all photos: Lexie Moreland
This felt like the first BIG show of (the almost) summer.
Girls in dresses.
Boys in short sleeves.
Glasses perspiring in everyone's hand.
Everyone giving off that warm, ready to have a good time air, even if it is technically a school night, even if the lines formed outside the Black Cat at 8:30 pm (I go to shows early ALL THE TIME, there are never lines at 8:30, 9:30-yes, 8:30-virtually never) even if THE rain (you know, THE RAIN) was threatening to fall hard any second now (and then).
Almost summer buzz is a powerful thing.
Inside, a 2/3 full house for Mobius Band, who opened on our regional jaunt of the tour.
BYT loves Mobius band and as such I am instantly in a good mood to see that people are out to see them.
Lexie ducks out to take photos and Ben, Peter and Noam launch into their (hyper)kinetic set. If you never heard Mobius band live they sound like a folk indie band falling head over heels in love with electronics, and giving birth to a slightly schizophrenic but supersonic child. They have some short-circuited keyboards that are tempered with to produce sounds you never heard of, and drum machines AND a drummer are in the mix, and it all comes together in the kind of controlled chaos that only truly intelligent music makers can have.
Mobius band is also on tour (most recently with the Editors in the UK) NON-STOP (this is their 3rd time in DC in one year, and the second time I saw them) and it shows. The set is tight, they are confident and as Lexie (who never saw them before pointed out): "I like these guys. They perk up a little more when they see a lens coming".
Pro through and through.
Tight but as loose as your favorite summer dress.
Next up, for the already nicely sauced and packed-to-the-gills Cat audience: The Black Kids.
As you know (and as William and all the commentators informed you in our interview with them) The Black Kids are riding a wave of some seriously serious buzz. Don't make it sound like a dirty word though.
I will admit, I listened to their song recordings and while I like them (and I especially like that remix Kathryn plays of "I'm not gonna teach your boyfriend how to dance" quite regularly on MFD nights) I never quite fully got it.
BUT I DO NOW.
A live set that is what live sets are all about.
The Black Kids made music that they wanted to party to, and it shows.
Reggie Youngblood dances with his guitar in hand while busting out almost David Byrne (style) shouts, Ali, his sister, is such a little star that I actually made a point of stalking her at the afterparty and giving her a big, wet, "you are the best" hug, and everyone in general just shimmies and shakes to the jams.
Fritz comes to me and says...
"Don't you think this is a little boring?"
and I say:
"I mean, they're most certainly not reinventing the wheel, but I AM HAVING FUN!"
(full caps intended and all)
It is new rock and pop that still sounds like it would not have been out of place being concocted in The Brill Building circa 1962.
The house was predictably brought down during "I'm not gonna...." and they played a new jam "I wanna be your limousine" which sounds so good and instantly familiar that I can safely (and all puns there for a reason) say that "the kids will be all right".
Then, hollers and screams later it is Cut Copy time.
Ok, so, I've been listening to "In Ghost colors" pretty much on all sorts of repeats since the day it came out and it seems like everyone else in that room has as well.
First song-and an instant dance frenzy ensues.
Second song-the instant dance frenzy prologs itself.
Third song-you get the picture.
Fourth song, text message arrives from Lexie who is in the trenches with the camera "Need a drink but dancing too hard to move".
Fifth song-nothing changes.
The good thing about Cut Copy (which could be a bad thing, but it really isn't) is that the new album is so consistent in feel you can play it throughout with exactly the same results: dancing.
The mood does not change.
The mood is set on "party" and the band feels it, and you feel it, and 800 of your closest friends feel it simultaneously too. Its the closest you can get to being at a rave these days without being embarrassed to say so.
The room was as one and during (outstanding) singles like "Hearts on Fire" and "Lights and Magic" you could cut the fun in the air with the knife.
So, no wonder when the after party time rolled around, kids were pumped and ready to engage in some serious dance offs.
Photos coming up any second now of that glorious mess.
I promise.
Previously in Live DC:
- 2/9: LiveDC: Theophilus London @ 930 Club
- 2/9: Best Weekend Bets
- 2/8: LiveDC: Kathleen Edwards @ 930 Club
- 2/8: LiveDC: Thurston Moore/ Kurt Vile @ Black Cat
- 2/8: LiveDC: Thurston Moore/ Kurt Vile @ Black Cat
- 2/7: LiveDC: Demetri Martin @ Warner Theatre
- 2/7: LiveDC: Augustana/ Graffiti6 @ 930 Club
- 2/6: LiveDC: All Things Go Presents: Reptar/ Casual Curious/ Fort Lean @ Gibson Guitar Showroom
- 2/6: LiveDC: TYCHO/ Beacon @ RNR Hotel
- 2/6: LiveDC: The Kills / Jeff The Brotherhood @ 9:30 Club
God loves a cheerful giver.
Black Kids were better than I expected.
Cut Copy were a huge disappointment (Ok, not a huge disappointment as I'd never heard of them, but they in no way deserve any amount of buzz surrounding them. At all. I left and went downstairs to drink and met more than a couple people who felt the same.)
Feeling the 3 crowd shots big time.
I was not digging Black Kids at all.
Yes, they had lots of bubbly energy, but they were outright terrible singers (all that yelling!) and their arrangements (bleep bloop!) were simplistic and uninspiring. The guitar solos were brief noisy gold in what was otherwise average synth-dance pyrite from the local youth center's "battle of the bands" night.
Fortunately, Mobius Band was good (what French Kicks should be / should have been) and Cut Copy was awesome.
I was planning on going to this show for so long. I am so pissed this show sold out. I should have gotten pre-sale tickets. >:(
i loved black kids, they were all i hoped they would be live, if not, more.
while i enjoyed watching the crowd during cut copy, i was dissappointed with their performance.
i don't understand why moer people weren't moving during the black kids set, it was very upsetting.
cut copy needs to cut out the overuse of their macbook.
You all are insane. Cut Copy was absolutely fantastic -- I haven't kids dance like that at the Cat in ageeeeeeesssss.
cut copy was good in dc. but something about the baltimore show blew me away. i can't remember having so much fun at a show. ever.
It's sad, but I'm sitting around waiting for the Rise and Fall of Black Kids (the band). They are a band just waiting for an enormous backlash after a mercurial ascendancy.
already started: http://www.brightestyoungthings.com/interviews/byt-interview-the-black-kids/
the baltimore show was AMAZING and way better then the dc show i agree with j