First up was a young group called Gangland Buries Its Own — they were actually playing when I got there, but I would guess that I saw most of their set. Good band, I liked them. Sort of an artsy post-hardcore sound, not really anything I haven’t heard before, but with screaming female vocals. Typing this up, I am tempted to download their album but it seems sort of expensive, $10 at CDBaby. They need to get on the bandcamp bandwagon, I would buy it for like 4 or 5. I’ll think about it.

I found some flickr photos from the show, here is Gangland, borrowed from flickr user dalesun:

The headliners were Sleeper Agent! — they discussed how there was another band out there called Sleeper Agent, so theirs is the one with the exclamation point. This band featured John Stabb (from ’80s DC punk band Government Issue) and I feel like such a bad excuse for a scenester because I thought John Stabb had died a few years ago but actually he was just badly injured in an assault and clearly still alive. Anyway I have listened to GI before and it is ok, but not something I get all excited about.

Sleeper Agent! were pretty fun to listen to, though. It wasn’t particularly punk, more like old post-punk or new wave, a la the B-52s. The friend I went with also commented that it sounded a lot like The Fall and I can’t disagree with that.

The show was a little sloppy, with rambling conversations from Mr. “Not Dead” Stabb, but fun to sit and listen to on a rare pretty evening. Totally gemlike.

Here’s a photo of Sleeper Agent!, also borrowed from flickr user dalesun:

The first time I saw them was around 9 years ago and it was pretty close to a life-altering event. It was by far one of the very best concerts I’ve ever been to. In fact, when people really press me on the topic, like “you’re practically an expert, what are the best shows you’ve seen?”, I tend to mention either that amazing show (with Lightning Bolt, Black Dice, Orthrelm, and Avey Tare & Panda Bear!); or else maybe Paul Flaherty & Chris Corsano or Fugazi.

Ever since then, I have been listening to Lightning Bolt on and off, picking up all their albums, occasionally listening to live performances. But I haven’t seen them live again, and I could scarcely believe it when, a few months ago, I happened to look at the concert listings and saw them listed at DC9. I was all like, “wait, really? THE Lightning Bolt??” and rushed to a computer to buy a ticket.

So it was gonna be hard for them to live up to my massive expectations.

At least there was intriguing music leading up to their Wednesday-night show. I caught part of the show opener, a solo performance under the moniker Macaw. I liked it; I found the following video on youtube that says that Macaw is one of the guys from Hume:

I thought Macaw had cool vocal effects and was a worthy way to chill out in advance of Lightning Bolt. After his performance was a very interesting guitar orchestra coordinated by Buildings. Buildings are pretty much my favorite local band lately, and it was cool to see what they pulled off: a 15-guitar line-up playing minimal pieces. I think they should do it again sometime, though the logistics must have been a nightmare. It was just a short set and it sounded really cool — mainly the guitarists were just picking one note at a time, making simple harmonies in pretty simple rhythms. I was impressed they were even all (basically) in tune, and that they almost all could fit onto the stage.

In a dcist interview before the show, the Buildings guys said they wanted to do the opposite of Lightning Bolt: instead of very few people making maximal noise, they were gonna be the maximal amount of people making minimal noise. Great idea, and I’m glad I saw it.

The Buildings Guitar Orchestra set was so quick that it seemed too early for Lightning Bolt to go on, but suddenly, there they were! Drummer Brian Chippendale appeared to be wearing a handmade Darth Maul t-shirt inside-out! It was on!

I was ready for some serious pounding noise-rock, ready for some facemelting riffage and sick, jawdrop-worthy beats. I even wore earplugs, which is an extreme rarity. I was arguably willing to dance and jump around. But I wasn’t really prepared for the moshing. The last time I saw Lightning Bolt, we didn’t really mosh. I think we may have been too stunned to even move very much — it was sort of like deer in the headlights. But the fans that turned out at DC9 — many of them seeming very young to me, like how old would they have been when I saw LB before? 9? — were all set to mosh.

I am not really against moshing; I sort of enjoyed it a few times in the past. But yo, I am old. Screeching noise is one thing, but dodging flying elbows and flying high school linebackers is not really my style anymore. I had to gradually ease my way out of the thick of the crowd. I was there for the music, not to slough off extra testosterone by thrashing into random large people. Again, I am old, gotta preserve the testosterone I still have left… Besides, I wanted to pay attention to one of my favorite bands.

Anyway despite the weirdness of all the moshing and flailing, I totally loved the show. It’s no wonder the youngsters were all pumped up. I haven’t listened to the new LB album, Earthly Delights, all that much, or even the one before that, Hypermagic Mountain, so I didn’t recognize too many songs. I thought the band sounded a little different compared to when I saw them way back when. Now they came across as a little more metal, a little more (strange to say) straightforward. Less spastic. Most of all, I thought that the first time I saw them, it was more like an equally impressive performance by Chippendale and the other Brian, bassist Gibson. This time, it seemed more like the drumming was the focus of everything. At times, it was like Gibson was just playing quite simple bass parts while Chippendale went insane, solo-ing manically all over the place. It sounded cool, and maybe it is intentional, just a little bit different in emphasis. The old stuff just seemed to be a lot wilder and more exciting from the bass-playing perspective. Either way, though, this band is so inventive and powerful that it is super impressive.

I couldn’t find any videos for the performance at DC9, but here is a good one from a couple days later that seems almost identical. And check out some photos at the Sockets Records blog where you can see Brian Chippendale’s Darth Maul shirt.

The reviewer at DCist said it was “easily” the best show she’d ever seen at DC9. Well, I wouldn’t go that far. (The best show I’ve seen at DC9 was clearly Rah Brahs!) But it was surely awesome. Just unable to quite live up to my unrealistic hope that it would not only equal, but surpass my first Lightning Bolt experience.

I had seen these guys once before at the Sockets Showcase, and I liked them well enough. For the photo show, they put on a smaller-scale performance, just drums and bass and two vocalists. It was really good! Better than I expected, honestly. The sound was not that great (the vocals never really were able to get loud enough), but I was impressed by these guys’ energy and dedication to the performance, even in front of a small crowd.

I think maybe the first time I saw them, I’d been too tired to really get into it. But maybe the stripped-down version was actually objectively better anyway. At some point I will see them again and make a more definitive pronouncement. Anyhow they all seem like great people and I will keep cheering them on.

And I don’t regret it or anything — actually they were really good — but they won’t stick in my mind as a legendary performance. Honestly it was the kind of thing that could have benefited from some mind-altering substances, but I liked it even just with some beers.

I think what was most surprising about this show is how, well, non-exotic it seemed. I mean, it isn’t very close to Western pop, but it is deeply infused with modern western experimental music and psychedelic sounds that have been around for decades. (I guess you could say that western psych and experimental stuff was influenced by non-western mystics, but I wouldn’t want to take that argument very far.) Tinariwen wasn’t really that different from some of the music I already listen to. I guess it’s globalization: we are all influencing each other back and forth.

I dug the guitar tones, I liked the percussion. At times I was reminded of psychedelic bands like Spiritualized, at other times I was thinking of bands that delve into mythic terrain like Silver Mt. Zion or even Lungfish. I also found myself pondering the logistics of this band, and the point of having all those extra people on stage who contributed only a few background vocals. No wonder the tickets were expensive.

I think the problem with this slow, druggy music is that it leaves too much time to think. I watched Tinariwen and thought about colonization and globalization, about white guilt and the endless back-and-forth of cultural co-option. I guess in theory you are supposed to be contemplative and willing to be moved to a higher realm, but for me that usually only works with extreme noise or energy, not sparsely picked guitars. Maybe this kind of music is beautiful, but I prefer the sublime? This music is joyful, but I prefer the tragic? That’s my working theory. I appreciate the beautiful, but am really only truly moved by the sublime.

Still and all, good show. Here’s a better review from dcist.

We didn’t rush — it was a hot summer afternoon, and beer was destined to be consumed, so it seemed prudent to take it easy. This meant that we missed a lot of the early bands, like Trixter and L.A. Guns. We were in the parking lot eating Subway sandwiches and drinking beers while Winger was tearing up the crowd. I can live with being that close to Winger and never catching a glimpse.

But I was pleased that we managed to catch Bang Tango on the second stage. They are one of those bands I never knew very well, but liked. My older brother was all into Bang Tango, and I can remember him driving around with their tapes blasting, circa 1990. They put on a good show.

Here they are playing “Ready to Go”:

But my favorite moment of the performance was spotting this chick with a Queensrÿche tattoo! How awesome is this??

My head was still reeling a little from the Queensrÿche tattoo when, after Bang Tango, we wandered to the mainstage to see Kix. After decades of never getting around to seeing Kix, the biggest semi-hometown band of my youth, this was my second time seeing them in the past year. Last time, I was full of complex, ambivalent feelings. This time I was more willing to just enjoy them for being a silly, great rock band. They are not a band that you should spend a whole lot of time projecting personal Angst upon.

They looked about the same as last time, Steve Whiteman ugly as sin, the band totally rocking the joint. Here you can check them out doing one of their best songs, “Cold Blood” (I was singing along):

Having enough of the Kix experience (they played a pretty long set), we left during the last song (the one I dislike, “Yeah Yeah Yeah”) to go back to the other stage and check out Dizzy Reed.

I have never listened to any of Dizzy’s solo stuff, but I have long admired the name of his solo band, Hookers N’ Blow. He put on a pretty great set, playing covers and who-knows-what-else; there were a couple of Guns N’ Roses songs thrown in. He actually sounds quite a bit like Axl Rose. This was a fun performance, and from the stage banter, it seemed like the band was just sort of thrown together. I would go see Dizzy at a club sometime. I kinda want to go to L.A. and hang out with him.

Dizzy Reed – “Cheers to Oblivion” :

After Dizzy’s set, we moved to the mainstage and abandoned the back-and-forth action (meaning we missed Warrant). Up next was Vince Neil, who put on one of the more baffling performances I’ve ever seen. I really like Mötley Crüe, or anyway I like the idea of Mötley Crüe. They seemed to occupy a sweet spot in the ’80s hard rock hierarchy — heavy enough to seem semi-tough, but with plenty of chick appeal via all the ballads. But then sometimes I wonder if they aren’t just another party rock band like Poison. So much philosophical debate!

Anyway I was sort of interested to see what Vince Neil would do, I was assuming it would be a Crüe greatest hits sort of show. And it seemed that way at first. His band was awesome, but Vince Neil himself was awful. He ran around, sang intermittently, and then — weirdest of all — wandered off-stage for like 10 or 15 minutes at one point. The band seemed to be covering up, playing a Zeppelin medley where the guitarist proved to be a better singer than Neil himself. I was sort of thinking — hoping? — that Vince Neil had disappeared, perhaps in a helicopter heading home sweet home. But he eventually wandered back onto the stage, sang some Zeppelin himself, and finished the show. How odd! It was like a week afterwards that he made the news for getting arrested for drunk driving.

Anyway here is Vince doing a Crüe hit:

After Vince Neil’s set, while we sat and skipped the Warrant performance in the background, was one of the weirder moments of the night. As background music over the speakers, somebody put on the first Burning Airlines record, and played almost the whole thing. Amusing! I wonder what sort of statement that staffperson was making. Maybe it was “these bands rock, and so does J. Robbins!” I would like to hope so, anyway it was funny and incongruous and I enjoyed listening. Thanks, IMP Productions employee!

After Mission: Control! was turned off, we got to see the awesomest performance of the night: Cinderella!

I’ve always liked Cinderella, and one of the first few CDs I ever bought was by them. I haven’t listened to them in ages and ages, though, and I have learned an awful lot more about music in the intervening couple of decades. So it was fun to listen to them, and relive my adolescence a bit, and figure out what I think of this band nowadays.

Obviously, they are a bit past their prime, but they really sounded pretty good and energetic. They started off sounding pretty metal — in the vein of Judas Priest almost. But gradually they eased into just plain ole’ rock and roll, the same kind played by a lot of great bands through the years, from the Black Crowes to the Rolling Stones. This is a great style — hard rock, slightly metal-inflected, mixed with Stones-y swagger. Guns N’ Roses did something similar from time to time, but I kind of think Cinderella have a more interesting take on it. Really good stuff. Also Tom Keifer turned out to be a good musician rather than just a frontman, it helped put Vince Neil’s earlier performance to shame, playing guitar and piano and saxophone (!).

Here’s “Nobody’s Fool” which is of course a great song, though maybe not typical:

Cinderella was a hard act to follow and I am not sure the Scorpions were up to the challenge. I really like the Scorpions but they came on late (there were all kinds of technical problems in getting them onstage) and the crowd was getting restless. Klaus Meine was sick (though you couldn’t really tell from his voice). Many folks had been out in the hot sun for like 10 hours, and were itching to go beat traffic.

Even I was feeling a little worn out, though I totally wanted to be attentive. This was supposedly a farewell tour for the ancient Germans.

Probably the coolest thing about the Scorpions’ performance was their sheer attitude. These guys aren’t screwin’ around, they are acting like a right proper metal band. A Teutonic metal band! They had a ridiculous pneumatic drum riser thing straight out of a Spinal Tap performance, they all wore black leather. Super sweet. At a certain point, Vince Neil came out to join them for a song (why??) and the contrast was ridiculous, with Vince basically looking like a slovenly Jimmy Buffett in comparison.

The performance was pretty good, and fun. Great rock band. But I think they might have been better served headlining a more reasonable show, not a ridiculous all-day festival. If it had just been Scorps and Cinderella it would’ve totally roooled.

Here they are doing one of my old favorites, “Holiday.” Funny, with the Scorpions I almost like their ballads better than their rockers (not “Wind of Change” though).

I’ve seen Medications lots of times (and Faraquet lots of times before that), though the current version of the band is obviously significantly different from what came before. The last time I saw them was maybe a year and a half ago to two years ago, after Andrew Becker had left the band. Devin and Chad played a show at DC9 with someone else (maybe Mark Cisneros?) as a keyboard/utility man. I happened to end up chatting to Devin after that performance, and he said they were still working out how to continue as a band, and were doing a lot of recording. So basically that was a work-in-progress version of what is now the new Medications, including more singing by Chad, more keyboards, and an overall more-stripped-down sound.

At the totally-packed backstage of the Black Cat last week, they rolled out a quartet version of the band, and sounded pretty great. I think I am going to like this incarnation (if they stay very active… they are getting older, and busy in life). It took me a long time to start really loving Medications after I was such a huge Faraquet fan, and I think it will take me some more time to adjust to Medications version 2.0. But it was great.

The new Medications stuff is much poppier than their older music, with lots of nice duets and harmonies between Chad and Devin. I really like the singing in Medications songs, and now they are getting so melodic that you lose track of the impressive music. And without the powerhouse drumming that they used to have, they don’t seem nearly as challenging or hard-rock/math-rock. That’s cool though — I think they accomplished all that they needed to in that direction.

Devin’s guitar was often backed up with rhythm guitar from the other guitarist which left him free to play minimalistically, throwing in leads that sometimes sounded like Nels Cline. They played a couple of old Medications for good measure, including the encore (though I can never remember the names of their songs), so they haven’t entirely abandoned the old stuff. I am pretty happy with the whole thing, and was glad I made it, and even a little inspired by it.

I only caught about half of Imperial China‘s set. I like this band (and wish them only success) but got a little fatigued by them after promoting them to friends and listening to their new album so much when it came out a few months ago. At the backstage, they sounded awesome musically — it’s a good venue for them and it was fun to see them in front of a packed and attentive crowd. Again, I have a few caveats about this band (i.e., the singing). It is interesting to contrast to Medications, where the singing is not traditionally strong either, but somehow works a little better. Anyhow Imperial China seem to be experiencing some success and hopefully they can keep it up. But Medications is still a couple steps above them in the quality hierarchy.

PS there was a very interesting piece in the City Paper recently about DC bands booking shows and tours, relating to both of these bands. Check it out.

Anyway Converge was fun. The show was actually pretty early, and Converge was opening for Thursday, so by the time we got there Converge had already started (and we missed the other opening acts). I was never really that big a fan of hardcore, and I haven’t spent that much time at hardcore shows, but I do like it and it was fun to watch these old dudes (the internet says they’ve been around since 1990!) rock out. Converge makes music that is more interesting than just hardcore, or “metalcore.” They are great at putting a few melodic and anthemic elements into noisy heavy songs:

Here are some photos from the Washington City Paper.

After Converge came Thursday, a band I have heard of forever but knew little about. They were kind of mainstream popular about 5 years ago, and were hopping onto Converge’s tour while working on recording a new album. They seemed like nice guys (and they were dealing with some kind of crew medical emergency) but not too many people in the audience cared about them. Their music struck me as “hardcore for girls” which I don’t really mean in a sexist sense. I mean, I know lots of girls that are way more into hardcore than I am. I mean that Thursday is kind of what you would expect, an cleaned-up MTV version of hardcore punk. They were ok at what they did, though.

Thursday is from Jersey and I was watching them and remembering another long-ago Jersey hardcore-ish band, the Trans-Megetti. Whatever happened to them? The singer in Thursday reminded me a bit of the singer in Trans-Megetti and I wondered if they might perchance be the same person? I guess not, but those kinds of wandering thoughts kind of show how into Thursday I was. We left before the end of the show but not before giving them a chance. They weren’t terrible.

It was not terribly crowded at the main stage of the Black Cat, but the joint was full of old scenesters and I had a sudden shock of nostalgia the first time Janet Weiss walked by — it made me dreadfully miss Sleater-Kinney. But Quasi doesn’t have too much in common with S-K, except to the extent that their music has evolved in a somewhat similar direction to the path S-K took towards the end of their run — guitartastic classic rock. Just like Carrie Brownstein, Sam Coomes seems to have been working on his Jimmy Page routine pretty hard.

The performance at the Black Cat was (apparently) based mostly on their new album and Coomes mostly played guitar, and they played as a trio with a bassist who is evidently part of the band these days. A few times he switched over to keyboard and it sounded a little more like the old Quasi I was mildly familiar with. They sounded pretty good though! Real rock and roll stuff. More than anything I was reminded of Crazy Horse and Danny Whitten. I kept expecting them to break into “Come On Baby Let’s Go Downtown.” (See this song as an example. There is also (as I remember from older Quasi material) a lot of Beatles via Elliott Smith influence.

Fun show. They ended by noting that they have been playing a lot of Who covers and playing a pretty rockin’ version of “Pictures of Lily.” Actually it was a lot more rockin’ than the original Who version. Cheers, Quasi.

Openers Let’s Wrestle were kind of inoffensively ok. I remember finding them enjoyable but they weren’t really doing anything at all original. I liked the bass. It’s cool, I like seeing bands that are competent and unheralded. Not crazy about their name, though.

Anyway I didn’t think I had ever seen them forgot that I had seen them before and so I was willing to go along with some friends that wanted to check them out. And I was amused, though not overwhelmed. They were a straightforward punk/hardcore band straight outta 1982, sounding almost exactly like the Misfits. Here and there I was wondering if they were actually just covering Misfits songs that I don’t know. They had a bunch of fans who spat beer at them enough to drench the singer/guitarist in a sort of gross way. It was fun. But sort of dated. As in, they were doing things that were only novel for a few seconds, over 25 years ago.

I would be willing to watch The Points again but I wouldn’t really go out of my way. Maybe if I were 17 I would be a little more interested. They were fun but inessential.

On the other hand I would really like to hear more from openers Davey Crockett. This was a guitar/drums duo that played really loud and hard pop… actually not so incredibly different from Japandroids who I saw like a month ago, only not quite as poppy as that. But there was a similarity in the way the guitar wasn’t complicated, just basic rhythm guitar played loud and hard with lots of effects, on some sort of hollow-body telecaster. I thought they were great. The guitarist was a nerdy type who reminded me a little of Lou Barlow, while the drummer’s long black hair hanging down in his face reminded me of Dave Grohl. They were selling tapes and I would’ve bought one if I’d had any cash, but I guess it was not meant to be.

Davey Crockett are from Houston and seem to be a pretty new band. Here is their myspace where I can get my fill of what was probably on that tape. I’m glad I caught them.

There was an earlier band that I missed; a review over at DC Rock Live suggests they would’ve been worth it, too.

UPDATE: Actually if I would read my own blog I would realize that I had seen The Points at least once before, a year ago opening for Obits at the Black Cat. Huh. Well I have no real recollection of that — obviously nobody was spitting beer at them then. Who knows how many bands I have seen and forgotten…

But I wasn’t about to miss Obits. What a kick-ass rock band! It was weird to see them on the huge 930 stage playing in front of a mostly oblivious crowd. On paper (or screen) it seems like Obits would be a great band to open for Ted Leo — both bands play melodic, smart, punky tunes, and in fact while I was watching Obits I was thinking that Ted Leo could easily cover these songs. But something seemed to keep the crowd from fully embracing Obits (and vice versa). I got the impression that the Ted Leo fans liked it, but were also antsy for the main act. This is the fate of every opening act at a place as big as the 930.

Of course I was already a huge fan, and I managed to watch them from almost right in front of the stage while I waited for other friends to show up at the club. They played a couple of new songs that I didn’t recognize, and for the first time they didn’t play “Back and Forth” which is their cheesy/dumb/awesome pop song, but they just slayed on “Milk Cow Blues.” There was a problem with the sound, though, and I thought that the guitars were out of balance — Rick Froberg’s was too loud and Sohrab Habibion’s was too quiet.

I actually chatted to Froberg after the show for a few minutes, he was hanging around outside the 930 Club and I just wanted to tell him how rad it was. He mentioned that he wasn’t super thrilled about playing a “concert” rather than a “show.” Other nights on their tour were “shows” but the show at the 930 was more of a “concert.” I knew what he meant. I agreed. Obits are not a “concert” kind of band but they seem to be better each time I see them. I reckon at least a handful of the Ted Leo fans were won over.

Anyway, speaking of Ted Leo fans…

Well, really what is there to say? I don’t want to be an elitist ass always mumbling to the side, all, “I remember when Ted Leo lived here and was playing solo shows every other day, where did all these annoying young internet-based fans come from, blah blah blah.” But I will just mention how odd it is that Ted Leo is pretty much the only musician who crossed over into the post-millennial indie scene successfully from a certain time and era of indie/hardcore/post-hardcore DC/east coast music. Phew — what a mouthful. It makes sense to me. I mean he is basically the only semi-popular musician with roots in hardcore, I guess. Also he has James Canty back in the Pharmacist fold, which is almost like Johnny Marr joining Modest Mouse, or Nels Cline joining Wilco. Though I miss French Toast.

Anyway my point is just that I have weird conflicted feelings about latter-era Ted Leo stuff but I still love his music, admire him greatly as an individual, and keep listening to material from throughout his career. But I listened a fair number of times to the new TL/Rx album, The Brutalist Bricks and it hasn’t done a whole lot for me. It seems more punk-rock than some of his other albums, and seems impassioned, but little of it really grips me except maybe for “Bottled in Cork” which is the latest in a long series of Ted Leo songs about traveling in the world.

Anyhow the show was fun, drawing heavily on the new album and touching on pretty much all the other Ted Leo albums. They didn’t play too much of the good stuff from the mid-era albums but they did a ton of old songs from Tyranny of Distance which was enjoyable. For an encore Ted did a solo cover of the Waterboys and at the very end, as things seemed about to wrap up, I was thinking to myself “it would be cool with all these old songs if they would end on ‘Stove by a Whale’” and that is exactly what they did! Cool — certainly took me back.

I can’t find much in the way of vids or photos from the show but it’s not like the internet needs much more Ted Leo stuff anyway. But here is a photo snagged from essgee on flickr: