Brightest Young Things

"We are Zola Jesus,"  lead singer Rodney Linderman barked before The Dead Milkmen erupted into "Veterans of a Fucked Up World." The sold out crowd sputtered as they simultaneously laughed and sang along to the song's opening bars.

Since 1983 the satirical punk quartet has both grown up and stayed the same.

They might have aged, but their maturity levels are still tethered to cache of dick jokes and a disposition of jaded teenage antipathy. Pushing into middle age, the boys that brought us novelty punk numbers like "Takin' Retards To The Zoo" or "Meaningless Upbeat Happy Song" seemed as juvenile as ever.

The Saturday night show marked a recent partnership between U St Music Hall and the 930 Club. Instead of internationally acclaimed DJs manning the U St decks for 120 minutes of thumping dance music, a pinch of punkpourri fluttered into the basement venue.  While The Dead Milkmen did their sound check, The Misfits blared over the speakers. I usually expect to hear something like the Italo-disco of Aeroplane, who DJ'd the night's late show—not iconoclasts of goth punk.

Save for two languidly spinning disco balls running down the spine of the narrow dance hall,  the atmosphere had all the aesthetics of a punk show. The room is all black, with a slightly claustrophobic spatial orientation. The bar menus are humble white-on-black block letter typeset. The bathrooms are scrawled with colorful paintpen graffiti tags and spangled in swatches of street art stickers. A tall man with a slicked-back, hellbilly pompadour quiff  strutted by wearing a sleeve of tattoos and a denim vest dotted with pins. A dude in an Operation Ivy tee and an arm cast wormed his way into the heart of the crowd. Did hands with black X's  mean under 21 or straight edge?

The Dead Milkmen chugged out close to thirty songs in ninety minutes. Most of the set consisted of their celebrated pieces of comedy rock, although they did dip into their "serious" years of moody, more sincere bits of songwriting, and they found several instances to do cover songs, the best among them Gary Numan's "Cars" and Fugazi's "Waiting Room."

One of the biggest reactions came from "Punk Rock Girl," a love letter to, well, punk rock girls, set to a traditional Irish drinking melody. The other crowd explosion went off for "Bitchin' Camaro," a song in two parts: a jazz lounge dialog that breaks into 60 seconds of powerchord homage to the Camaro, the bitchin'-est of muscle cars (tongue firmly in cheek). The live rendition of its first half turned into a meandering five minutes of aimless chatter that focused mostly on Zola Jesus (Rodney Linderman's obsession, it seems) and featured soundbytes such as "My hand smells like Lana Del Ray" and "My dick has a cult following."

I wish they would have played "Instant Club Hit (You'll Dance To Anything)," to poke fun at U St's typical night out. Consider its lyrics: "You'll dance to anything by any bunch of stupid Europeans who come over here with their big hairdos intent on taking our money!" But, alas, they were either too polite (doubtful) or didn't make the connection (likely).

After thrashing about stage like mischievous imps, The Dead Milkmen bid us adieu. Sure, their performance was technically a little sloppy. The high treble crunch of distorted guitar never really wavered its tone; instrumental harmony fluxed like a radio searching for a signal. But does that really matter to a punk show? It's all about attitude, and The Dead Milkmen inspired ~300 facefuls of sneers, smirks, and Peter Pan-syndrome sing-a-longs.

Previously in Live DC:

• 5/22: LiveDC: Spirit Animal @ Red Palace
• 5/22: LiveDC: Astra Via @ Black Cat
• 5/22: LiveDC: Father John Misty @ Rock & Roll Hotel
• 5/22: LiveDC: Drive-By Truckers and Lucinda Williams @ Merriweather
• 5/22: Photos: Summer Camp takes the "Ladies of Town" Drag Show
• 5/22: LiveDC: Penguin Prison & Class Actress @ RNR Hotel
• 5/21: LiveDC: James Morrison @ 930 Club
• 5/21: Photos: Que Sera L'Anniversaire @ Napoleon
• 5/21: LiveDC: La Sera/ Beach Week @ Red Palace
• 5/21: LiveDC: The Black Keys & Arctic Monkeys @ Merriweather Post Pavilion