OK, to get this out of the way: The Pogues at 9:30 last night was the best show I have ever seen in my life. It was fucking religious. And although I’ve no idea how Shane MacGowan has kept his liver from sliding down his pantleg after all these years, he has and he was upright and it was enough.

Some highlights:

1. MacGowan still sounds just as he did on studio albums cut in the ’80s. It’s the same chewing-on-a-driveway/smooth as cream voice, even more remarkable considering that, true to legend, he actually could not speak—the only semi-intelligble words I heard were, “Hello Wasssshhhton.” He dropped his mike, missed his mouth with a bottle of mystery booze kept at his feet; he looked pasty and near-death and when he occasionally walked offstage, he came back even more shattered. Yet after 25 years, after breakups and canceled shows, after the death of Joe Strummer and guitarist Phillip Chevron’s recent bout with cancer, MacGowan and his long-suffering bandmates brought it, firing through a near-perfect setlist. It wasn’t groundbreaking—starting with “Stream of Whiskey” and ending, after two encores, with “Fiesta”—but it contained gems both rocking and nostalgic: “If I Should Fall from the Grace of God,” “A Pair of Brown Eyes,” “The Body of an American,” “Dirty Old Town,” “Sunnyside of the Street,” “Bottle of Smoke,” “Sick Bed of Cuchulainn,” and, a personal fave, “Rainy Night in SoHo.”

2. Founding member and tin whistler Spider Stacy took the lead on a couple of songs, including his “Tuesday Morning.” In a word: lovely. The band, with him at the helm, will likely live on (again) after MacGowan.

3. MacGowan, in an old tradition he borrowed from Stacy, beat his head with a beer tray at the end of “Fiesta.” And did not fall down.

4. This was after his on-pitch screaming during several spirited numbers.

5. And a number of cigarettes onstage. If the drink hasn’t killed him, I don’t think D.C. law can really touch him.

6. The opening act, London’s Urban Voodoo Machine—with its two drummers, multiple antics, and obvious Tom Waits inspiration—was a great tone-setter. They’re opening tonight, too, and playing the Red and the Black on Tuesday. Definitely worth a look.

7. Up on the second tier, I watched the superfans pogo at the front of the stage and sing every word and, although not a superfan, I felt what they felt. Growing up vaguely a Mick, seeing the Pogues together and hearing them sounding so great was like going home, or at least for me, it was like channeling my life 15 years ago—a college apartment, a couple of roommates from Ireland, a boombox, and the Pogues turned up very, very loud.

There are a few tickets on Craigslist for tonight’s show, some of them reasonably priced. I can’t think MacGowan is going to be around for many more tours, if any, and this one is limited. If you can, go.

Baltimore’s Human Bell—seen here performing at the Adams Morgan record store Crooked Beat—just announced a national tour with Japan’s Boredoms, a band that Washington City Paper’s Aaron Leitko described as the most bizarre “ever to have graced the roster of a major label.”

Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band might dispute that claim, but I can say for certain that the Boredoms are one of the top-five best live acts I’ve ever seen (Brown’s Island, in 1994, with Sonic Youth and Superchunk).

Human Bell is Dave Heumann, frontman of Arbouretum, and Nathan Bell, best known as bassist for Lungfish. According to both bands’ label, Thrill Jockey, the Boredoms “handpicked” them for this tour.

Here are the dates. Alas, no DC:

Mon Mar 10 Lousiville, KY Ear X-Tacy (in-store)
Wed Mar 12 Dallas, TX Good Records (in-store) w/ Kid Dakota
Thur Mar 13 Marfa, TX TBA
Sat Mar 15 San Diego, CA Canes w/Boredoms
Sun Mar 16 Los Angeles, CA Family (in-store)
Sun Mar 16 Los Angeles, CA Henry Fonda Theater w/Boredoms
Mon Mar 17 San Luis Obispo, CA Boo Boo Records (in-store)
Tue Mar 18 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore Auditorium w/Boredoms
Thu Mar 20 Portland, OR Crystal Ballroom w/Boredoms
Fri Mar 21 Seattle, WA Neumos w/Boredoms
Sat Mar 22 Anacortes, WA Department of Safety w/ Mt. Eerie, Photosynthesis
Mon Mar 23 Missoula, MT The Palace (Badlander downstairs, free show)
Tue Mar 25 Minneapolis, MN First Avenue w/Boredoms
Wed Mar 26 Chicago, IL Congress Theater w/Boredoms, Soft Circle
Thu Mar 27 Chicago, IL AV-Erie

The Boredoms will be at the 9:30 Club on April 3rd

Back in the mid-’90s, I briefly worked at the Library of Congress, where Polvo guitarist Dave Brylawski’s uncle was one of my supervisors. At the time, his nephew’s North Carolina alt-rock outfit was one of my favorite bands.

(I spent a week last month listening to Polvo’s entire catalogue–every skronky aside, every Dinosaur Jr.-worthy hook, every Indian-sounding riff–going to and from work. Know what? It sounds every bit as great as it did back in the band’s early-to-late-’90s heyday.)

So, when I discovered that the Brylawski I worked for was related to the Brylawski in Polvo, I began a regular ritual of asking the uncle for news about the band. I remember, at one point, getting kinda PO’d when I saw a new EP, 1995’s This Eclipse, at Vinyl Ink in Silver Spring. Why didn’t the uncle tell me about this?!?

Anyway, I used to go see Polvo whenever they would come to the Black Cat, which, according to Pitchfork, is where the band is scheduled to play its first show on an All Tomorrow’s Parties-inspired reunion tour.

If it’s anything like the show or two I saw during my Library of Congress stint, the May 9th set will involve equipment malfunctions, tuning problems, and a sleepy-looking Ash Bowie. Can’t wait.

The interactive/online project Capitol of Punk of late 2006 was one of the most interesting histories of the harDCore scene. It featured a series of maps, guided tour stops, and videos for every stop, and could either be viewed on the Internet or downloaded to your video iPod for walking, much like a 21st-century version of DC’s heritage trails. Viewers can learn about venues past (d.c. space) and present (Fort Reno), plus hear Ian MacKaye’s adoration of Marion Barry and Ian Svenonius‘ assertion that D.C.’s landmarks were deliberately plotted in the shape of a pentagram. Oh, Ians!

But if you don’t have a video iPod, or you just like seeing your films on a big screen, tonight you might want to head down to the Black Cat. Capitol of Punk: Places and Stories of Hardcore in DC will be screened at the Backstage from 9 to 11. And for free! All ages, even! The scene lives on.

In Dischord news, “Medications are soldiering on as a duo and have a show booked in March in Washington at DC9.”We know that drummer Andrew Becker has left the band. But Dischord doesn’t say what form the duo will take. Both of the remaining members, Devin Ocampo and Chad Molter, excel on multiple instruments.

Here’s what Medications’ Web site has to say: “we have yet to work the kinks out. please come out as it will be interesting if only to see us fail miserably.”

You know it’s a slow year when news of Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s continuing hiatus (going now since 2002) is considered newsworthy–much less news that gets repeated and repeated.

A band that isn’t broken up, GY!BE-related outfit Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra and Tra-La-La Band, will be appearing at the Black Cat on May 23rd. That is, if the Iraq war doesn’t stop them.

Tomorrow night former Black Eyes members Jacob Long and Daniel Martin McCormick will return to D.C. along with drummer Damon Palermo as Mi Ami, kicking off a tour in celebration of their recently released African Rhythms 12-inch on White Denim.

For those who scratched their heads back in ‘04 when McCormick and Long back teamed up as the sorta-triflin’ improvisation duo White Flight–well, this might be more to your taste. Mi Ami mash minimal-techno and dub into a trance-inducing pulp that almost demands a pair of sequined jeans and rave beads. And yeah, it kind of sounds like Black Eyes. But is that a bad thing?

Food For Animals (whose excellent debut LP Belly is out now on Hoss Records) and D.C.’s own Wealth (ex-members Navies) will also be performing.

Here’s the info:
February, 13 2008 @ La Casa
3166 Mt. Pleasant St. NW, Washington, DC

If you miss that you have a second chance to catch Mi Ami and Food For Animals when they perform at Baltimore’s Floristree space the following evening.

I wrote a book about Christian rock (now available for a “bargain price”!), and while doing so met lots of people, talented and otherwise, who were convinced that the “general market” was hopelessly polluted with sex and drugs. In short, the realm of Satan. I tried to tell people that many members of the music scene where I grew up prided themselves on not drinking or doing drugs, and that with a few notable exceptions, they made excellent music. Generally, this was a conversational gambit that failed.

So I’m glad, for my Christian friends’ sake, that there’s finally a group that squares the circle, bringing hardcore fully back under Lucifer’s thumb. Ladies and gentlemen, are you ready for Satanic Threat? Are you ready for “Guilty of Hating Christ”? Are you ready for “Small God Big Cross”?

(Hat tip: Mike “My Sweet Satan” Kanin)

Being unemployed and all, I’ve had a lot of time to sit around and think about the past. Ya’ know, the good old days of 2002, when I was but a rosy-cheeked college twerp and dance-punk still ruled the minds and hearts of music-loving tweens accross D.C.

Most recently I’ve been thinking about Measles Mumps Rubella. More than a few of my peers wrote off this post-punk quartet as “art-fag,” chastising them as a weaker version of Black Eyes and latecomers to the extra-percussion fad. But in their first incarnation MMR were pretty good. Vocalist Brett Lyman spouted unintelligible static through his heavilly delayed microphone and the rest of the group kicked up a pretty ambitious bit of noise before they ditched Lyman, set sail for Brooklyn, and eventually disbanded.

If you missed them, don’t be too hard on yourself. It was hard to hear any of their music–mainly because they were so f’ing self-conscious about selling it. I remember having to haggle with the guitarist to buy a copy of their demo and having to pull teeth again to get the “Fountain of Youth” single AT THE RECORD RELEASE SHOW.

This trend continues–though not at MMR’s behest. Last week I stumbled onto their MySpace page and found–much to my surprise–that the band has been attempting to posthumously upload their entire back catalog–including the Fantastic Success LP, “Zusammen Mit Motown” 7-inch, and “Fountain of Youth” 12-inch–onto iTunes along with the unreleased last gasp “Dynamic Disaster.” For one reason or another Fantastic Success is all that’s up there. However, the band has kindly posted a bunch of these tracks up on their MySpace page for people to listen to until the whole iDebacle is resolved.

Pour a little out for 2002 and have listen.

Here’s a live video filmed at the Warehouse Next Door:

Sure, the smoking ban has made the Black Cat a little more comfortable. But can a night at the Red Room really compete with an evening of live music performed in the comfort of somebody else’s home?

Tomorrow night Brooklyn’s Little Women–who have a new CD arriving courtesy of the DC based Sockets label–will perform their potent take on out-jazz skronk alongside Melissa Moore, Eric Carbonara, Anup Pradhan, and D.C.’s own Layne Garrett at the Lighthouse on Saturday night at 9 p.m. sharp. The Lighthouse is an actual house located on 1421 Buchanan St. NW, and not a tower providing continuous light as a signal to navigators.