Tuesday, August 16, 2005
Weekend Stuff
For no good reason, I decided I needed to take a couple of days off work. I deserve it, dammit. I took off Friday and Monday, which means my weekend started on Thursday. Hooray for me! Not so good for you, as this has turned into a long, rambling post.
Thursday started with Olivia Mancini and the Spectacles at DC9. DC9 had them listed as "The Spectacles", but Olivia called them "The Spectaculars" during their set. Who knows. All I know is they were pretty good. Basic pop/rock, but the trumpet gave a little twist to it. Sort of an indie-miriachi sound. And "Jolene" to boot. Good to see Olivia up front, playing guitar the whole time. Rock chicks rule.
The Spectacular Spectacles were only the second band, so we got out of there pretty early. Early enough to hit The Eagle, just as the Lantern crowd started showing up. We pumped more than a few bucks into the jukebox and acted as the welcoming committee as people started rolling in. It seemed like every few minutes another friend was walking in, or I was meeting friends of friends. Nights like that are a mixed blessing, in that you get to see everyone, but don't get to spend a lot of time with anyone. Hard to complain about being surrounded by friends though.
Friday - The Knitters at The Birchmere. Fantastic. The perfect mix of down-home country and rock. More rockin' than I expected, but in a good way. I guess it's hard to keep Dave Alvin down. I was never really into The Blasters. Looks like I should have paid more attention. Once Dave got going, he was on fire. They basically played both albums, plus a couple of extra songs. I was surprised to hear "I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts." Nice.
Phranc opened to a pretty receptive crowd. Opening with Johnny Cash's "I've Been Everywhere" seemed to get everyone in a good mood right off the bat. Her set was fun, including a not-terribly-flattering song about Condoleezza and a good old-fashioned "Hokey-Pokey." What's not to love? Thanks to Phranc for the autographed poster for our friends.
Lantern afterwards, but we didn't stay all that long. The soccer match on the TV was fun to watch, although I can't recall which team won.
Saturday/Sunday - The return of D-E-V-O. I hadn't seen Devo since 1988 at Hammerjacks. To say I was excited was more than an understatement. Things started off a bit shaky, when their opening DVD didn't work. It was skipping and would progress past a certain point. After a few tries ("we must repeat...") they finally gave up and just started the show. The band itself did not disappoint. The Spuds can definitely still bring it. They only played 2 songs post-Freedom of Choice, which was fine by me (although I wouldn't have minded a few more from New Traditionalists). "Uncontrollable Urge", "Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA", "Satisfaction", "Girl U Want" and about 8 or so more early Devo classics. Terrific. The only disappointing aspect of the whole thing was that they only played for 1:05. Including the encore. $55 for a 1:05 show by a band with a sizable catalog is kind of lame. Had I known that ahead of time, I still would have gone, but I definitely wouldn't have gone to both shows. Lesson learned.
The only differences between Saturday and Sunday were the fact that they fixed the video for Sundays show and Saturday wasn't sold out. That made Saturday more comfortable, but Sunday's crowd was a lot more excited and into it.
Devo doesn't get enough credit for being a real band. When you mention Devo to most people, they just roll their eyes and mumble something about "Whip It" and flowerpot hats. (For the record, it's an "energy dome".) Devo is a real band that can f--king rock hard. They were playing bizarro-crazy-cutting-edge-rock before most bands that are now considered legendary. It's good to see they're still around and can still kick serious butt.
Most of Monday was spent in and around the pool. Very lazy day. Went to Fort Reno, but still managed to miss most of The Threads. Sometimes it's just too hard to get out of the pool. I liked what I heard though, and I'll make an effort to see them later. My current DC favorite Medications was up next. They certainly did not disappoint. They're just too damn good. The BF thought they were better here than at the Backstage show we saw a few weeks ago. I'm not sure I agree with that, but they still sounded great to me. The drummer is just amazing to watch. And, of course, I could look at Devin all day. The Mary Timony Band was good, as always, but after the Medications set it was hard to get excited for hers. I recommend Ex Hex though. Go buy it.
Both Medications and Mary Timony are at The Black Cat on 9/2. You should go.
Back to work today. Blech.
Metropolitan at Fort Reno on Thursday. It's the last Fort Reno show of the year. Should be a good one.
Thursday started with Olivia Mancini and the Spectacles at DC9. DC9 had them listed as "The Spectacles", but Olivia called them "The Spectaculars" during their set. Who knows. All I know is they were pretty good. Basic pop/rock, but the trumpet gave a little twist to it. Sort of an indie-miriachi sound. And "Jolene" to boot. Good to see Olivia up front, playing guitar the whole time. Rock chicks rule.
The Spectacular Spectacles were only the second band, so we got out of there pretty early. Early enough to hit The Eagle, just as the Lantern crowd started showing up. We pumped more than a few bucks into the jukebox and acted as the welcoming committee as people started rolling in. It seemed like every few minutes another friend was walking in, or I was meeting friends of friends. Nights like that are a mixed blessing, in that you get to see everyone, but don't get to spend a lot of time with anyone. Hard to complain about being surrounded by friends though.
Friday - The Knitters at The Birchmere. Fantastic. The perfect mix of down-home country and rock. More rockin' than I expected, but in a good way. I guess it's hard to keep Dave Alvin down. I was never really into The Blasters. Looks like I should have paid more attention. Once Dave got going, he was on fire. They basically played both albums, plus a couple of extra songs. I was surprised to hear "I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts." Nice.
Phranc opened to a pretty receptive crowd. Opening with Johnny Cash's "I've Been Everywhere" seemed to get everyone in a good mood right off the bat. Her set was fun, including a not-terribly-flattering song about Condoleezza and a good old-fashioned "Hokey-Pokey." What's not to love? Thanks to Phranc for the autographed poster for our friends.
Lantern afterwards, but we didn't stay all that long. The soccer match on the TV was fun to watch, although I can't recall which team won.
Saturday/Sunday - The return of D-E-V-O. I hadn't seen Devo since 1988 at Hammerjacks. To say I was excited was more than an understatement. Things started off a bit shaky, when their opening DVD didn't work. It was skipping and would progress past a certain point. After a few tries ("we must repeat...") they finally gave up and just started the show. The band itself did not disappoint. The Spuds can definitely still bring it. They only played 2 songs post-Freedom of Choice, which was fine by me (although I wouldn't have minded a few more from New Traditionalists). "Uncontrollable Urge", "Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA", "Satisfaction", "Girl U Want" and about 8 or so more early Devo classics. Terrific. The only disappointing aspect of the whole thing was that they only played for 1:05. Including the encore. $55 for a 1:05 show by a band with a sizable catalog is kind of lame. Had I known that ahead of time, I still would have gone, but I definitely wouldn't have gone to both shows. Lesson learned.
The only differences between Saturday and Sunday were the fact that they fixed the video for Sundays show and Saturday wasn't sold out. That made Saturday more comfortable, but Sunday's crowd was a lot more excited and into it.
Devo doesn't get enough credit for being a real band. When you mention Devo to most people, they just roll their eyes and mumble something about "Whip It" and flowerpot hats. (For the record, it's an "energy dome".) Devo is a real band that can f--king rock hard. They were playing bizarro-crazy-cutting-edge-rock before most bands that are now considered legendary. It's good to see they're still around and can still kick serious butt.
Most of Monday was spent in and around the pool. Very lazy day. Went to Fort Reno, but still managed to miss most of The Threads. Sometimes it's just too hard to get out of the pool. I liked what I heard though, and I'll make an effort to see them later. My current DC favorite Medications was up next. They certainly did not disappoint. They're just too damn good. The BF thought they were better here than at the Backstage show we saw a few weeks ago. I'm not sure I agree with that, but they still sounded great to me. The drummer is just amazing to watch. And, of course, I could look at Devin all day. The Mary Timony Band was good, as always, but after the Medications set it was hard to get excited for hers. I recommend Ex Hex though. Go buy it.
Both Medications and Mary Timony are at The Black Cat on 9/2. You should go.
Back to work today. Blech.
Metropolitan at Fort Reno on Thursday. It's the last Fort Reno show of the year. Should be a good one.
