All photos: Mike Danko
My GPS led me to the gates of American University but I had to use the big map sign to try to track down the actual Kay Spiritual Life Center. Whatever in God's name that was. It was about 7pm, raining, we're tromping through the mud cause some construction work has blocked off the sidewalk, we find the building, head downstairs. It's small, muggy, and the smell of patchouli is overwhelming. But the lineup is exciting, the venue is different, and I feel like I'm in college again (minus the bad parts).
Local band Mittenfields take the stage, er, carpet. Lot's of singers, lots of guitars, lots of pedals, a big wall of sound. In a previous BYT review Patrick described them as "Radiohead (circa the Bends) meets Sebadoh meets the lighter side of Mogwai". Pretty much, yeah. We even got a Radiohead cover. Take note local bands of the world - always, I repeat, always - do at least one cover in your set. 
Anyway, it was nothing groundbreaking, but quite enjoyable. My only criticism was that neither primary singer seemed quite confident enough in their vocal abilities. At times their timing was a bit off or they shied away from the mic. Regardless, there is some real potential here and I'm looking forward to more from them.
Next up was Screaming Females. My expectations were pretty high as I had been hyping them up all month. And they delivered so hard my ass bled twice. The hobbit-sized front woman Marissa Paternoster spewed forth monster riffs as the crowd, mostly there to see Ponytail, collectively dropped their jaws.
The rhythm section kept it teenage pussy tight behind her as she wailed on the mic. The hippie stench was blasted out of the room. Her voice is powerful, and the songs are ridiculously catchy. I don't think there was a bum note or missed fret during the entire performance. Satan took over the spiritual life center. All was right in the world.
Screaming Females are a little bit of a one trick pony, but when the trick is this good, keep doing it. These guys need to be indie superstars like right now.
At that point I made like a college student and snuck out to the parking lot to down a Yngling. Came back in and Ponytail was raging into their set. I listened to a few songs, loved it, but then decided I had put off dinner too long (headed to Z Burger, 50 different milkshakes!) so I asked Noam from True Womanhood to send me some words:
yo cale.
i decided to write my in depth analysis of the show in the form of an ancient japanese poem.
but not a haiku, that shit is played out. it's tanka, which according to wikipedia, totally own haikus.
HYSTERICAL SHRIEKS
ROTOTOM MAYHEM BUT STILL
NO DANCING BECAUSE
NOT EVEN PONYTAIL CAN
UNINHIBIT DC CROWDS
cheers,
noam
Epic win for all.
Not sure who is the Screaming Female here.
Previously in Live DC:
- 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
- 5/17: Gay Best Weekend Bets: Avengers Edition
- 5/17: LiveDC: Here We Go Magic @ Black Cat
- 5/17: LiveDC: Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros/ Fool's Gold @ 930 Club
God loves a cheerful giver.
i love EVERYTHING about this review and these photos
Mike is a real pro, he's agressive and get's great angles, all while being very concious of not bothering fans or musicians.
loved the tanka, but not ponytail. i saw them open for los campesinos on sunday and was not blown away. musically, they're talented, but vocally it's like seeing your best friend's little brother sing during rock band.
cale -
you really oughtn't to've left early. sure you saw a few songs , but the whole point of seeing a pony tail set is you gotta CATCH EM ALL
The patchouli and lack of food was getting to me, and at that point the room was packed and since there was no elevated stage the visibility was rough, and I had a girlfriend and two other friends that were ready to go, and I had a birthday party obligation, and Ponytail play all the time and are relatively local, so I think I had a valid excuse for not catching every last second.
"NOT EVEN PONYTAIL CAN
UNINHIBIT DC CROWDS"
total cop out. go to a rara or a dance party show.
"The rhythm section kept it teenage pussy tight"
EPIC.
i will say this much.....mittenfields wasn't on the right bill....ponytail and the screaming females fit well together but mittenfields should be playing with different bands. i have seen this band a few times (dave mann has booked a few shows for my band back at dahlak) and i'd like to see them on a bill with bands like bellflur or solar powered sun destroyer.....but regardless...that was a good show!
i am anon y mous........
@Dr. Science
I don't know which Ra Ra shows you've been at, but I always see 10-15 people dancing and the other hundred standing around with their arms folded. The Dance Party I'll give you, but they also suck.
nobody be dancing at rararasputin shows. the only movement is the gratuitous blackberry check or physical manifestations of disgust.
To quote Bernie Rhodes:
“You’re going to wake up one morning and know what side of the bed you’ve been lying on"
A. People who have the guts to learn how to play an instrument and perform on stage.
B. Hopeless (and anonymous) yahoos who complain about people not dancing at shows.
If you're not doing anything to change it, don't complain.
yo cale if you like SFs you will love Cheeky: http://www.ifyoumakeit.com/video/cheeky/get-outta-here/
umm...Rock On, you are mistaken. I've seen Ra Ra twice now and the entire room was moving, and I don't think I've ever been to see The Dance Party where people stayed still. Neither suck. The Dance Party just opened for Girl Talk and had a very successful showcase in LA in January. And despite Ra Ra only being together for a year or so, they are on their way.
Patrick, your attitude that your willingness to go on stage makes you a better judge of something that is essentially a question of taste is moronic. Can you get off your high horse? People are expressing that they don't like your band. You clearly like your band. You have fans who like your band. People clearly like the Dance Party too. They also have fans. People also DON'T like the Dance Party and DON'T like your band. Willingness to play music isn't indicative of taste one way or the other.
@ Dave
I'm pretty aware that there are people who don't like my band. I've had people say it to my face - multiple times.
My comments are directed at those people who continue to bitch about "people not dancing at shows," without offering a reasonable solution.
There is nothing magical about. It's comically pitiful that the DIY idea that gave us skiffle, punk rock, post-punk, house and electro is lost on a generation whose sole purpose is to consume, consume, consume.
No it's true.
The kids are always afraid to rage.
But sometimes you gotta bang it out for the band you love.
why didn't mittenfields cover creep instead of bones. they suck.
also mad kigongo baiting in this thread. props.
Still a great show, wow those guys over at WVAU put on a great show.
Thanks for not mentioning us, Cale! Way to be, BYT !
Yeah, Cookies is right. No mention of the group that put on the show? Next time, work a little more on basic journalism then haikus which aren't even correct.
Dave, it's a tanka, and it is correct.
Kids, first off, we learned of this show through a press release from Screaming Females, it did not mention WVAU. I then saw it on Ponytail’s calendar, also not mentioning WVAU.
During the time that I was there, no WVAU spokesperson came up and made intros, no bands gave shout outs, there was no WVAU banner hanging on the wall, no stream being played in between bands, no flyers handed out.
I went to the show to see the bands. During the show I felt it was epic and our photog looked like he was getting some great shots so I decided I’d write something about it instead of just running the photos. My write up was my experience of the night. And that experience did not involve WVAU in any relevant way.
Prior to going to the show I was looking for details, start times, cost, etc. (the Screaming Females web site said something like “free, we think”) and eventually found the WVAU web site. I don’t know what WVAU is. I had never heard of it before. I am not an AU student. I went to the about section on your web site and it says:
“coming soon”
I took your flyer with your logo on it and posted it in two places, once on our calendar and once in a preview post I did about Screaming Females. This is more than either band did.
I thank you greatly for bringing this show together, if that’s what you did, but I still don’t know what WVAU is all about. If you want people to give you props publically perhaps a better strategy is do a little more PR as opposed to leaving whiny comments after the fact.
col-lege radiooooo egos = things I don't miss from college.
well....we didn't cover creep because it hasn't ever been done...we thought we would give bones a try because if there is ever a radiohead song to be covered....isn't it always "bones"? I think covering "creep" would be too much of a risk...I mean...the kids don't know that tune....right?
wow wow wow. i love WVAU but i also love how hard they just got pwnd. great review cale.
also, patrick, i have been silent long enough: ahem, most of your comments are self-promoting and (thus) irritating, you should really try to cut back. too much hate and ego battle. are you really dividing people into "performers" and "hopeless yahoos"...? gimme a fucking break. the world is usually more complicated than you can fit into one byt comments post, new rule of thumb. nerd.
That last comment was teenage pussy tight, Cale.
@Justin, Why and Dave.
My original comment (based a quote by ex-Clash manager Bernie Rhodes) was meant as a snub to people who complain about the lack of dancing @ DC shows, but don't do anything to change it.
Self-promoting? I don't see it. I didn't even mention our name.
People should really read through my comments carefully before accusing me of "hate" and "ego battle." I'll readily admit to steering discussion away from the original subject of this article. But I try to be pretty clear when I write out my criticisms.
witness the power of tanka...
in an effort to get the kids to dance, kigongo has name dropped the clash's ex manager bernie rhodes...
fascinating.
Cale wins at this thread. Wow.
spring pwnage season begins!
Maybe I read a different thread. "It's your fault I didn't do my research, and then left the show I was covering to drink beers in the parking lot."
This is even better than that waste of server space that was the Exactly/cheerleader photo essay.
Increasingly irrelevant.
I felt the Exactly spread was a truly heartwarming come-of-age (if you will) story about contemporary consciousness-raising and post-post-feminism era masculinity. Educative and entertaining. Kudos BYT!
FACT:
I'm willing to bet $20 that if Exaclty went to SXSW either a blogger or a magazine would've picked up on them and next thing you know:
EXACTLY @ 930 CLUB (SOLD OUT).
3 dudes w/fake blood, chains and synths? Hype or no hype, it's a deadly combination. Jesse, Cole and Adrian would be laughing all the way to the bank.
Hell they got compared to Suicide on DCist!
PS I'm not saying this to be Cheeky either.
"I thank you greatly for bringing this show together, if that’s what you did, but I still don’t know what WVAU is all about. If you want people to give you props publically perhaps a better strategy is do a little more PR as opposed to leaving whiny comments after the fact."
Hey, that's weird, I went to the WVAU website and clicked the contact page and there were a whole bunch of email addresses. But their fault for not immediately bombarding you as soon as you walked in the door, right?
Pretty sure the GM of wvau said hi to the crowd a few times, although I guess that wouldn't conflict your experience of going outside to drink in the parking lot and re-live your days of being an annoying dude on a college campus (which may not have ended yet, apparently).
is AU a dry campus? what is with all of the drinking in the parking lot hate?
are you guys really giving Cale a hard time about this? he could've lied and said that he stayed throughout the whole show, etc...but he didn't. he had other things to do apparently. so what. some people deliberately miss the opening bands b/c they are shitty and they paid money to see the headlining band...or vice versa.
giving Cale a hard time about this is bananas!
I very rarely feel the urge to defend Cale (or anything, for that matter) but you WVAU kids seriously need to check yourselves before you fully bite the hand off that fed you and your show this weekend.
As previously stated, we ran your flyer, with your logo and everything 2 times last week while promoting this show (which we did through sheer love for music and shows and not because you emailed us or not, much like we do all the time) and last time I checked, you all loved us when we were doing it this past Friday (check the comments):
http://www.brightestyoungthings.com/music/dude-i-know-just-check-this-out-though/
Fast forward 2 days and you're calling people names, using precious time and space on writing bashing comment on an overall positive/well meaning post about your event and in general wasting energy you could be (constructively) spending studying or updating your website or creating emails for your future shows or whatever it is that you all should/could be doing.
It definitely is not making anyone want to hang out with you anytime soon in the negative Nancy corner.
Svetlana, way to go with laying down the law in this town!!!! Today BYT | Tomorrow who knows???
Right on!
There were shoutouts to WVAU between bands. I clearly remember them doing an intro for Ponytail, but I guess you'd rather eat a cheeseburger and be an asshole than do a decent piece and own up to your mistake. There were the call letters posted on the wall behind the "stage." [http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3471/3398060402_a0fc79739b.jpg] If you spent more time observing you would have noticed:
1. Ponytail are absolute drivel.
2. WVAU sponsored the event.
Now I'm arguing on a second-tier indie blog that can't even attend the show they're supposed to be writing about. This is epic fail by all parties involved.
http://shitshow.brightestyoungthings.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=214&page=1#Item_8
hahaha
"I very rarely feel the urge to defend Cale (or anything, for that matter) but you WVAU kids seriously need to check yourselves before you fully bite the hand off that fed you and your show this weekend."
DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYUM.
that is maybe the worst photo evidence to make your point ever.
LOVE IT.
good to know that we have moved on from mittenfields not covering "creep" instead of "bones".....good to know indeed!
i can only speak for myself but i had a great time on sat. the crowd was energetic and i walked away drenched in sweat....i have nothing bad to say whatsoever!
thank you BYT for the great review and thanks to WVAU and AU for hosting it!!!
dave / mittenfields
OH I THOUGHT THIS SHOW WAS SPONSORED BY PETA....THATS WHY I BROUGHT MY PAINT SO IF ANYBODY CAME IN WITH FUR I WOULD SURELY GET THEM!!!!
WHY YOU ALL HATIN' ON AU? BE TRUE TO YOUR SCHOOL (EVEN IF ITS NOT YOURS).....
eat sack, dave / mittenfields.
mittenfields sucks...........don't just eat sack...eat lots of sack and enjoy it dave!
do you guys even know dave? he's a harmless guy. but if you want him to eat sack then i guess you have your reasons?!?
dave, don't listen to them! keep on booking good bands at dahlak and rock on!
melanie lissner
Hey "yeah, your band sucks dave" - how about....
mittenfields suck (no s at the end of suck)....but yeah, they were weak compared to the screaming females and ponytail. they should've been playing with the jonas bros balls!!!!
yeah, your band sucks dave!!! Says:
mittenfields sucks………..don’t just eat sack…eat lots of sack and enjoy it dave!
April 1, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Oh man, this is so silly.
@pwnd?, JoeyPants, Thorny, etc.
“own up to your mistake”
First of all, how could I have made a mistake? Where are the rules for reviewing a show that I broke?
The show was free. I wasn't put on a press list. I had no obligation. We didn't get anything in return for the publicity. We posted this article so you would have some infotainment during your busy school day/work day.
Technically I wasn't even officially reviewing this show, I just went and enjoyed it and blogged some words about it because nobody else from BYT was there and I’ve been looking forward to seeing Screaming Females for a while now. But even if I had been officially reviewing it, would that had made a difference? Are people yelling at Lady Gaga reviewers for not giving credit to HOT 99.5? I wrote about my experience I had as an audience member. That experience included details about using my GPS and sneaking a beer in the parking lot in order to make it an entertaining read. WVAU did not enter into that experience in a meaningful way, just like Toyota Matrix may not impact your experience at Blisspop.
“I clearly remember them doing an intro for Ponytail”
Like I stated in the review, I missed the beginning of the Ponytail portion, that’s why this was a joint write up between myself and Noam. So direct your anger at Noam, he’s totally a little fucker.
“Hey, that’s weird, I went to the WVAU website and clicked the contact page and there were a whole bunch of email addresses.”
The fact that their email addresses are on the site is irrelevant. WVAU was not the topic of this review. This post was about Mike’s great photos, and I added some words about my experience at the show. You do realize that there were other non-AU students at the show that didn’t know what WVAU was either? I wonder if when they talked to their friends about it the next day they mentioned who it was sponsored by?
As for the pic, yeah, what Becca said.
“But their fault for not immediately bombarding you as soon as you walked in the door, right?”
That doesn’t even make sense. I wasn’t saying it was anybody’s “fault”. I was being attacked for not mentioning them (even though I did post their flyer with their logo earlier in the week) and my response to them was explaining why they weren’t mentioned. Your statement about it being someone’s fault is nonsensical.
Look, I’m sure WVAU put a lot of effort into organizing this show, and were proud of what they accomplished and felt miffed when they see a review that doesn’t mention them. I get it. My point was if they were expecting this to be treated as a “WVAU Showcase” vs what in reality to an attendee was a Ponytail / Screaming Females / Mittenfields show, they needed to approach it differently. Secondly, instead of complaining, next time try shooting me an email that says:
“Hey Cale, thanx so much for hyping the shit out of the show we put on, the Screaming Females piece was great and we love Mike’s pics! Could we use some on out site? Also, do you think you could add a link to our site in the review somewhere?”
My reply would have been:
i think the best possible thing that could come out of this comment thread is if BYT never wastes our time covering a WVAU or mittenfields event ever again.
the guys from mittenfields must love all the hate mail coming in for them.....bad press is......PRESS! i have no idea why you guys are hating on them so much.....bands like fffever (real original with the triple f's) and others in this town deserve the hate....but nah, for some reason everyone is hating on mittenfields.....AND us AU students....whats up with that? probably just upset that you didnt get accepted here.....no worries...there is always next year.
cccassandra (how is that for a stuttering problem?)
What's wrong with Fever? You can't just drop a name and not give a reason why.....or can ya?
Ben H.
this whole thread is actually way better than the concert.
why hasnt the fact that us royalty sucks been brought up yet. not bringing up this universal truth is the only thing cale needs to be explaining himself for.
What a tempest in a puddle. Forget it, eh. Why not go back to your preocupations, e.g., jerking off, blowing your boss, vacuous yapping, etc. No, really. Enough is enough.
As the GM of WVAU, I just want to say that the comment that began this discussion is certainly not representative of the station as a whole. You guys are obviously not obligated to mention our organization. As some people have mentioned, I promoed the station before Mittenfields, before Ponytail and at the very end -- which, as Cale said in his review, were times when he wasn't present. Seriously, no big deal. Thanks to everybody who came; the bottom line is that it was an awesome show and everyone I talked to had a great time, so let's just leave it at that. The pictures are great, and we appreciate the coverage. We'll be doing a lot more shows in the future, so we'll take what everyone said into account to better promote upcoming events.
Wow, finally got around to reading these. I think it's awesome people stand up for their college radio station, but yeah, lets not lose focus here - we do this for free (and occasional peanuts). You should see the work that goes into these posts.
Also: getting slighted happens to everyone. We risked $14,000 and a couple of hundred man hours bringing a dozen bands, including go-go (Art of Junk) and Wale to DC hipsters on inauguration day, and then didn't get any acknowledgment whatsoever by Washington Post in their (raving) review of the show (even though I personally coordinated with the guy to get him a press pass).
Cale's a great guy and doesn't mean to slight anyone. Shrug it off, learn some lessons and up your PR game, it won't happen again. And thanks for putting on the shows!
OMFG is everyone at AU this much of a whiny biatch?
Reading all these comments reminds me of why I hate the scene. Music be serious business I guess.