Posts Tagged ‘Black Cat’
Hey Alright: Free Energy @ Black Cat
This review involves a lot of name-dropping. So don’t say you weren’t warned.
And, really, how else to consider Free Energy? The Philadelphia-based blogosphere favorite doesn’t strive for originality, nor even hipster cachet: You can hear Television or Big Star all you want in the quintet’s peppy, big-guitar sound, but really, these guys are all about what you hear on “corporate classic rock stations.” Why it works — at least on record in mp3s — has as much to do with the group’s nonironic approach as its mindless raison d’être and taut, oft-inspired songwriting. We’re understandably skeptical of “woo-ooh,” “oh-oh,” and “hey alright” choruses, but it’s refreshing that Free Energy can actually sell them. Whether that places the band, in those gilded annals of nostalgia rock, closer to The Strokes or The Darkness, I can’t say.
In a quick, fairly energetic, and underattended show at the Black Cat downstairs last night, Free Energy cribbed T. Rex’s “Mambo Sun” almost verbatim and sometimes invoked The Stooges, but mostly, it reveled in the stuff of Alice Cooper, Cheap Trick, early Tom Petty, and (most centrally) Thin Lizzy — think big, loud, elemental, and poppy. Objectively, it was perfect: Hooks breathed, guitars sirened, cowbells clanged. Skinny as death and neon as fuck, singer Paul Sprangers pranced and strutted and crooned, a little bit Iggy Pop, a little less Julian Casablancas. And I was utterly nonplussed.
Stay Weird, Bejar: Destroyer @ Black Cat
Even when his lyrics border on the incomprehensible, there’s always something consequential, even formalistic, to the songs of Dan Bejar. Like his band’s name suggests, the Destroyer frontman is always unraveling the tropes of the pop underground, even when at his most shambolic (read: best). But what does a perennial iconoclast do when the stakes are low?
Have a good time, apparently, at least as much as he can. Such was the case last night at the Black Cat, where the Vancouver songwriter performed solo, his only instruments an echoey, crimson acoustic guitar and his nasal, magniloquent vocal style. With no album to promote (or merch to sell), Bejar dug deep into his discography, drawing almost evenly from his eight albums. This may have disappointed the portion of the crowd requesting songs from Bejar’s best-known extracurricular, The New Pornographers (although he did play “Streets Of Fire,” an early Destroyer song that the New Pornos remade). But for Bejarphiles, the sauntering and unpredicable set was a treat.
Novalima @ Black Cat
Although most of the members of percussionist troupe Novalima danced during the group’s Black Cat show last week, it was a guy with thick blue-rimmed glasses sitting on a box who managed to captivate the audience.
It was no ordinary box, though—it was a cajón, the square wooden instrument that provides a thunderous boom and drives Novalima’s pulsating rhythms. The man on the box was master percussionist Juan “Cotito” Medrano, who was stellar during his first ever D.C. performance. He dazzled the audience with his precise timing, his hands a blur as they struck the cajón with incredible speed. It’s easy to see why Medrano won a Grammy while playing cajonero for global music star Susana Baca. He now brings his experience and expertise with Afro-Peruvian percussion instruments to Novalima, which is Spanish for “new” (Nova) and “Lima,” the capital of Peru.
Salvation As A Song: Magnolia Electric Co. @ Black Cat
All a great country song needs are “three chords and the truth,” the songwriter Harlan Howard famously once said. But to hear Magnolia Electric Co.’s electric Rust Belt hymns Monday night was to understand the trope’s country-rock application: same alchemy, really, just a little more misery and noise.
Morose yet cathartic, Magnolia Electric Co.’s songs trace familiar blues and rock folkways: themes of heartbreak, redemption, and regret; the imagery of lightning, highways, ghosts, and the devil; and the weight of American mythology, from John Henry to Route 66. Sonically, the five-piece pays homage to a certain mid-’70s road-warrior rock, most obviously Neil Young albums like Tonight’s The Night and On The Beach (on a tour several years ago, Magnolia covered the latter’s “Revolution Blues”). The lyrics favor motif over narrative, yet rarely suggest happy endings, even in the most sonorous moments. In frontman Jason Molina’s gloomy and dramatic Americana, salvation only ever comes as a song.
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Handsome Furs @ Black Cat
It was one helluva anniversary: Montreal’s Handsome Furs make minimalistic indie rock whose hopeful, searching tones never wholly camouflage a certain postmillenial anxiety, and there’s nothing in it you’d call “cute.” Not so last night. The husband-and-wife duo—Dan Boeckner, who shares frontman duties in Wolf Parade, and Alexei Perry—commemorated their second year of marriage with a keyed-up crowd at the Black Cat, torpedoing through the best parts of their two-album catalog (and a pair of new songs suggesting fresh sonic territory). Throughout the evening, they often stepped back from their mics to join foreheads and noses; in forceful numbers like “Talking Hotel Arbat Blues” and “Nyet Spasiba,” the two lunged at each other with an erotic charge.
Often, Handsome Furs’ songs thrive on tension, but in concert the prevailing mode was ease. “I almost barfed” backstage, Boeckner joked at one point. “I still barfed,” Perry quipped back, but it was hard to believe them: They were having too much fun.
Jay Reatard @ Black Cat
Last night’s Jay Reatard show at the Black Cat was supposed to take place on the club’s large Mainstage, but was moved to its smaller downstairs area—probably due to low ticket sales, thanks to the holiday weekend. Still, the Black Cat’s Backstage was crowded, and those who ventured out were treated to Jay Lindsey (aka Jay Reatard), along with bassist Stephen Pope and drummer Billy Hayes, in an intimate setting.
Adios Sean McArdle
Come next week DC is going to be one singer-songwriter lighter, as Sean McArdle is packing up the U-Haul and heading West, to San Francisco, California. No, don’t cry, it’s not goodbye forever. McArdle will, hopefully, be back for shows and visits in the not-too-distant future. And you can always pick up his much-slept-on full-length LP Northern Charms, if you need something ease the separation anxiety. You can find a copy, and also bid him a fond farewell, when McCardle performs his last show as a DC resident Monday, June 8th at Black Cat.
Sean McArdle, Meredith Bragg @ Black Cat
1811 14th St. NW
Monday, June 8th 9 PM, $8
Q&A: Denali
It’s not that Denali broke up because it ran out of ideas. No, the Richmond, Virginia quartet had plenty of those–enough to fuel several band’s worth of melancholy indie-rock. Having enough time for those projects, on the other hand, was a problem. Founding members Keeley Davis and Jonathan Fuller departed from the band in ‘03 to concentrate on their other band, Engine Down, full-time. Unable to recapture the chemistry of the original line-up lead singer/songwriter Maura Davis eventually split the group up and moved on to form Ambulette.
But five years later those other bands are over–Engine Down called it quits in ‘05 and Ambulette threw in the towel two years later–and the members have moved back Richmond. So, there’s isn’t much of a reason for Denali to stay broken up these days. After reuniting for a few shows last year Denali decided to make a go of it again, at least part time basis. Singer Maura Davis spoke with City Paper about the band, being back in school, and why it finally made sense to get Denali back together.
Denali, KI: Theory, Pygmy Lush @Black Cat
1811 14th St. NW
Sat., June 5, 9 PM, $13
Can Joe Pug Save Folk Music?
Social commentary, especially in music, is a tricky act: too blunt, audience rolls its eyes; too fine, audience scratches its head. “Whitman once explained that poetry’s not supposed to confuse people,” Joe Pug–local boy and folk icon-in-waiting–said in an interview last summer. At the same time, musicians that merely trot out talking points or shout buzz words while beating a defenseless instrument may be dismayed to find their art doesn’t last.
Notwithstanding overeager proclamations from the occasional starry-eyed critic, folk has yet to find its next prophet. (Remember when it was supposed to be Conor Oberst?) Last year, the restless Greenbelt native Pug (last name shortened from Pugliese) dropped out of college and promptly yanked the sword out the stone. For a man of 23, Pug struck a remarkable balance between innuendo and clarity in his 2008 debut EP, Nation of Heat. He uses old tools (voice, guitar, harmonica), long verses, and one-line choruses, letting his lyrics stand on their own legs. His delivery is at once cocky and sincere, pressing notes to the roof of his mouth and spilling his melodies over the chord changes. Pug is a student of the old school, and his influences are pretty apparent–although in the interest of avoiding hypocrisy, I’ve promised myself not to use the “D” word until he puts out a proper album.
Heavy Soundscapes: Isis & Pelican Tomorrow
If this week’s Opeth and Enslaved bill at the 9:30 Club was an inspired pairing, the combination of Isis and Pelican tomorrow at the Black Cat is almost too obvious. Imagine post-rock played with heavy metal riffs and you’ve got the right idea for both these groups. Isis are touring in support of new release Wavering Radiant, which sees the band cutting back on the gorgeous distorted fuzz of earlier works like Panopticon in favor of a looser, more psychedelic vibe. Vocalist Aaron Turner (also the boss man of Hydra Head Records) has added a decent singing voice to his repertoire to augment his guttural screams, and uses it to good effect on the new material. Isis’ current output is somewhat less sweepingly epic than their earlier work, but it’s still very much widescreen in nature.
Openers Pelican might glibly be called the Explosions in the Sky of metal. Pelican’s music is entirely instrumental and immediately accessible: melodic and major-key, yet still heavy. On their own they might be a little lightweight, but paired with Isis, they should offer a nice counterpoint to the headliners’ more doom-laden heft.
Isis, Pelican and Tombs play at the Black Cat mainstage Saturday night, $15 at the door, 9pm.
