BrightestYoungThings: LIVE DC: Epochs / Zulu Pearls / Travis Morrison @ The Cat

All photos by Rachel Eisley

This may be the shortest review ever, because you may already know exactly how to feel about these three bands, either by the heaps of praise I've been, uh, heaping on them in the past few months or by long-term exposure to their shtick. I knew what I was getting into last Friday at the Black Cat and I was not disappointed.

The Epochs were playing their first show at the Black Cat, and they were excited. Big grins kept breaking out on their faces even during the wooshing dramatic bits of their big-sounding live versions of the more intimate tracks on their new album. Some people might argue that a band should reproduce the mix of their recorded work rather than adapting the elaborate or unique production to a more organic set-up for a live show, but some people also voted for Hillary Clinton so go figure. Bands should play music that sounds great coming out of real instruments, and the Epochs do that excellently.

In fact, as a fan, I'd rather hear a band extending or melding or rearranging their ornate pop orchestrations or electronic song into more straight-ahead rock-and-roll onstage, and this is one of the thrills of seeing these guys perform. Another is drummer Kotchy's ability to play intricate electronic-sounding drumbeats to the point where a listener has trouble determining whether he's playing along with a prerecorded sample or not. Seriously the guy is sick. They played some newer stuff that seemed more contemplative, like mid-80s New Order style, but really the easiest comparison to me is that the Epochs are like a really really fun version of Radiohead. All the intricacy and thoughtfulness, half the glumness! Get yours today! [Ass-shakitude guaranteed or your five minutes back.]

Zulu Pearls also looked pretty relaxed, though I may have accidentally freaked Alex the bass player out by yelling at him while trying to explain the importance of the big Cleveland Cavaliers trade while he was tuning [Fucking BEN WALLCE dude, it's over, good-game Eastern Conference]…and musically the slack shone through on the set list. Their new songs have big bursting melodies over head-nodding mid-tempo swinging rhythms that blend My Morning Jacket country-folk with 90s post-emo harDCore crunchiness like Jawbox. In this context even older songs like White Flag sounded less like anxiety-ridden Wire-inspired hi-hat punk and more like the feel-good hit of the summer. OK maybe not "feel-good." Maybe "feel-deliciously-ambivalent." It's partially Alex's new amp, I think. The bass, surely the least appreciated instrument on earth, plays more of a melodic role in the newer stuff, pushing through the shimmering or ringing dual guitars like in early Police or Mike Watt's solo records, working with Ian's slowed down and sparser drum beats to give the whole sound a funky classical makeover. Advice to other bands: buy new equipment often.

Then Travis Morrison's Hellfighters played. If you are from DC, or live here now, or near here, or have heard of DC, or are aware of those two letters of the English alphabet, you've probably already seen him live in one incarnation or another at least twice and have already made up your mind about him. I know I have. I hate to end a review on a down note, so let me say that if anyone wants to start a not-annoying poppy punk/go-go band and can play the marimba or the conga drums or timbales or the casaba please leave me a comment with your email and we'll kick out the jams. I want to be ready to play a bunch of block parties this summer and get lots of free potato salad. I know, I know, it's fool proof, don't embarrass me with your praise.