Category Archives: We Love Music

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Hot Ticket: Potty Mouth @ DC9, 1/8/14

Potty Mouth (photo courtesy of Big Hassle)

Potty Mouth (photo courtesy of Big Hassle)

Hailing from North Hampton, Mass., punk quartet Potty Mouth visits DC to perform at DC9 on Wednesday, Jan. 8. The young band of women includes Abby Weems on vocals and rhythm guitar, Ally Einbinder on bass, Phoebe Harris on lead guitar and Victoria Mandanas on drums.

The ladies took a few minutes out of their touring schedule to answer a few questions for We Love DC via email.

Mickey: There have been a rush of young bands today embracing psychedelic or folk tendencies. Against this backdrop, Potty Mouth seems pretty refreshing with its guitar-driven punk melodies. Do you feel like you’re doing something different than your peers in your style of music?

Abby: I don’t think we’re doing anything that different than our peers. We were conceived out of an area with a lot of musical background, especially with punk elements, that it feels natural to be playing the way we do.

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Entertainment, Music, The Daily Feed, The Features, We Love Music
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We Love Music: A Q&A with The Jewbadours

Photo Courtesy of The Jewbadours

It can be tough being Jewish around Christmas time, especially when Hannukah ends shortly after Thanksgiving like it did this year. And while some of my fellow members of the tribe may or may not agree with that sentiment, I still choose to offer up a suitable celebration option for the end of 2013.

Upon scouring the internet for a fitting night of entertainment to combat my craving for an epic holiday season, I stumbled upon a listing for The Jewbadours on Jammin’ Java‘s website. The name reeled me in at first sight so I took to YouTube to find some of their performance footage.

The end result is a soulful albeit entertaining routine executed by a couple of fun-loving Jewish jokesters from New York… who also opted to do a Q&A with We Love DC so all of us can get to know each other a little bit better before they come to town this weekend. You can check out The Jewbadours on their first tour this Saturday night — December 21 — at Jammin’ Java (tickets are still available) in Vienna, VA.

We’d be remiss if we didn’t ask this right off the bat — The Jewbadours is a unique name for a band. Where did it come from, why did you end up making that choice, and how did the two of you end up making music together?

It was one of those glorious moments when an idea crystallizes in a couple of words. We’d love to take credit, but we were named by our manager, Stew Jackson. The three of us were sitting around eating pizza and watching the Knicks, talking about the kind of cover band we would be in. And then Stew said, “you guys should be called The Jewbadours.” We knew right then we had to make this band a reality.

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The Winning Ticket: Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue @ 9:30 Club, 12/31/13

TromboneShortyF_V2

As a way to say thanks to our loyal readers, We Love DC will be giving away a pair of tickets to a 9:30 Club concert to one lucky reader periodically. Keep your eyes open for opportunities to find out what tickets we’re giving away, and leave a comment for your chance to be the lucky winner!

Today, we are giving away a pair of tickets to see Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue at the 9:30 Club on Tuesday, Dec. 31.

Troy Andrews aka Trombone Shorty is bringing this band Orleans Avenue to celebrate New Year’s Eve at the 9:30 Club — two weeks from tonight! Trombone Shorty himself is a funky jazz bandleader who is an unparalleled performer on the trombone and trumpet. This performance will actually cap off a three-night run at the 9:30 Club, and it will include a complimentary champagne toast at midnight.

For your chance to win these tickets, simply leave a comment on this post using a valid email address between 10am and 5pm today. Feel free to leave any comment, but perhaps share your favorite song by Trombone Shorty! One entry per email address, please. Tickets for this show are also available through Ticketfly.

For the rules of this giveaway…

Comments will be closed at 5pm and a winner will be randomly selected. The winner will be notified by email. The winner must respond to our email within 24 hours or they will forfeit their tickets and we will pick another winner.

Tickets will be available to the winner at the 9:30 Club Guest List window one hour before doors open on the night of the concert. The tickets must be claimed with a valid ID. The winner must be old enough to attend the specific concert or must have a parent’s permission to enter if he/she is under 18 years old.

Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue
w/ Trouble Funk
9:30 Club
Tuesday, Dec. 31
doors @9pm
$75
All ages

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We Love Music: Hugh Cornwell @ Black Cat –12/5/13

Hugh Cornwell IMG_7040 Klaas Guchelaar

As some active music icons age, they often move away from the musical styles and lyrical causes that propelled them to public consciousness. They expand to new sounds or find new grounds, and they may bear little resemblance to their old selves.

While such an evolution may be understandable, it’s sometimes disappointing. While not everyone has to be Billy Bragg to maintain some degree of consistency in musical philosophy, it’s nice to see a sensible evolution in a musical career — rather than, say, searching for something new at age 50 to new discernible musical benefit.

Enter Hugh Cornwell, a punk icon who remains completely recognizable because he seems largely to be the same man he was at the beginning of his career but perhaps more mellow. He may be a case of a young punk rocker with a satiric bite but often soft sentimentalities, who becomes an older punk rocker with a no less satiric bite and more pronounced sentimentalities. In an appearance backstage at the Black Cat last Thursday, Dec. 5, Cornwell played a solid set drawn from this new album, Totem & Taboo, as well as a number of selections from his old band The Stranglers.

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The Winning Ticket: Gogol Bordello @ 9:30 Club, 12/27/13

GogolBordelloF_V2As a way to say thanks to our loyal readers, We Love DC will be giving away a pair of tickets to a 9:30 Club concert to one lucky reader periodically. Keep your eyes open for opportunities to find out what tickets we’re giving away, and leave a comment for your chance to be the lucky winner!

Today, we are giving away a pair of tickets to see Gogol Bordello at the 9:30 Club on Friday, Dec. 27.

Bringing Eastern European culture to us via New York City, Gogol Bordello released its sixth studio album, Pura Vida Conspiracy, back in July. As has become a tradition, the self-proclaimed “gypsy punk” band is hitting the 9:30 Club for two nights of revelry on Friday, Dec. 27, and Saturday, Dec. 28.

While the band (through various lineup changes) have consistently recorded high-energy klezmer, their off-the-wall live shows are truly the toast of their fans. Here is your opportunity to see what it’s all about for free — or perhaps to attend another? (I once knew a guy who went to more than 50 Gogol shows!)

For your chance to win these tickets, simply leave a comment on this post using a valid email address between 10am and 5pm today. Feel free to leave any comment, but perhaps share your favorite song by Gogol Bordello! One entry per email address, please. Tickets for this show are also available through Ticketfly.

For the rules of this giveaway…

Comments will be closed at 5pm and a winner will be randomly selected. The winner will be notified by email. The winner must respond to our email within 24 hours or they will forfeit their tickets and we will pick another winner.

Tickets will be available to the winner at the 9:30 Club Guest List window one hour before doors open on the night of the concert. The tickets must be claimed with a valid ID. The winner must be old enough to attend the specific concert or must have a parent’s permission to enter if he/she is under 18 years old.

Gogol Bordello
w/ Man Man
9:30 Club
Friday, Dec. 27
doors @8pm
$35
All ages

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Hot Ticket: Hugh Cornwell @ Black Cat, 12/5/13

Hugh Cornwell (Photo by Kevin Nixon)

Hugh Cornwell (Photo by Kevin Nixon)

I’ve just listened to Hugh Cornwell’s new album, Totem & Taboo, released back in January, and it’s quite good! The former frontman of The Stranglers still has a good, strong voice that sounds like smooth leather, capable of both challenging with a bit of satire or soothing with a pleasing thought.

The title track of the album is a jaunty tune that explores differences in attitudes that two people can have about the same thing. “God Is a Woman,” as Cornwell said in interviews, is a song inspired by the fact that ancient religions worshipped a female goddess and extrapolates that concept into admiration of women all around. “Love Me Slender” is a fun bunch of rhymes with a wry nod to the Elvis Presley song, and “Gods Guns and Gays” celebrates freedom of speech.

Cornwell comes to the backstage of the Black Cat on Thursday with the promise to play lots of his solo material with the addition of a couple of songs from his days in The Stranglers. A check of recent set lists shows he favors the new album, of course, but also plays some classics like “No More Heroes,” “Golden Brown” and “Nice ‘N Sleazy.”

DC post-punkers Dot Dash open for Cornwell.

Hugh Cornwell
w/ Dot Dash
Black Cat
Thursday, Dec. 5
Doors @8pm
$15
All ages

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Hot Ticket: Holograms @ DC9, 12/4/13

Holograms (Photo courtesy Captured Tracks)

Holograms (Photo courtesy Captured Tracks)

Holograms, a post-punk quartet from Sweden, kick off a three-week tour of the United States starting in DC tomorrow at DC9. Yesterday, they unveiled a video for their energetic single “Luminous” from their second album, Forever, released a few short months ago.

As you can hear from the song, Holograms are a bit of a cousin to Sweden’s Iceage. They share a similar appreciation for hardcore punk without completely giving themselves over to it. The young twenty-something band members — Andreas Lagerström (vocals/bass), Anton Strandberg (drums), Anton Spetze (vocals/guitar) and Filip Spetze (synths) — bring a strong synth presence to the songs, however, giving them a more melodic post-punk edge — albeit one with a lot of frenetic shouting. It’s dystopian rock with a beat, and you can dance to it.

TV Ghost, hailing from Indiana, open, promising some gothy sounds by way of The Cure.

Holograms
w/ TV Ghost
DC9
Wednesday, Dec. 4
Doors @8pm
$10 advance/$12 door
All ages

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We Love Music: Temples @ DC9 — 11/27/13

Temples (Photo by Ed Miles)

Temples (Photo by Ed Miles)

A time-tested strategy for independent bands to gain buzz and build an audience: releasing a few singles, playing a lot of shows, becoming the toast of many reviews.

Temples, the UK quartet from the English Midlands, find this strategy paying off for them with the release of a full album not yet due until the second week of February. But unlike many bands who follow the independent band strategy, Temples are well worth the hype, as they demonstrated in an extraordinary eight-song set at DC9 on Wednesday, Nov. 27.

Listening to Temples’ SoundCloud page in preparation for the show, as I did, prepares you for a band with rolling melodies and a lush full sound. For example, their latest single, “Keep in the Dark,” offers some great melodies among band members and some really pleasing psychedelic guitar riffs. So it’s no surprise that it’s a good song—one apparently a catchy acknowledgement of the comforts of staying up late as well as perhaps remaining unenlightened. But the live show simply takes it to another level.

Continue reading →

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The Winning Ticket: The Hives @ 9:30 Club, 12/10/13

TheHivesFAs a way to say thanks to our loyal readers, We Love DC will be giving away a pair of tickets to a 9:30 Club concert to one lucky reader periodically. Keep your eyes open for opportunities to find out what tickets we’re giving away, and leave a comment for your chance to be the lucky winner!

Today, we are giving away a pair of tickets to see The Hives at the 9:30 Club on Tuesday, Dec. 10.

They live in stately Hive Manor. They record on Disque Hives. The Hives are law, you are crime. Garage punk rockers The Hives are all about style — and quite a bit about goofy fun. Fronted by Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist, the live shows by the Swedish quintet have become legend. The Hives released a new album, Lex Hives in 2012, and they are coming back around to the 9:30 Club in support of it again. What crazy things will Almqvist say or do? What matching outfits with the band wear? How much moshing will occur? This is your chance to find out for free. Don’t be shy, see The Hives!

As an extra bonus, you’ll be one of the first to get a look at the new band from local guitar legend Mary Timony — Ex Hex. Timony, formerly of Helium and Wild Flag, started up the new band and put out a single, “Hot and Cold,” back in October. They already have a record deal with an LP due out in April. The glam tendencies of this all-female band likely will serve as a great segue/counterbalance to the rambunctious Hives.

For your chance to win these tickets, simply leave a comment on this post using a valid email address between 10am and 5pm today. Feel free to leave any comment, but perhaps share your favorite song by The Hives! One entry per email address, please. Tickets for this show are also available through Ticketfly.

For the rules of this giveaway…

Comments will be closed at 5pm and a winner will be randomly selected. The winner will be notified by email. The winner must respond to our email within 24 hours or they will forfeit their tickets and we will pick another winner.

Tickets will be available to the winner at the 9:30 Club Guest List window one hour before doors open on the night of the concert. The tickets must be claimed with a valid ID. The winner must be old enough to attend the specific concert or must have a parent’s permission to enter if he/she is under 18 years old.

The Hives
w/ Ex Hex
9:30 Club
Tuesday, Dec. 10
doors @7pm
$35
All ages

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The Winning Ticket: Matisyahu’s “Festival of Light,” 12/9/13

MatisyahuFAs a way to say thanks to our loyal readers, We Love DC will be giving away a pair of tickets to a 9:30 Club concert to one lucky reader periodically. Keep your eyes open for opportunities to find out what tickets we’re giving away, and leave a comment for your chance to be the lucky winner!

Today, we are giving away a pair of tickets to see Matisyahu at the 9:30 Club on Monday, Dec. 9.

Jewish reggae artist Matisyahu last year put out a new album, Spark Seeker, which hit the top of the reggae charts. More importantly, however, Matisyahu is bringing his annual celebration of Hanukkah to the 9:30 Club this year, which makes this a particularly unique performance! How often can you celebrate the holiday with your favorite artist? And Matisyahu’s cool, laidback attitude is certain to spread holiday cheer for everyone who goes, regardless of religion.

For your chance to win these tickets, simply leave a comment on this post using a valid email address between 10am and 5pm today. Feel free to leave any comment, but perhaps share your favorite song by Matisyahu! One entry per email address, please. Tickets for this show are also available through Ticketfly. (Check out that VIP package!)

For the rules of this giveaway…

Comments will be closed at 5pm and a winner will be randomly selected. The winner will be notified by email. The winner must respond to our email within 24 hours or they will forfeit their tickets and we will pick another winner.

Tickets will be available to the winner at the 9:30 Club Guest List window one hour before doors open on the night of the concert. The tickets must be claimed with a valid ID. The winner must be old enough to attend the specific concert or must have a parent’s permission to enter if he/she is under 18 years old.

Matisyahu’s “Festival of Light”
9:30 Club
Monday, Dec. 9
doors @7pm
$35
All ages

 

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Hot Ticket: Temples @ DC9, 11/27/13

Temples (courtesy Pitch Perfect PR)

Temples (courtesy Pitch Perfect PR)

Pysch-pop outfit Temples seem to be one of those bands that broke into UK public consciousness faster than the band could keep up with it! Not due to release their premiere LP Sun Structures until February, they already have opened for the likes of Suede and Kasabian. Now they are making their first solo tour in the United States, and they are hitting very accessible venues like DC9 this Wednesday, Nov. 27.

James Baghaw (vocals, guitar) and Tom Warmsley (bass) only formed the band in Kettering, England, in 2012, enlisted Sam Toms (drums) and Adam Smith (keyboards) and promptly started releasing singles on Heavenly Recordings in the same year.

As you can see in the band’s latest video above, for the song “Keep in the Dark,” they have a flair for classic psychedelic sounds and looks with modern theatrics and visuals. They might get too big to ever see them at a venue as intimate as DC9 again, so don’t miss out on this opportunity–particularly since the next day is a holiday!

Local shoegazers Myrrh Myrrh open.

Temples
w/ Myrrh Myrrh
DC9
Wednesday, Nov. 27
Doors @8pm
$10
All ages

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We Love Music: Deleted Scenes @ Iota Club —11/15/13

Photo Courtesy of Big Hassle

There was an energy in the room at Iota Club Friday night just before Deleted Scenes took the stage. Local alt-rockers Young Rapids started things off with a performance showcasing their musicianship and Canadian rock band The Grounders continued suit with a precise performance but the crowd made it quite obvious who they were at Iota to see by the night’s end.

Deleted Scenes played a wide-range of previously released material and fan favorites like “Bed Bed Bed Bed” as well as selections from their upcoming record Lithium Burn. Closer to the end of their set, lead singer and Olney, Md. native Dan Scheuerman found himself in the middle of the crowd which ended up being one of the night’s most memorable moments. One second he’s bending over the vocal stage monitor in front of his mic stand singing as if there was no tomorrow and the next second he’s crowd-surfing in the front three rows of people being “air-lifted” back to the stage. The crowd gladly obliged as they became vicarious members of the band if even just for a moment.

Bass player Matt Dowling took a few minutes to follow up with We Love DC about Friday’s show and what it felt like to be back in the DC area.

How did it feel to play back in the DC area after some time away?

It’s always great for us to play DC. Prior to last month’s show with the D-Plan, it had been a while. Getting to do both that show at 9:30, and then this one at Iota has been a really fun/fortunate double-header in DC. Continue reading →

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We Love Music: Charli XCX @ U Street Music Hall—11/16/13

Charli XCX @ Wellington Square (1/10/2012) stusev

The fashionable Charli XCX was perfectly at home at U Street Music Hall, backed by a talented all-girl band, as she purred and roared to a sold-out audience in the packed underground club.

But U Street Music Hall was absolutely packed so full that space to breathe was difficult to find unless you were far at the back end of the hall, suggesting that Charli really ought to be in the 9:30 Club or some other larger venue next time she comes to DC!

Charli’s cool visual style—in a pale dress and white leather jacket, contrasted to the short black dresses of her band—set the tone visually for a buoyant and electric show. She opened, however, with a rap song, “What I Like,” which isn’t in step with her overall darkly new wave sound. Once into the set, she really hits her stride with “Nuclear Seasons” and “Lock You Up”—both stunningly lush yet spiky pop songs that really set the tone for her album True Romance. It’s songs like these—songs of loneliness and alienation set to a powerful dance beat—that really form the foundation of True Romance, and I was absolutely thrilled to her sing them with vitality and passion.

Continue reading →

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The Winning Ticket: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds @ DAR Constitution Hall, 7/23/14

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (Photo by Cat Stevens)

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (Photo by Cat Stevens)

As a way to say thanks to our loyal readers, We Love DC will be giving away a pair of tickets to a 9:30 Club concert to one lucky reader periodically. Keep your eyes open for opportunities to find out what tickets we’re giving away, and leave a comment for your chance to be the lucky winner!

Today, the 9:30 Club has announced that it is presenting Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds at DAR Constitution Hall on Wednesday, July 23, 2014–and we are giving away a pair of tickets before you can buy them!

Wow! Lots of my friends sure adore Nick Cave and his often bluesy take on Americana-flavored post-punk. He’s certainly blazed his own trail throughout his career, beginning in the 70s with The Birthday Party and for much longer with the Bad Seeds. For many, his iconoclastic, bad boy image is part of his appeal, but the man and the band certainly are prolific so there is no shortage of music to explore.

The latest album by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Push the Sky Away, is a mostly compact race through nine songs dealing with seemingly unconnected sources of inspiration that Cave and his writing partner Warren Ellis picked up through some spare reading. On the whole, it may be a good jumping on point for those new to the works of Nick Cave, as it’s not terribly fussy or complicated outside some ornate arrangements.

For your chance to win these tickets, simply leave a comment on this post using a valid email address between 10am and 5pm today. Feel free to leave any comment, but perhaps share your favorite song by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds! (Grinderman doesn’t count…. although I’ll tally your entry either way.) One entry per email address, please. Tickets for this show are available to the public through Ticketmaster beginning Friday, Nov. 22, at 10am.

For the rules of this giveaway…

Comments will be closed at 5pm and a winner will be randomly selected. The winner will be notified by email. The winner must respond to our email within 24 hours or they will forfeit their tickets and we will pick another winner.

Tickets will be available to the winner at the box office of DAR Constitution Hall one hour before doors open on the night of the concert. The tickets must be claimed with a valid ID. The winner must be old enough to attend the specific concert or must have a parent’s permission to enter if he/she is under 18 years old.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
DAR Constitution Hall
Wednesday, July 23
show @8pm
$41.25-$70.35
All ages

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Hot Ticket: Charli XCX @ U Street Music Hall, 11/16/13

Charli XCX (Photo by Dan Curwin)

Charli XCX (Photo by Dan Curwin)

Charli XCX is best known for something for which we don’t associate her—she wrote the hit song “I Love It” for Icona Pop. That alone suggests that she’s pretty clever.

But listening to her latest album, True Romance, confirms that she does indeed have good ears for good beats. Charli has a talent for lacing together different musical threads into what critics have labeled “neon goth.” What does that mean exactly? Well her pop songs tend to be upbeat and sometimes even upbeat but with dark musical textures. Take her single “Nuclear Seasons” for example. The lyrics compare the aftermath of a rocky love affair to the desolation of nuclear war. Some “summer lovin’!”

Ultimately, the lady comes to dance, so come out to dance along with her collection of catchy songs. I’ve heard she’s an energetic and charismatic performer, and I’m looking forward to finding out firsthand at an early show at U Street Music Hall on Saturday.

Charli XCX
w/ Kitten, Liz
U Street Music Hall
Saturday, Nov. 16
Doors @6pm
$20
All ages

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Hot Ticket: 80s Dance Party@Black Whiskey, 11/16/13

80sdanceparty

It’s been pretty darn cold these past few days but DC is expected to warm up considerably this weekend! What better way to celebrate the warmth than to get out and dance?

And if you want to get out and dance, you might as well go for the gold and dance to some good synthpop. And that just happens be the theme of this month’s 80s Dance Party @ Black Whiskey, which this month presents Secret Circuits, a new recurring theme night.

The affable and capable DJ Neal Keller and I were once brainstorming after he was no longer hosting events in Adams Morgan. We hatched a concept for another dance party that he could spin somewhere–and to differentiate it from the pack of other 80s parties, we thought to focus it specifically on bands like OMD, Ultravox, Erasure, Soft Cell, Heaven 17, New Order, Yazoo, the Eurythmics and others!

To my delight, Neal (aka The Angel) has run with the idea, and he has recruited an extremely knowledgeable guest to assist in the form of DJ Bill Mallison, who hosted his own Kids in America party for a few years not too long ago. Monsieur Mallison is the master of pinpointing electronic and new wave music, breaking out everything from Book of Love to Tones on Tail. And I’m going to attempt to put up a video playlist at the Secret Circuits Tumblr to make the party interactive. (This is a *video* dance party after all!)

See you there!

80s Dance Party: Secret Circuits
Black Whiskey
Saturday, Nov. 16
doors @9pm
$5
21+

Entertainment, Get Out & About, Life in the Capital, Music, Night Life, The District, We Love Music
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We Love Music: The Head And The Heart @ 9:30 Club – 11/04/13

The Head And The Heart

Last night, despite a 10pm set time, a frigid Monday night and a developing cold, I bundled up and hit the 9:30 Club to check out the Seattle group The Head And The Heart (THATH).

Had THATH been some sort of electronica, disco-pop, techno-ish band, then I would have been tucked away in my apartment downing Nyquil, but as I was familiar with the group, I knew to expect country/indie folk ballads with a kick of ELO’s “Mr. Blue Sky,” The Beatles “A Day in the Life,” and Dexy Midnight Runner’s “Come On Eileen.”

The band took the stage shortly after 10pm, played about an hour and 15 minute set and produced a show identical to their recorded albums. Now when I see someone, I don’t expect a group to sound incredibly different or even “better,” but I do expect something – a tone, a sound, an energy, a vibe, a connection – that differentiates the performance from what I can listen to in my living room. Personally speaking, this show was a bit of a let down.

Continue reading →

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We Love Music: Gary Numan @ Black Cat — 10/27/13

Gary Numan Jason Persse

I quite like Gary Numan — the musician and the man.

His new album Splinter (Songs From a Broken Mind) undeniably shows influences of his association with Nine Inch Nails — but to be fair, Nine Inch Nails have long been admiring Numan. So it perhaps is only fair that the two musical acts would commingle. Nine Inch Nails guitarist Robin Finck played on some of Splinter’s tracks and joined him live on several recent tour dates.

The influence clearly was felt in the show at the Black Cat on Sunday, Oct. 27. Numan was energetic and in good form with a strong band that handled their goth guitar pretty well. They were very tight on “Everything Comes Down to This,” a new song from Splinter, demonstrating impressive range. The song is at times sparse and ethereal and at other times full and frenetic. Numan’s voice was strong and his physical flourishes added a great deal to his performance.

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We Love Music: Sparks @ 9:30 Club – 10/27/13

Ron and Russell Mael (photo courtesy Sparks)

Ron and Russell Mael (photo courtesy Sparks)

Sparks are certainly an acquired taste. The brothers Ronald and Russell Mael have been touring their Two Hands, One Mouth show for several years now. In so doing, Ron Mael (two hands on keyboards) and Russell Mael (one mouth on vocals) have condensed their catalogue into a vaudevillian presentation of their efforts to deconstruct pop music.

It’s not music for the masses, so its reception in any given venue is going to be a bit of a mystery. The Maels openly wondered if they would be well received at the 9:30 Club on Sunday evening after a long absence from D.C. At the end of the show, they seemed quite pleased with the comfortably half-full club, which contained quite a few admirers of Sparks’ clever word play and occasionally theatrical posturing.

Continue reading →

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Hot Ticket: Sparks @ 9:30 Club, 10/27/13

sparks

I caught Sparks in two very different shows back in April. I hit up their sold-out performance at Hollywood Forever, a masonic mausoleum in Los Angeles, where Ron and Russell Mael did a full-length show but alone with Ron on keyboards and Russell on vocals.

It was slightly amazing to see them in such an intimate venue with people who were truly fans. I got caught up on some of their recent work like the addictively catchy “The Rhythm Thief” from Lil’ Beethoven. Well, I say recent although that album is now 10 years old. I went to the show exclusively to hear selections like “The Number One Song in Heaven,” which also did not disappoint.

I next saw them at The Coachella Valley Music Festival, where some people really loved them, some people were puzzled and some were just hanging out.

When Sparks play at the 9:30 Club this Sunday, Oct. 27, I suspect you’ll find more of the people who really love them, as this is a rare area performance by the synthpop duo. They play more in Europe, where they are much more popular, and in Los Angeles, their hometown.

In advance of the show, the 9:30 Club interviewed them for its blog, and it sounds like the gents have a good show planned for Thursday. And that they are working on material beyond their recent effort to score an independent film in development, The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman.

This is a rare opportunity to catch Sparks locally as they play an early show at the 9:30 Club! Come out and beat the clock! :)

Sparks
9:30 Club
Sunday, Oct. 27
Doors @6pm
$25
All ages