By 
All photos by Erin McCann
Broken Records may have been the headliners at Black Cat’s show last Sunday night, but DC locals US Royalty stole the show. Having recently sold out a show at the Rock and Roll Hotel, and launching a national tour in support of their self-released debut album Mirrors, US Royalty had no problem filling up the tiny Backstage. US Royalty channeled this rock ‘n roll energy straight from the 70s – bombastic and fearless. Despite their relative lack of experience, they came off as true rock stars.
Broken Records, with their melancholy, indie-folk style, couldn’t live up to the energy of the preceding set. They occasionally hit their stride, with the entire group working together to create something large and beautiful – but after US Royalty’s set, I just wasn’t excited by most of their songs. They sounded like a band still trying to figure things out, rather than a band with two full-length albums behind them – and a band once praised as the Scottish Arcade Fire.