Superheaven at DC9
An awful lot of the on-stage banter during Superheaven's set was about their band's name. They had to change it recently for legalish reasons. No big deal to me, maybe a bigger deal to them, so be it.
I wonder though whether their new name was intended to sound similar to "Superunknown", the title of Soundgarden's biggest album. I didn't make that connection until, oh, about ten seconds into Superheaven's first song. More than anything else it's the guitars, that almost-metal wall of fuzz sound which pretty much defined grunge. Okay, that and all the flailing hair, but my point is that they're somewhere in the hard rock universe and tend towards the slower, distorted and crushingly heavy side. I do mean "tends", since they do have some songs with a bit more pep which are closer to punk (think Samiam), but they're mostly about the crushing.
Posted: 6/15/2014 at 11:00pm Tags: DC9 Superheaven
Nothing at DC9
A few songs into Nothing's set singer/guitarist Dominic Palermo asked the audience "How y'all doin tonight?" (or something like that). The response was raucous cheering, to which Palermo responded "No! Nobody could possibly be feeling that good." That pretty much summarizes what this band is all about. Someone in the audience: "I'm unemployed!" Palermo: "That's more like it." The Gloom Patrol strikes again.
Ringo Deathstarr at DC9
I hope that Ringo Deathstarr were going for the discothèque look on purpose. This couldn't possibly have been an accident.
The disco look is not the least bit suited to the band's music. Okay, sometimes they get a little funky but just a smattering here and there. More of their songs are either in a dream-pop vein or a more vicious alt-hard rock style (seeing as how we're breaking out the foreign characters today, think Hüsker Dü?) All of it distorted and twisted a bit too far for comfort. Let me put it this way, one of their new songs is called "Chainsaw Morning". In the song they keep chanting that phrase, not in a harsh way, but it's dang unnerving. Can you think of a pleasant interpretation of that lyric? Me either.
So yeah, the disco look is all wrong for them. They need something more melancholy and seedy. Perhaps a horror-movie set?
Posted: 6/12/2014 at 2:00pm Tags: blue DC9 Ringo Deathstarr
Smoke Green at DC9
Smoke Green couldn't have come up with a blunter name. Like every third band I've seen since arriving in DC they are a psych band and if their name doesn't make that clear then their BandCamp sure will. That BandCamp has some of the fuzziest music I've heard in a while. Believe it or not they did have a vocalist at the time.
Their show, as it turns out, was surprisingly rockin'. "Beware of the Plastic Chair" has a lot more attitude when you can understand the lyrics. The cover of "Head On" they closed with was particularly telling. That song always rocks but they could have played it more laid back, like the original Jesus and Mary Chain song. Instead they played it harder and faster that the original (a la The Pixies?) and sounded awesome doing it. Of course there were mellow and sublime moments as well if not exactly "quiet" ones. I was just surprised at how much energy, and how much positive energy at that, was in their music.
Posted: 6/11/2014 at 11:00pm Tags: DC9 Smoke Green
Avers at Black Cat
Sometimes listening to a band's stuff on Bandcamp can be terribly misleading. If you listen to that one song by Avers and check their tags (psychedelic, shoegaze) then you would probably go to their show expecting to hear something like Dead Leaf Echo. Wrong-O!
Simply put, Avers are a rock band. Okay, they're a rock band which is informed by psych rock, which dips a toe or so into country and roots rock (I guess that would be two toes, maybe one from each foot?) But they didn't forget to bring the volume. Or the stage presence: some of these folks were bouncing around stage like rawk stars. It turns out they're more like Alberta Cross, or maybe the late-80s Mekons. This was a very pleasant surprise.
So, uh, oops! I guess I should have checked out their SoundCloud too.
