Purity Ring, early show May 29, 2015 at 9:30 Club

Purity Ring is not a Christian rock band - it's a an electronic pop band that likes to be abstract in an artsy way and has a lights fetish. I mean all those things in the very best way. The duo is wonderful to watch live - I've seen them three times now, and was impressed every time. In March, Natalie became a big fan of some songs from their 2015 album, notably Push Pull and Bodyache. When the early show tix for Friday night went on sale, we grabbed them for Natalie, Eric and I. Then a few weeks later I realized that we could turn it into her birthday party celebration, so I bought three more for her BFFs and arranged a sleepover for my son, then loaded up on glow gear.

The night of the show, I picked up the girls from school, painted their faces and bedecked them with glow lights, took them to a hibachi restaurant for dinner, then drove to 9:30 Club, where I got them all shirts. As we entered, I told a couple 9:30 Club employees that it was Natalie’s birthday, then I tweeted both the 9:30 Club and the band. During the second opener, the tour manager found us and told us that Megan (Purity Ring’s singer) saw the flashing glow lights and wanted to offer VIP box seats to us.  I don’t know which tactic actually worked. We were actually standing on the balcony, in view of the window to the dressing rooms. Net effect: we got to sit in VIP with the best view in the house. Even better, Megan called out Natalie from stage and led the crowd in Happy Birthday.  As we left, tons of strangers wished her a happy birthday. It was the best 10 year old birthday EVER.

Here’s the video.

 The show itself was excellent. Sound was good and the light show amazing.

I honestly don’t remember much about the openers. Born Gold had a dark stage and danced weird, (according to the girls). I remember Natalie being grossed out by the singer showing his armpits and a lot of jumping around on stage. BRAIDS was a little more pop/dance, and the keyboardist had an interesting dance that resembled a seizure. Here are the set times: 6pm Doors, 6:30 - Born Gold, 7:15 - BRAIDS, 8:15 - Purity Ring.

From Eric:
We just caught Purity Ring at the 9:30 Club. I have never thought much for their music when I have heard it on the radio, but it really comes across great live. However, the star of the night for me was the light show. I typically do not take notice of that kind of stuff, but it really was amazing. Each song had its own personalized light theme and there was always some component that was linked directly to one of the instruments or vocals. If you are into concerts, I would consider this a must see act.

Of course my impartial judgment of the evening is a bit tainted by the fact that the club offered us seats in the VIP section thanks to Anita Wiler’s guerilla Twitter tactics. She dropped a few notes that our daughter was celebrating her birthday that night, and we ended up with a seat upgrade and the band even led the entire crowd in a rendition of “Happy Birthday”.

Sweetlife Festival at Merriweather Post Pavilion, May 30-31, 2015

The Sweetlife Festival aspires to be Austin City Limits. It’s not there yet. They’ve got music, food, and fun, but on a much smaller scale than ACL.

Examples:

FOOD – Lots of local food, but where ACL makes sure that the menu covers all allergy and special diet needs and posts menus online, in advance, Sweetlife doesn’t. They tried, but my dairy allergy wasn’t well met. The vegan options were slim after the only vegan food truck bailed. Another food truck (Sprouted Pot) advertised a couple vegan options, but put sour cream and cheese on them. They might want to look up “vegan” in the dictionary. Also, ACL had a fantastic wristband system that let you link a credit card to your wristband and pay with the band at all food outlets. Many of the Sweetlife food outlets only took cash, which was annoying to discover on the first day. One positive: LemonadeLove -  the only kiosk for non-alcoholic frozen drinks. The line was insane, but the product was good. I know they are local DC, but I can't find a link for them, just a few hashtag mentions on Twitter that don't seem to be about the same company. I wish them luck.

MUSIC – ACL had 39 acts per day on a total of 7 stages. Sweetlife had 21 acts per day on 3 stages. (One of those stages was a tiny one for local DJs.) They could have easily put all the acts on a single day, but instead they spread it to 2 days. I imagine they did it to increase the food sales and reduce the stage rigging/renting expenses.  Problem is, the two festivals were priced exactly the same, so Sweetlife continues to feel like a rip off.  Both festivals tried to appeal to a variety of genres, though ACL has more cutting-edge alt and EDM acts acts plus country, kids music, and gospel. Sweetlife did alt, EDM, and urban.

FUN – ACL has lots of vendor activities, art, and local wares shopping. Sweetlife had a little of that, some of it identical to the most recent ACL. Just on a much smaller scale.

ACL sells out every time to huge crowds for two weekends. Sweetlife never does, and more than half the pavilion seats were empty, which looked BAD from the perspective of the performers on stage.  It also doesn’t function as well as a festival because there isn’t enough churn to keep people moving between stages. You need enough acts competing for the same time slot that most people have to make hard choices about where to be when and don’t just park themselves at one stage all day.  There was also the elitist vibe of sitting in the mostly empty pavilion while so many people baked in the sun.  They should have done something random to fill up more seats – like a lucky winner who walked in every so often, or scavenger hunt, or pick up trash. They even tried a trash pick-up program like ACL, but the rewards were not desirable – water bottles and cheap sunglasses. They should have done a shirt and made the rules of the program more obvious.  Oh, and the shirt designs were as uncreative as you can get- just white words on gray. No images at all. Not worth buying at all. Another random bitch – what was the mainstage light designer thinking? He pointed 90% of the lights into the audience, blinding us and obscuring the artists. Lights should be used to help the audience see the artist.

Overall, not an awesome festival, but local and close to my home, so still worth it to me. Now for the acts.

Saturday, May 30, 2015

The Bots

The Bots were a garage rock duo of black men who wore all black (including a big black hat on one of them) on a black stage. If I hadn’t been near the front, they would have been impossible to see. Horrible sound mixing – the instruments were much louder than the instruments so I couldn’t hear the vocals and it was painful to listen to, even with earplugs.  It was impossible to tell if they were any good with the sound quality so bad.

Aurora

Aurora is a Norwegian woman who does haunting, pretty songs with a lilt in her voice. She was expressive, cute, and friendly on stage, with a free-form way of dancing and a quirky Nordic fashion sense. I’d recommend seeing her if you like her recorded sound. Published future tour dates are all in Europe.

Misterwives

Misterwives – A six-piece band with a female lead on vocals. Dancy alt music with some brass. Good interaction with the audience  - they looked like they were all having a good time on stage. The singer sounded like an old-school crooner sometimes, and she had serious vocal chops.  There was a nice bit which a vocal-trumpet call and response that sounded impressive- and she apologized more than once for the quality of her voice because she was ill. Her stage act gave me the impression of an aerobics instructor-she had SO much energy. There was even a feminist bit involving pushups.  There was another bit where the vocalist and drummer swapped places for an old cover song. There were lots of fun interactions with band members. This act made some new fans at the festival. They were a frenetic fun-house for their last number. Really great performers. Playing Sunday night, November 8 at the 9:30 Club in DC.

St. Paul & the Broken Bones

St. Paul & The Broken Bones hail from Birmingham, Alabama and have a retro sound, a little like Fitz and the Tantrums, but more southern gospel-inspired. Lots of brass. The lead singer is a large man with a HUGE personality.  You know those business men you sometime meet who look like fat balding losers, but they wear a nice suit and have an overabundance of chutzpah and end up winning everyone over for it? The singer was kind of like that. Easy to dismiss as first glance, but with powerhouse vocals and no timidity. That man was wildly entertaining.  Chad told me that he ended up writhing on the stage like he was struck down by spirit at Coachella. I didn’t see that at Sweetlife. I left early for another act and regretted it. Note: I just noticed that they've added a Saturday night - Sept 12 - show in Baltimore. I might be interested in going.

SZA – I saw a couple minutes. A young pretty black woman with a foul mouth. Her music did not make an impression on me.  She’s got friends in high places – there are lots of famous guest vocals on her recorded works.

Sinkane – I HATED this act. It was very jammy/jazzy and abstract. Left after just a couple songs.

Allen Stone

Allen Stone – I can’t believe I had to sit through a few of his saccharine pop/R&B songs because there was NOTHING ELSE. I put my earplugs in tight and read a book. The bear of a pianist wearing a vest was an eyeball-searing picture to behold.

The Bear

Ben Browning – Just another DJ. Who the hell cares?

Lucius

Lucius – Amazing vocals, as always from this alt duo. Still have the matching hair and outfits - yellow tights and black dresses this time.

Bleachers

Bleachers – It took this long for the tech people to put up an alternate image on the giant LCD screen behind the mainstage, which seemed a waste of al lot of AV money. Same exact show I saw months ago, word for word. Guy pop – good enough.







Tove Lo wins the award for the least appropriate outfit. A worn out tank swimsuit with booty shorts and a bow on her butt. She had the star quality of some random chick selected from the crowd – so almost none.  I don’t even remember her music. According to a Washington Post review, she eventually resorted to flashing her mosquito-bite boobs to the crowd. I missed that part.

Billy Idol

Billy Idol is so OLD. His face looks ancient, but then he made a big production of stripping to show off his abs, which are surprisingly good for a 59 year old man.  He sang some really bad new songs, then some embarrassing renditions of his old material. I felt like I was listening to a bad cover of his old songs, not the real deal. He seemed a bit like a doddering old dude – trying too hard. There were maybe 6 changes of shirts and jackets, 5 of which displayed his abs and 1 of which looked like ladies lingerie. Funny thing was, they were all so similar that I couldn’t tell most of the jackets apart.  He did some tongue flicking that gave me the heebie-jeebies – so gross coming from an old man.  There was a Tarzan call. There was posing with his arms raised, waiting for everyone to take photos, there were endless drum sticks and picks and extra copies of set lists tossed into the audience by the handful. There was a guitar-synth gimmick that might have been fresh in 1983. I was embarrassed for him – he was trying too hard. Nail on the coffin – he encored forever when the crowd was anxiously awaiting Kendrick Lamar and just wanted him to go away.

Kendrick Lamar

Kendrick Lamar is a genius rapper and one of the hottest acts of 2015, and the darling love of my friend Trish, so I had to watch the beginning even though I hate rap. Trish tells me that Kendrick’s lyrics are full of poetry and commentary about social justice. I can’t validate that. Music reviewers tell me that his new album is genre-smashing and incredible. I haven’t heard anything that appeals to me from it. But the crowd LOVED him. As I was leaving the 40-something lady in front of me was complaining “why did they end the day with HIM??” to her much older husband. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. She had to walk by the same crowd I did to leave and they were INTO Kendrick – you could see endless people stretching back into the night, arms waving.  How could you NOT end with him? High point of the night according to Trish (that I missed) was when Kendrick brought a random girl from the crowd up on stage to rap a song with him and she nailed it.  Watch the video on Sterogum.

Sunday, May 31. 2015

Holychild

Holychild – Holy moly, I loved this band! What fun energy! The singer was vivacious and sexy, doing a bold sexy pseudo-belly dance, flaunting attitude with a smile.  The rest of the 6 piece band was composed of young men, 2 backup singers and 3 drummers/synth players.  I am not certain which of those 5 men were actually the other half of the official duo. The singer also used a loop repeater. There were no stringed instruments.  The men were dressed in island apparel and had a lot of tinsel on stage.  There was something different and interesting with the performance of each song. In one song, the back-up singers used tinsel pom-poms. In another, they hammed it up acting out the lyrics, in another the singer jumped out into the audience and lapped the pavilion, sitting on people’s laps while singing to them. The group formed in 2012 at GWU, my alma matter (finally something I like about my school!) They said they were touring in support of a new album, and it appears that they are based in LA now. Other highlights: the backup boys twerking and doing choreographed dances. The Asian boy was particularly hilarious and engaging. The other backup singer was the best looking male on stage, but needed to loosen up a bit more, though you could tell he was trying.  I would LOVE to see this band again. The music was fun and dancy, and I loved the song Running Behind. Trish missed this act because of traffic – very sad. Published future tour dates don't include DC yet, but there are a lot of holes in their schedule. They will be at ACL this fall, though alas, I will not.

Sun Club

Sun Club – Average alt/garage rockers barely of out of their teens. Hairy guys – looked like the guys asleep in the back of the class. The guitarist said a couple sentences to the crowd that included 3 “cools” and 2 “fucks.” Not a well-spoken bunch. Local act - out of Baltimore.

Raury

Raury – A critically-acclaimed young black man soloist who traveled with an all-black band. He’s sometimes folk-rock, sometimes dreamy smooth, a little rap – very much his own thing. Unfortunately, the sound mixing sucked. The instruments were too loud for the vocals.  Raury looked a little like a young Michael Jackson. His movements were big and flamboyant, which was effective on stage. He said he was from Georgia.

Charli XCX

Charli XCX – Slick pop music. She brought a great stage with her, and the costumes of her all-white-girl band were cute zebra stripe dresses, but something fell flat for me. She had great stage presence and moved well on her mile-high platform heels – she was visually playing to the back of the house – but there was something too rehearsed about the act. The audience was with her, though. Maybe the production was too slick for my taste. Of maybe it was that same one-trick-pony dance moves and cussing that annoyed me.

San Fermin

San Fermin – Greatest disappointment of the festival. I had such high hopes and fond memories of this group! Dashed, dashed all –woe unto me! Maybe that’s a bit over the top, but I was disappointed. They lost their female lead singer Rae Cassidy and replaced her with Charlene Kaye. Charlene is not nearly as talented. And, they were doing songs from their new album, which isn’t anywhere near as good as their first album. That’s a serious sophomore slump!

Phantogram

Phantogram – I really don’t like them live. They wore the same outfits on stage as the last time I saw them (black and white). The start of the act was really disappointing – like they were all playing different songs at the same time. There was way too much base and it was often hard to hear the vocals. The vocalist did a lot whipping her hair over her face, I think purposefully so she didn’t have to look at the crowd. When she spoke, I wished she hadn’t – she sounded ineloquent. Only part I liked: I was impressed by her bra – it looked very cool.

Vance Joy

Vance Joy – Aussie singer-songwriter which some very popular songs. He stood there with his guitar on stage in the spot light with his unruly curly mop of hair, smiling and singing. Cute guy, nice voice, nothing to his performance. Didn’t talk all that much.  He had very annoying lights on stage aimed into the crowd.  Here's my video of "Your Mess Is Mine."

BANKS

BANKS – Riddle me this: What do BANKS and Lorde have in common sonically? Whatever it is, it grates on my ever loving nerves! I hate this music! The only song I like by BANKS is Begging for Thread, which sounds nothing like the rest of her music. Her music was broody and pseudo-poetic. She was wearing a black bustier that create a weird visual effect on the projection screens when she danced. Her ultra-pale décolletage seemed to move a half-second after the top – like she was dancing behind a clothing cut-out that wasn’t quite timed to her movement.

Marina & the Diamonds

Marina & the Diamonds – She’s Welsh – I just looked it up, which explains the nice accent. Great costumes, elaborate stage props of giant fruit, a “Froot” lettered shiny tiara and cherry earrings – and it still took me half the act to understand that Froot is the name of her 2015 album.  Duh. Braindead much?  Marina had an impressive voice and amazing presence.  She was comfortable talking to the crowd, though she spent most of her time looking regal, controlled, and sultry. Marina did a vocal trick that was pretty cool and sometimes flashed a big expressive smile that was charming.  She had an obvious gay following in the audience.  I can’t name anything she sings, but it was a fun dance/pop show.

I took off after Marina.

Big Data, On an On, Chappo, Anamanaguchi, Hippo Campus, Night Riot, Mowgli's - March and April 2015

I'm behind on concert reviews, again, and my memory is a bit fuzzy on some of these acts, but here goes anyway.

Friday March 27, 2015 at the Black Cat in Washington, DC

Chappo, Black Cat, 3-27-15

Chappo was the first opener.  You and six and a half million other people know and love the song "Come Home" from last year. That is the only song you know. They don't have anything else that's broken out. I liked that this group was fun and engaging. They even have a funny looking industrial puppet thing on stage that blew fog out of its mouth. I enjoyed the set, though no songs in particular stood out. I'm hazy about it, but I'm pretty sure the lead singer ended up in the audience at one point. Fun and entertaining.

On an On, Black Cat, 3-27-15

On an On was earnest and emotional and forgettable. They had a certain charm in the way they engaged people, but I don't remember a single note they played on stage. I do remember that the lead singer was thin with a cute face and that there was a female keyboardist. And I remember that the lead singer seems like the kind of artist to brood and worry about everyone's feelings.

Big Data, Black Cat, 3-27-15

Big Data was the headliner and they were FUN FUN FUN to watch live. Highly recommend their show, and I'm so glad I'll get to see them again at the Firefly Festival this June. The quality of the singing was more than made up for by the entertaining stage show. Siri was the narrator between songs, and the trademark sunglasses stayed on the whole time. I was very pleased that the Daniel Armbruster hadn't shaved the beard. I love that he took the brand to that level. He'd hired a model/singer/actress to fill in on all the guest vocals. She was good, and rocked her shiny booty shorts, which made the crowd very happy. Daniel's vocals were weak, but everything else was great.



Saturday April 4, 2015 at the Baltimore Soundstage in Baltimore, MD

Racecarbed, Normaling, Lazerdisk and someone else I can't recall were the openers. They were all DJs. I don't go to shows to see DJs. I hated every moment and spent one whole set wandering around outside in Baltimore, accidentally walking down the stripper club street, and ended up with Eric in a Subway (restaurant) to kill time. When we got back, there were still two more openers to suffer through. I stole a stool from behind the curtain and we sat in the back corner, watching the very nerdy, young, happy, hyper crowd.    

Anamanaguchi was video game music - there were crazy graphics on the screens, a few light sabers like pillars on the stage for effects, and 4 dudes rocking out on guitar, drums, and bass to recorded synth. Eric was disappointed the computer generated sounds weren't produced live. I really disliked the show, but I was there because way back when, Eric told me he was bummed to miss their show, so I tracked the artist and asked if he wanted to go when they came back in town. Come to find out, he didn't remember liking them. He doesn't even believe me that he liked them. That's kind of amazing, because of the two of us, I am not the one in our household that owns just about every videogame system that's ever been produced. Nor am I the one with a giant tub of back issues of Electronic Gaming Magazine that I can't bear to part with. So really, what are the odds that a concert of video game music just occurred to me out of the blue?? All told, sucky night. There's no photo because the screen show was so bright and stobe-filled that I couldn't get a shot.


Saturday, April 18, 2015 at U Street Music Hall in Washington, DC

Then there was our next date, which also didn't go well. Originally, the line up included a band I love right now called Fences. That band was 60% of the reason I bought the tickets. The other parts were a fondness I feel for Mowgli's, who I previously saw in a parking lot concert on the rained-out day at Austin City Limits a couple years ago. The last factor was that it was a cheap show on a Saturday night and we get free babysitting. Win all around. So I was very excited, but I've been really busy and didn't check the set times until we were already at dinner downtown. That's when I discovered that Fences had been replaced by Night Riots. I just looked on Facebook and saw nothing about the replacement on any of the bands pages. I was reminded, however, that Fences will be at the Firefly Festival, and you can bet I will be at that show.

One nice thing, we arrived early enough to get some of the only barstools in the place with a good view of the stage, so we got to sit during the show. I'm old enough to consider that a fabulous treat.

Hippo Campus, U Street, 4-18-15

 Hippo Campus was adorkable. Four super enthusiastic, nice guys from Minnesota playing forgettable pop-rock. I did like the lead singer's voice a lot, and aside from FORGETTING TO ANNOUNCE THEIR NAME (my biggest pet peeve), they were entertaining on stage. Eric and I agreed that the first song of their set was their best of the night, but I just tried, and I can't ID it from a line up. Their sound is too similar from song to song.

Night Riots, U Street, 4-18-15

Night Riots were remarkable for taking much of what I hate about 80s music and embracing it in a way that makes it worse. I really dislike their sound. It's irritating and forgettable. I have to give them props for self-promotion, though. They handed out stickers to people waiting in line before the show, they remembered to announce their NAME (yes, that's a dig at you, Hippo Campus!) and they clearly get self-promotion on their Facebook page. They've also got the rocker look down. Now if they could only improve their songwriting and live vocals, they might be palatable. The song everyone has heard and knows by them is "Contagious." It was delivered with none of the soaring anthemic vocals of the recorded version. By that I mean, it sucked live.

Mowgli's, U Street, 4-18-15

The Mowgli's are happy hippies, through and through. I knew this going in, and they didn't disappoint. I wasn't in a sunshine-y mood, though, so I wasn't feeling the vibe. We ducked out about half way through the set.

Guest Blog: New Pornographers, 9:30 Club, Nov 22, 2014

After a concert-packed fall and a babysitter falling through, I decided that no matter how good a show New Pornographers are reputed to give, I just couldn't manage another concert. The show was a sell-out on a Saturday night, so I figured I'd have a pretty easy time selling my tickets at cost, and I did. I reached out to the Meetup group for that concert and Michael wrote back wanting them. We met and had a great music conversation during the ticket hand-off and I asked him to let me know how the concert was. Wow was I surprised by what he reported back. Michael ended up with one of the coolest concert stories I've heard, and I talked him into writing it up for us here. The unbelievable part is at the bottom, with photo evidence. Enjoy! Anita


My friend Marlene and I  arrived just in time for the last two songs of the opener The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, and we immediately regretted not arriving 9:30 Club earlier. Their sound had a jumpy popish beat, which was a good fit to open for The New Pornographers. I hope to see them again one day.

The New Pornographers came out blasting with their new album's title song, "Brill Bruisers." The crowd was hyped up and ready to move to the song's intense bounce. You felt like it was going to be one of the band's best shows ever from the first note. The second song came right from the mind of the eclectic and brilliant Dan Bejar; his  "Myriad Harbour" off of "Challengers." Dan's songs are always greeted with extreme enthusiasm and rightly so. To me, he's like the George Harrison of The New Pornographers, but really a complete original. I could tell throughout the night that the crowd was in real anticipation of more Bejar songs.

But A.C. (Carl) Newman isn't too shabby either! We pounce and rock into the jumpy "Sing Me Spanish Techno", another one off the almost-rock album "Challengers." I really like all their songs from "Mass Romantic" to "Brill Bruisers," and was never calling out for any song in particular, but and acoustic version of "Go Places" during the encore (which some people use as a wedding song) hit me in an intense emotional way. I recovered soon after and danced with Marlene to "Mass Romantic" with the lyric "Like everyone wants to say "I love you" To someone on the radio, radio."

There's hardly a need to say the obvious, everyone worshipped Neko Case. I count myself as one of her humble admirers, and couldn't wait to hear her vocals on "Adventure in Solitude" and many other songs.

Michael, Kathryn Calder, Dan Bejar (latter two from TNP)

Kathryn Calder has an amazing voice and is so pretty, your heart breaks instantly. Kathryn and Dan were very gracious letting Marlene take a picture of me with them. I told Kathryn how much I like her solo work, and Dan's Destroyer. I was giddy and not ashamed of it. Neko only gave us a wave saying she hates taking pictures, but

John Collins, Marlene, Sean Fancey

Sean Fancey was incredibly nice to talk to us for an hour in the cold, and John Collins stopped by so I could take a picure of them with Marlene. No Carl sightings but I was well excited and satisfied meeting 4 of the band members. It truly was a special night.

Set List 11-22-2014 9:30 Club

I will never forget this concert. The set list is tattooed on my iPhone for life.

Cheers,
Michael

Nov 2014 Concerts: Kimbra, Empress Of, Birthday Massacre, Pain, Red Painting, Bleachers, Wild Cub

It was a busy concert season this fall, and I'm happy to have wrapped it up. I'm weary of live shows right now, which is a big honking red sign that it's time to cut back. No worries - I have NO concerts currently booked for the future, and winters are usually slow. By spring, I'm sure I'll be excited to see shows again, and next summer I'm hoping for a girl's trip to the Firefly Festival.

On Saturday, November 8, 2014, Eric and I went to the sold out Kimbra show. It was an eclectic crowd. I think the R&B vibe Kimbra sometimes channels influenced the diversity of the crowd. They were VERY excited to see her, too. There was a ton of singing along and the front of the crowd was absolutely claustrophobic. I nearly left before the main act, I was so uncomfortable. I react very badly when people are touching me for extended periods of time - I NEED SPACE. That even goes for Eric - he was crowding me too.  So I didn't fully enjoy the experience.

The opener, Empress Of, was not all that talented. Sort of a Lorde wanna-be without actual lyrical or much singing talent. Eric and I both found her tedious, though she was clearly into her performance.

Kimbra was a superstar performer. U Street Music Hall has a tiny little stage, and she had 4 guys up there with her, yet she still managed multiple costumes and TONS of dancing. Her voice was hoarse compared to when I last heard her - probably because it was the very end of her tour - but she was so personable, no one cared. She's really impressive live. Check her out if you get the chance.

On Saturday, November 15, 2014, Eric and I went to see one of his favorite bands, The Birthday Massacre. They played at Empire, a goth/metal club in Springfield, VA. Empire has a habit of packing as many openers into an evening as they possibly can. It becomes VERY tedious waiting for the headliner after the 4th opener you simply don't care about. People-watching sustains me for the first two to three openers, but after that, I'm checked out. The people-watching at this club is FUN though. They might not all think of themselves as cosplayers, but there is a LOT of dress up there. Highlights included the goth Indian chief, bunnicula attaching a tuxedo-ed man, a goth steampunk, demented clown makeup, and some impressively beautiful goth makeup. The high-school-esque bathroom experience of a bunch of strangers sharing black lipstick was particularly entertaining to me.

I can't really tell you which opener was which  - the openers that Songkick listed were New Years Day, The Red Paintings, Pain, Spellborne, and Gi9.  Pain is the only one that made sure everyone knew their name, and they were entertaining. I saw them outside later filming an interview, thanking their fans, and the lead singer brought his fiance and her friends on stage at the end. Despite the fake blood and zombie graphics, the experience felt wholesome from all the appreciation they were expressing to the crowd.

Of the other openers, The Red Paintings evoked entirely opposite reactions from me and Eric. Eric LOVED them. He thought they were amazing. I thought they were talent-less poseurs - dressing up and pretending to have artistic sensibilities, but actually just aping them. Eric thought they were brilliant. Either way, they had an interesting stage show: The lead singer looked like a Bolshevik with a strange wig and an R2D2 backpack. There was a blue haired, kimono-clad violinist who happened to be his girlfriend, plus a couple other people who weren't as elaborately costumed. There were also a couple hired local artists in strange masks who painted throughout the set. One of the paintings was on the skin of a tall man wearing a bobble head of a Japanese girl. It reminded me of Of Montreal. The singer when on random rants about Australian politics.

I didn't make it though the entire Birthday Massacre set - probably just the first half. I couldn't see anything (the lead singer is short, and the audience very thick.) I was exhausted, so I went to the car to sleep while I wanted for Eric to come out.






On Saturday, November 22, 2014, Eric and I were supposed to go to the New Pornographers, but our sitter fell through and another didn't pan out, so I sold the tickets. Meanwhile, Dana ended up with a spare to the Bleachers show in Baltimore, so I agreed to go with her.

The Baltimore Soundstage was a great venue. It holds about 1,000 people (standing room) in a rectangle space that may be closer to a square. The stage is on the long side of the rectangle, giving more people a good view. There's a large platform in the back behind the sound booth with stools against the rail and great views. Mostly, 40+ age people (like us) hung out there. I was amazed that I didn't need the earplugs I always bring - maybe because we were on that platform, which is a little past the halfway point, or maybe because the sound technicians are fantastic. There were three bars, two of them with chandeliers over them that looked very nice. It's usually an all-ages club, and there's $10 parking next door - mere steps from the entrance. (You must have the box office voucher! Don't forget to pick one up on your way out!) We loved it. The only downside was the drive from DC, but frankly, it was worth it.

The opener was Wild Cub, best known for their song "Thunder Clatter." They looked like Ah Ha or extras from 16 Candles - very 80s hair. They are from Tennessee and SUPER appreciative, bouncy men. The memorable quote from the night was when the lead singer said "The true currency of music is when someone shares a song that is meaningful to them with someone else." Between the 80s hair, synth-heavy music, and hailing from Tennessee, they brought to mind my friend Shane from middle and high school days. So shout out to Shane if you read this.

Bleachers is the side-project of Jack Antonoff, one of the three members of the band Fun. Honestly, I didn't realize this until Dana told me, even though I've seen Fun live. No wonder Bleachers took off milliseconds after the release of "I Wanna Get Better." Jack is very comfortable on stage and a great performer, though he got long winded a few times. The extended showcase of each band member was torture to listen to. I thought it was sweet that they covered "Good Morning Baltimore" (from John Water's musical Hairspray), and absolutely CRUEL that he made "I Wanna Get Better" the final song in the encore. According to Wikipedia, Bleachers is JUST a side project. There's no intent to break up Fun.

Julian Casablancas and Mr. Twin Sister, 9:30 Club, October 17, 2014

Eric and I went to the Julian Casablancas concert at 9:30 Club on Friday, October 17, 2014. We arrived a bit late, not realizing that it was the earlier show of a two-show night, so we missed the first opener, Continue. We arrived during the second opener, Mr. Twin Sister. (I believe they used to just be "Twin Sister," but got sued and had to change their name.) They sounded good, but I've always found them forgettable as a recorded act and live didn't add anything. I guess they just aren't my thing.

Mr. Twin Sister, 9:30 Club, 10-17-2014

Julian Casablancas and the Voidz were a train wreck. Who gets that chemically altered at 8 pm? And was their sound guy deaf? The mixing was unbearable and the performance was very pre-rehab. Get help before you OD, Julian. I love his recorded music, but I'm not going to try seeing him live again. It's just too much of a train wreck. We left less than 30 minutes into the act. I was very disappointed.

Julian Casablancas, 9:30 Club, 10-17-2014

On the plus side, I spotted Bob Boilen for the second time in a week! I'm on a roll in my personal game of "Where's Boilen?" (Like Where's Waldo for concert geeks.)

J. Mascis with opener Luluc at Black Cat in Washington, DC, October 16, 2014

I regretted buying tickets to this show before I walked out the door of my house. I was simply not in the mood for another show after a festival weekend. But I’d been waiting to see J. Mascis for a couple years. He’s the lead singer from Dr. Junior who also has a solo career and is infamously antisocial. I love his solo albums. I decided to be a trooper and went out in spite of my mood.

I arrived at least half-way through the Luluc set and was really impressed. They are an Australian folk duo and this was only their second time in DC, the first being a house concert. I know this because the singer, Zoë Randell, invoked a charming and gracious banter between numbers. Her partner Steve Hassett was less outspoken, but entertaining when he did speak and easy on the eyes.  I wished I liked slow folk music more – they would be a favorite if I did. I was rewarded for coming to this show by a Bob Boilen (All Songs Considered) sighting. (Finding him in a crowd is like a DC concert-goer version of Where’s Waldo? He goes to HUNDREDS of shows each year.) See their Tiny Desk Concert here.

J. Mascis was exactly what I expected. He sat and played his songs, throwing out an occasional “this is from my new album,” but almost nothing else. He sounded great, though. A few quirks I noticed: between songs, he used throat spray and licked dabs of salt that he had sitting in next to him. It was really salt – the salt grinder was right there – from Trader Joe’s, I think. I looked up “salt and singing” on the web and couldn’t find a reason, though salt water gargles are supposed to clear congestion. He also had all the lyrics (not music, just lyrics - I could see) sitting in front of him on a music stand as he played. The tuning breaks were filled with a reverent, awkward silence. I stayed for a few songs and called it an early night.