but still seems more and more like an odd match-up.

On top of that, after hearing The Field for over an hour, the Juan MacLean just seemed dated and almost, dare I say it, boring. This seems odd for a band known for their danceable beats, but honestly, the band just seemed disinterested. There was a poor crowd showing for this show, and more than a few of this smaller crowd left after The Field, so I can understand how the band might have been a little bored and not so excited to play this show, but that is a poor excuse for mailing it in to the fans who did show up. Maybe that really wasn’t the reason why, but if that was their “A” game I’d be pretty surprised.

So, this show was really a 50/50 split, with The Field (who I admittedly was there to see) being great, and the Juan MacLean being less than.

They say that Cincinnati is really a part of Kentucky, and not Ohio. If you’ve ever seen Cincinnati locals Sundresses(93) play a live show, that geographical anomaly remains frozen in your mind. Sundresses are some combination of surf, punk, Americana and garage rock, with a lot of weird shit thrown in. It was a little hard to watch, cause I never really had a sense for what the Hell was going on, but I get the idea that the band would be quite happy knowing that.

A threesome, this is not the band you bring home to mom. The bassist/trombonist, i.e. the girl not wearing all that much in the cloths department, seemed a little trailer inclined, and the other two guys looked like they fell of the Jim Beam distillery truck. The songs had some  interesting parts, but it was when you stopped and listened to the lyrics that you had to pause and wonder, WTF? Extremely repetitive and completely nonsensical, whether the songs were about the “pennyman” or Jesus not caring about you, there was not much here. How these guys got paired with Liechtenstein(94) is a bit of a mystery, but if the booker at the Velvet Lounge only knew the name of the band, it wouldn’t be hard to think he connected that to Slumberland, Liechtenstein’s label and purveyor of lots of sundressy type pop.

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Which, given the above, I expected Liechtenstein to be a bit more sunny than they actually were. They were far more haunting and darker then I initially expected. They still held to the girl-group sound, but they were so soaked in reverb Phil Spector should be turning over in his cell bunk. And I’m not talking about a guitar or two, I’m talking about everything plugged in except the lead vocals were drenched in echoey fuzziness. This is clearly where the haunting sound came from, but also where the band separated itself a bit from their recorded material, which was ever so slightly sweeter. Not necessarily  a bad thing either, but still very different.

I was excited to see so many people out for this show, considering Liechtenstein is not an all that well known commodity. The band, playing their last US show on thei first US tour before heading back to Sweden, really match up well with another 2009 darling, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart(21), in terms of their sound, which pairs this fuzzy-reverb with an almost twee sounding type of pop music. Perhaps this is the sound of 2009, as both bands have burst on the scene in a pretty small amount of time. I’m not entirely sold, but I was fairly impressed with both band’s live performances. In this case, Liechtenstein weren’t super memorable, but would certainly be worth a second listen when they next hit DC.

DAM! Festival alums Olivia Mancini and the Mates(91) (sans the house part) opened up this show, where I was supposed to finally see Edie Sedgwick. Alas, life got in the way and I left a band early, catching only Olivia and Co. and Chicago’s the Poison Arrows(92). Not the end of the world, but disappointing none-the-less.

Olivia and her band, which seemed vastly different on this night from previous incarnations — no idea if this permanent or not — played what you have come to expect from them: glistening, easy on the ears 60’s styled pop. 60’s styled pop doesn’t fully capture the sound of the band though, you need to throw in a little Swedish pop, and maybe a dose of sugar and spice. That almost sounds negative, but it totally isn’t. To dislike this band you either have to be deaf or hate chocolate cake and cookies, possibly both. Olivia, long the normal one from her previous band the Washington Social Club, has obvious pop sensibilities that makes her personal brand of power-pop far more soothing than her earlier collaborations. What the Mates don’t have in the jangle or dance categories they easily make up for in their Beach Boys harmonies and basic formulas. When you come to pop music, keeping it simple is not a bad thing. As mentioned above, there appears to be some revolving door of mates, so for further info, check out an Olivia and the Mates show near you for more details

The Poison Arrows appeared to be suffering from lots of technical difficulties, which might have been why they all seemed to be in foul moods up on stage. They went on pretty late, which I’ll also chalk up to the technical issues. They didn’t sound bad, but it was all a pretty loud and murky mess, so it is actually very difficult to even give a fair description of their sound. Besides the loud part of course.

It is hard when I see a band that appears to not want to be on stage, as that seems to directly correlate with me not wanting to stand there and watch them be on stage  So we can agree on something so simple, yet we are both tied into this activity that no one wants to occur. It is an odd game that I have played more than once so far this year, and will likely play again sometime soon. Poison Arrows lost this one though, as I left. But, I like some of the stuff on their myspace page, so please don’t just go on my references.

There is no doubt that I could write a lot about seeing Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band(90) for the very first time. Yeah, our seats were behind the stage, but it still sounded great. Yes, I only knew a handful of the songs they played, but I really don’t think you need to know them to really “get” Bruce and co. Absolutely, what everyone says about a Springsteen show is dead on: the energy, the marathon of music, these guys are true performers in every way. I could say that Clarence Clemons looked terrible, but for all I know he could be having serious health problems that I’d be making lite of. And without a doubt, the crowd was as Jersey as you’d think they’d be, and I’ve got nothing more to say about that (pssst: velour jumpsuits as far as the eye could see).

But what I do want to say, in trying to keep this review fairly short, is how much Bruce seemed to run this concert, and presumably all the others on this tour and beyond, as a preacher runs his congregation. The similarities are over-whelming, and the more I think about it, the more it all makes sense.

Bruce has always been a man of the people, regardless of how many millions he has in the bank. And he speaks to his flock as if he and they are really all one. He gave this long “We’re gonna rock this place” diatribe — which apparently he has been doing since his last  tour — and that gets the crowd up into a frenzy. He takes requests from the audience, plays songs they want to hear ( “Little Latin Lupe Lu” and “Hava Nagila” in DC, apparently “London Calling” in Philly), even bringing fans and kids on stage to help him sing along. He then speaks to the tired and hungry, talks about charities in the particular city, and sings some tunes to bring a certain solemness to the proceedings, only to rile everyone up again to finish the set. Without even getting into where many of his songs actually come from, this all seems to me as if Bruce is actually holding his version of the church of rock. And who better to do it?

I don’t know, I’m just telling it as I saw it. For my first Bruce concert, it was very memorable. Not being what qualifies as a fan — especially not when I was surrounded by so many folks who knew the words to every song — I think I got about as much from the show as anyone in my situation could have. I don’t know if I will go to a Bruce show again; probably, but it will likely be at someone else’s bidding. But I finally got to experience what Bruce and the really incredible E St. Band brings to the table, and that goes well beyond the music. It is hard not tot walk out of there and be energized, hard not to be just a little closer to that rock god in the sky…

Confusing Delta Spirit(88) with the Duke Spirit really isn’t cool. But for a while, I thought it was the UK darlings opening, not these southern boys. Totally my bad, but I’m not sure it would have changed my thought process: see only as many opening band songs as required.

Though, the guys from Delta Spirit have nothing to hold their heads about, for the half set I saw, they played it balls out, with tons of energy and a sound that a lot of folks like, though it is pretty generic. It really felt like the band played with a certain amount of earnestness, and I know that sounds like a funny comment, but I really believe these guys love what they are doing, and that they firmly think they are good enough to make a splash in the indie rock world. And hey, they might be right. But it struck me funny that that was my take-away: Good old-fashioned southern boys trying to make good. It is an equation that has worked many times in the past, so who am I to judge.

One thing else I noticed, was the unbelievable amount of folks talking at this show. I was pretty far to the back, and it was ridiculous how many people were talking during the set. This is very different from the Leonard Cohen or Mastodon crowds from earlier in the week. I used to think this sort of thing only happened at Iota, but the reality is, it appears to be the indie rock fans who talk a lot. A direct correlation with hipsters who don’t even come for the music? Draw your own conclusions.

As you may be able to tell from the photo at the right, James Mercer just up and fired half his band and brought new guys on, but I couldn’t find any press photos of the “new” group. So, I went with an old one, identifying the two dudes who got booted, including the alleged girl-friend beating guy — the one on the left. Apparently the guy on the right now runs a taco stand in Portland. A victim of these hard economic times?

The Shins(89) were pretty good overall, but they have always tended to play songs in a way that makes them sound like you are listening to their album. They rambled off a fair mix of songs from all three of their LPs, along with a couple new songs. Mercer blamed the firing of the other band guys on the fact that they really didn’t fit the “new” material. From what I could tell of the new stuff, it seemed very upbeat, and border-line dancey. This is of course a vast difference from the band’s beginnings, which were rather melancholy and sublime, and somewhat on the very low-tempo side of things. I can’t say Mercer’s voice was perfectly suited for the newer songs, but his high pitch does always makes the songs very much his. Covers of both the Beach Boys and the Beta Band sounded like they could have just as easily been really really good Shins songs. There is no way you can deny Mercer’s singing is unique.

This was a remarkably better show than the last time I saw the band, years ago at the Black Cat. That was right after Shutes Too Narrow. I was not a fan of Wincing the Night Away, so it must simply be that they are playing the older material better. I’m curious to see how they handle the new material and what sort of album comes out of this new version of the band.