So, I went to Foster the People (I ended up with 5 people from the DC
Indie Concerts Meetup group), and the verdict is: worth seeing.
The
openners were entirely forgetable. Nothing wrong with them, but
nothing special either. Just two guy bands standing around doing their
average music. One of them was from California and only mumbled their name
one time. (Seriously? You're trying to sell music and not telling audiences
your name?? Get a clue!) The second band was from Nashville and had the word
"villa" and maybe "garden" in the name. I'm beginning to think that 9:30 club
deliberately makes the vocals impossible to hear for all openners. Or maybe
the fuzzy distortion was their "sound". Meh.
Foster the People didn't
go on until after 10:15, and concluded at around 11:15. To the best of my
knowledge, the lead singer is also the songwriter, so I tend to think of
their music as "his" music. It's a 5 guy band heavy on synths and drums, but
with guitar and bass too. All the guys were barely-out-of-college young and
energetic, clean cut and cute (not hot, just cute - not mature enough looking
to be hot). I was surprized that the lead singer's vocals were consistently
nasal, but I came to accept that it's just his sound; it is distinctive and
has a 1970's teen soul vibe to it. The impressive part of the show was how
confident they all were on stage. No pretention, just physically comfortable
acting engaged and energetic on stage. It was a solid show. The guys switched
instruments often, and the singer was bouncy and dancing with seemingly
boundless energy. He also COMMITTED. When he sang all out, you could see his
back molars. (Well I could. I was in the 3rd row from the stage.) I
wish
there had been more banter with the audience, but that's my only critique. I
left the show amazed that such a young band (like 1 year old) had
such impressive stage skill. I'm pretty confident that this band is heading
towards mass popular success. The September show will likely be your last
chance to say you saw them when. It's also probably your last chance to see
them while their
music still seems new - before they are overplayed on the
radio and used in commercials and teen soap operas on TV. I kept comparing
them to Maroon 5 in my head.
I recommend you go (several of you want
to, and I've met you all and you will like each other), but I will sit the
September show out. It was a solidly good show, but not one I want to see
twice.
As for the Meetup group, that was a good enough experience to do
again. They weren't as extremely young as I'd feared - probably late
20s/early 30s. A couple of them were recent transplants to the area. Nice
people, though I didn't meet any concert-going soul mates. It wasn't creapy,
if you want to give Meetup a try. It seems like a really good option for
obscure bands at Red Palace and Rock and Roll Hotel that you might otherwise
have trouble talking this list into.
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