Brightest Young Things

They’re a good venue and all, but DC9 really needs to get their fucking schedule in order. In the two times I’ve been there in the last four days, the website, bartender and person at the door all gave me different times, none of which ended up baring any resemblance to when the bands actually went on. This is why I can’t tell you a thing about Carol Bui, the first opener for Aloha last night. I got there one song into Pomegranates’ set, one I was excited about since last year’s Everybody, Come Outside! was one of my favorite slept-on releases of the recent past. Somehow, despite my adoration of their second album and passing knowledge of their first, they managed to avoid playing any songs I could recognize, a shame since the ones they chose instead didn’t come across nearly as reverby, tight or fun as the band sounds on the record. Looking at once bored, scared and like they’d just lost two of their founding members, Pomegranates managed to make their meager 5-song set, the one I was admittedly most excited for, into something wholly forgettable.

With Aloha, on the other hand, I knew I wouldn’t be disappointed. When a band’s been around for some 15-odd years and consistently puts out music as varied and interesting as they do, it’s a fair bet they’re equally competent when it comes to performing. And how! Drummer Cale Parks (of Cale Parks, White Williams and BRAHMS fame(?)) is rhythm incarnate, easily the strongest part of the band but not in a bad way. His rock-solid pummeling effortlessly elevated every single song the band ran through last night, focusing on the newly-released Home Acres and playing all four of my favorite Aloha songs, coincidentally the first four tracks on 2004’s Here Comes Everybody.

As anyone who sees the band will tell you, one of the highlights is the amplified vibraphone T.J. Lipple makes do wondrous things. Particularly impressive was hearing how running the instrument through a distortion pedal creates a sound that is both completely alien and aesthetically perfect, pretty much making every single song it’s featured in, like the encore’s “You’ve Escaped.” Something fairly unexpected was the band’s penchant for piling layer upon layer to create a cacophony I never really hear from them on any of their records, a trick they used on many of the set’s opening songs from early records. Though I knew I’d come away pleasantly surprised by whatever Aloha live turned out to be, they pulled a fast one by being far more noisy, muscular and capable than I could have ever anticipated.

Previously in Live DC:

• 5/16: LiveDC: Mark Lanegan @ 930 Club
• 5/16: LiveDC: Horse Feathers @ Black Cat
• 5/16: LiveDC: M. Ward/ Lee Ranaldo @ 930 Club
• 5/16: Photos: Dance In The Circle @ Dupont Circle
• 5/16: LiveDC: The Cranberries @ 930 Club
• 5/15: LiveDC: Esperanza Spalding @ Howard Theatre
• 5/15: LiveDC: Opeth & Mastodon @ Fillmore
• 5/15: LiveDC: M83 w/ I Break Horses @ 930 Club
• 5/14: PHOTOS: Metal Lords feat. Rob Zombie & Megadeth @ Merriweather
• 5/14: GIVEAWAY: ART AFTER DARK @ Art Museum of the Americas