The definitive record of live music in Washington, D.C. and beyond for the 2010’s
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A Giant Bomb of Joy: David Wax Museum @ The 9:30 Club - 9/14/11
Take a whole lot of joy, pile another dab or so, then mix in a little more joy and you’d be starting to get the idea of what the David Wax Museum performance at the 9:30 Club last week was like.
Comprised of David Wax on a variety of stringed instruments and Suz Sleezak on fiddle and donkey jawbone (yes, you read that right) this group from Boston blends Mexican and American folk music into a sound that at it’s best is a veritable party for your ears. But there’s more to it than just the party. Their music is an exploration of Americana that is as utterly familiar as it is engaging and fresh in its delivery.
And oh that delivery.
Recap: 2011 Virgin Mobile Free Fest - It's all about the Deadmau5
The Virgin mobile Free Fest returned to Merriweather Post Pavilion for the 3rd time this year, and showed the world why it is quit simply one of the best festivals going today. By freeing up the cost of entry and inviting a diverse group of musicians to come play, Richard Branson has created a musical playground where you’re always going to see and hear something that you might not have before.
"I Have TWO Phasers": The War On Drugs w/Caveman @ The Red Palace - 9/2/11
First of all, I have to give it up for the NYC band known as Caveman. It’s embarrassing that I’ve never even heard of them, but after witnessing their opening set Friday night, you can be sure that I won’t be forgetting them. Floating around somewhere between Radiohead and the sound of America in the 70’s (think Midlake’s Trials of Van Occupanther, but a little more out there) the band is one of the best you’ll see this year. Their debut album Coco Rises will be out September 13, so make sure you pick it up. You’ll thank me, promise. More to the point though, when Caveman comes to your town, at all costs GO!
"Damn right I'll rise again": The Hold Steady @ The 9:30 Club - 9/1/11
It’s been said that The Hold Steady are the greatest damn bar band in all of the land, but these days that assessment may not of the glowing connotation that whoever said that once meant it to have. Somewhere in the middle of planning for the band’s last album Heaven is Whenever, long time keyboardist Franz Nicolay came to the conclusion that his work with the band was done and just like that, he was out of the band. The resulting record was spotty at best and at worst seemed disconnected from everything that had made The Hold Steady so great to begin with.
Before, it had always seemed as if singer Craig Finn was a major player in his tales of druggy, reckless youth gone wild. After Nicolay’s departure the focus shifted less on the band and directly onto Finn, who whatever reason seemed to be outside of his stories now. The shift in narrative focus was even made more jarring by the absence of Nicolay’s joyful keyboards in favor of more traditional arrangements. The point is, is that it just wasn’t the same.
"Bruuuuuuuuce!": Bruce Hornsby w/Punch Brothers @ Wolftrap - 8/28/11
This past Sunday, the day after it was threatened by one force of nature, the DC area was rewarded by two musical forces of nature as they took the stage at Wolftrap.
First up, Punch Brothers. Starting their set as the lawn slowly began to fill up, the band took note that they normally don't have the opportunity to play venues the size of Wolftrap. Why this is, is anyone's guess though. Playing a style of music that can best be described as "extreme bluegrass" this band, led by mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile, is made up of some of the best players on ANY scene that's around today.
Their 2010 album, Antifogmatic, ranked as one of my top albums of that year, and the bands set pulled heavily from that record as expected. But that didn't stop them from throwing in a few new tunes. One of those new songs, "Movement and Location", built slowly from a drone but soon developed into some sort of weird bluegrass/Radiohead hybrid that sounded nothing like the band has done before yet exactly like something you would expect them to come up with.
All in all it was a fantastic, albeit short, set that highlighted just why they were picked to tour with a legend like Hornsby this trip out.
As the lights came up on Hornsby's set, calls of "Bruuuuuuuce" echoed around the wooden interior of the shed at Wolftrap. By now using the term legend with Hornsby isn't just expected, it's demanded. The man has played with or written for a staggering amount of musicians in his career and his stylistic range can best be described as "all".
So.Many.People.: Kurt Vile and the Violators @ The Rock and Roll Hotel (sort of) - 8/10/11
This review is going to be a lot shorter than we had hoped, but sometimes bad situations can't be avoided.
First off let me say that across the board, the ChunkyGlasses team considers Kurt Vile's Smoke Ring For My Halo to be one of the very best this year. It's poetic, moving, entertaining and downright sublime when it wants to be. And given the quality of the release and the reputation that preceded Vile, it was unclear why he would be playing a room as small as the Rock and Roll Hotel, but who are we to question the potential for an intimate performance from one of our favorite artists?
Which is why it hurt that we had to leave the show after only 4 songs...
My Morning Jacket w/ Neko Case at Merriweather Post Pavilion - 8/12/11
It’s been said that a My Morning Jacket concert has the ability to change you. That’s a bold claim. Rock you? Sure. Energize you? Most definitely. But change you? Pre Friday night, that assertion sounded to me as if it were uttered from the lips of the ultimate My Morning Jacket fanboy. Now, two days after, I have to say: I think they may have been right.
Final Thoughts On The 2011 Newport Folk Festival
It’s taken over week, but we’ve finally got our thoughts in order (you can see all of our pics here) concerning 2011’s Newport Folk Festival. Before we dive in and try to break down each days experience though, I’d like to let you in on a little secret: Without exaggeration, The Newport Folk festival is possibly the best festival running in the country right now.dee.
"This is Bon Iver! (?)": Bon Iver @ The 9:30 Club - 8/2/11
"What the f@$% Justin Vernon?"
That's how I pretty much ended my review of the new album, and now that's how I'll start this review of his bands performance last night at the 9:30 Club.
The biggest question at hand is where was this Justin Vernon when his albums were being made? Assembling a 8 piece orchestra to perform your work isn't an easy feat..bringing together a great one is damn near impossible, yet there before me lay the powerful, sublime, and quite frankly perfect, Bon Iver “orchestra” turning "lead" into gold, over and over again...
See the rest of our shots from the evening over in our photo gallery
2011 Newport Folk Festival Photo Roundup
For two days this past weekend, Fort Adams State Park in Newport, RI, became an impromptu community of musicians and fans coming together to celebrate the thing that they hold most dear: MUSIC.
Real (Electronic) Rock N' Roll: The Glitch Mob @ The 9:30 Club - 7/20/11
Let me begin by saying that, Glitch Mob is not my favorite electronica group. I listen to their LP, Drink The Sea, as well as their recently released EP, We Can Make The World Stop, fairly regularly: I dig their sound, but ultimately I think they need to expand their range a bit before they take the next step. However, any critiques of their studio work notwithstanding, after their show at the 930 Club on Wednesday, I can safely say that they are the best live electronica group I have ever seen.
Glitch Mob, in its current incarnation, is an L.A.-based group of three DJ/producers: Justin “Boreta” Boreta, Ed “ediT” Ma, and Josh “Ooah” Mayer. Their sound has been described variously as trip hop, breaks, electro, hip hop, dub step (which is laughable), intelligent dance music, and (somewhat circularly) glitch hop. Their production is uniformly driven by deep, distorted, at times nearly monotone basslines complemented by huge kick drums, filtered snares, distorted, and synth melodies and samples interspliced and cut up with a turntablist’s sensibility. Their live set moves fairly seamlessly from full-on body rocking slow breakbeats to slightly more uptempo, but no less heavy, straight beats.
Kick-ASS!: EMA @ The Red Palace 7/17/11
Abrasive. Gut wrenching. Delicate. Assured. Powerful.
These are all words that could be used to describe the force of nature that is EMA, but I’m going to use the most appropriate words I can think of to sum up Sunday night’s show at the Red Palace: KICK.ASS.
Playing to a room that was only half full (comfy, but shame on you DC), EMA took the stage to a wall of feedback that set the tone for the rest of the evening. Guitar screaming, dissonant clicks and pops being created by a handheld radio, the song “Butterfly Knife” eventually rose up out of that noise, and Erika M. Anderson (thus the “EMA”) settled in for the set.
International (?) Man of Mystery: Cass McCombs w/Lower Dens @ The Black Cat 7/15/11
The only thing visible besides the silhouettes of the assembled musicians is the occasional glint of a flash off a guitar, or the blinking lights of a random effects pedal. The crowd that has assembled listens eagerly as a dark, man shaped shadow explains from the stage how even though McComb’s is somewhat of a transitory musician, Chicago now claims the singer/songwriter as their own. Members of the crowd shout back “Baltimore!” (which is where his Wikipedia page claims he’s based. He’s not.) but the shadow from the stage isn’t hearing it. Instead he continues to run down the list of everything that makes Cass McComb’s music great. He’s the perfect hype man, though McCombs doesn’t really need it. He finishes, the band takes the stage in front of panels of blinking and shifting lights, and as they opening strains of “Buried Alive” hit the audience, it’s as if a bubble closed tight around the room, and we were all suddenly transported somewhere else.
New Wave In A New Time: Eleanor Friedberger @ The Black Cat 7/12/11
When you’re half of a band as well known as The Fiery Furnaces, people, right or wrong, are going to have expectations. Eleanor Friedbergers’s first victory over those expectations this week was the release of her excellent new solo album, Last Summer. Breezy, poppy and loud when it’s gotta be, Last Summer is an unmitigated hit, as well as being one of our favorite records of the year so far. Her second victory over those expectations this week was the performance that she delivered to a welcoming crowd assembled in the Back Room of the Black Cat on Tuesday, the night of that records release.
My expectation for the show was that it would be somewhat reserved, but perfectly serviceable. I also (wrongly) assumed that Eleanor might be the type who is solely focused on the music, acknowledging the crowd once in a while, but for the most part just performing her material to the people who paid to see it.
