Dumbek's Random Stuff

I totally hibernated this week. Just work. No gym. No shows. No errands. I worked and slept. And it was Good. The only thing that was going to get me out of the house was a "can't miss" show. That came in the form of Mission of Burma at the Black Cat on Saturday.

MoB are currently touring, playing their 2 original records in their entirety - alternating each one for different cities. The DC date got them covering their album Vs. I'll admit I would have rather had Signals, Calls and Marches, but any Burma is good Burma. They never disappoint.

When I heard that we were getting Vs., I immediately thought..."Wouldn't it be funny if they got the band Versus to open for them?" Well, sure enough, that's exactly what happened. Versus has been around forever - at one time on the DC-based Teenbeat label. They've played the Black Cat plenty of times before. Great band, regardless of the name-connection with the MoB record. I've only seen them once and was completely blown away. I can't recommend The Stars Are Insane highly enough.


I was hoping they'd repeat what they did last time - play The Stars Are Insane from start to finish - but it wasn't meant to be. They played a few brand new tunes and a smattering of old stuff. They were really good, but weren't quite as engaging as last time. Still, I hope the new material is a hint that a record and tour will be following soon. I'm all over it.

Burma actually opened with one of the bonus tracks on the reissue of Vs., but after that played the whole thing from start to finish. The f-cking nailed it. Wow. These guys are the go-to band when people talk about reunions that don't suck. For good reason. They're f-cking fantastic. After the run-through of the record they played a few other random songs, and an encore that included "Academy Fight Song" and "This Is Not A Photograph". Awesome.

Did I mention how damn loud it was? This was not the show I should have chosen to forgo my earplugs. Ugh. Kind of surprising, considering the reason they broke up in the first place was due to ear damage from playing too loudly. Oh well...

Fantastic show, although I was beat by the end. Seems I wasn't quite as caught-up on my sleep as I had hoped. I ran over to The Eagle afterwards, picked up Dinger and headed home.

Next up - Metropolitan's farewell show on Saturday. Another good one bites the dust.