all photos: Sam Goldstein
Next time someone says we are not committed to music/shows/headbanging consider this:
Last Tuesday whilst at the Drag Races, Sam, one of our new photographers shows up and says: we should shoot Jay tonight.
We don’t have press passes.
We don’t have photo passes.
We still collectively and still in work clothes (with my father in tow) haul ass to The Black Cat, get a camera in, cram ourselves into the backstage towards the end of Cola Freaks (to sum them up in 4 words: loud, fast, louder, faster) and position ourselves for the show.
Now, let it be known, I love Jay.
The record/Matador singles/whatever you want to call it, is awesome, and we have interviewed/reviewed/shot him before so I will keep it brief:
The band DOES play everything (at least) twice as fast as on the record.
They played “My Shadow” second (not that there are any breaks in between songs, no siree) and that made me happy even if I cannot sing along that fast to anything.
There is more hair on that stage than at a Dallas housewives convention.
I heard the audiences go CRAZY but really, they didn’t (is it the Tuesday in DC factor?)
And
While my Father kept giving him the thumbs up during the performance in the end he said:
“I mean, musicianship wise they’re not quite there yet, but that WAS fun”.
Fact.
Now, the photos, drenched in PBR and sweat, as all Jay Reatard photos should be.
Previously in Live DC:
- 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
- 2/3: Live DC: The Asteroids Galaxy Tour @ RnR Hotel
- 2/3: LiveDC: Smith Westerns @ Black Cat
God loves a cheerful giver.
I. was so. waaaasted.
recap of said waaaaaaaaaaaastedness can be found by clicking here
the key to these guys keeping the crowd, IMO, was that they didn't talk any shit between songs. no little jokes or attempts at being witty, just loud feedback from the last note of one song blending right into the heavy lead of the next.
pedro, you do a good job of hiding being wasted. i just thought you were excited. extremely excited. extremely, extremely excited. and just so you don't feel bad, an fyi - my windshield was already cracked. it's just bigger now. i was gonna get a new one anyway.
Sam's an alright dude. Pedro still sucks. Jury is out on eddie, and Svetlana's father in ok by me (thought there was going to have to be a fight when he wouldn't return the Cowboy Hat of Superlatude, but then he traded it for the Dome of Fur so all was well).
P.S. eddie urdumb. We totally could have taken Pedro's money and spent it on beer, then thrown a rock through your windshield Tuesday night and blamed it on revelry.
cant you people just email each other? the hold steay is a hell of a lot beter than the knob twisters/mac book gazers you dorks seem to drool over.
and OMG you guys got drunk on a tuesday!!!!
sigh.
email, you're not helping my Hold Steady cause here.
I find it funny email makes his comment in a post about a dude who twists no knobs and gazes at no mac books.
jay reatard and company look like vikings. or at least what i imagine vikings to look like.
email must not realize the nature of byt.
i was responding to the link about ur crazy drunk night at the tranny race and going NUTSO on a tuesday!
cale..is your knob twisting calandar booked...word on the "street" is that some of yo' boys think you suck at it...:(
huh?
look at me, everybody!! i'm an anonymous haterrrr!! yaaaaaayyyy!!!
The day of the week really didn't matter. It was a culmination of events that happened to occur on a Tuesday. Reading comprehension is for winners!
Seeing as the day of the week is suddenly of such central importance to the event, now that I think about it, I'm not sure that it could have happened any other way/day.(This includes the breaking of said windshields. Had my flash gone completely missing, my sympathy would be completely and instantaneously replaced by empathy, and we would find ourselves on the same windshield-less boat with wind mercilessly whipping our faces, and not enough visible light to take pictures).
And, in closing, I find emails to be archaic.
I have to admit, I was underwhelmed by the Mr. Reatard. I love the singles, but as a live act, well, I dunno. Ten years younger, and he'd be an impressive talent to watch. Now, he just seems bereft of ideas. Ah well. I'll stick to the vinyl.
Wm. I think he had more hair last time - maybe that was it. I know there were staff on hand up front to keep down any rioting - looked like the kids were getting ready to throw down at one point, which it appears Jay feeds off of, but were met with the steely don't-do-it gaze of BC staff.
I was up front on the side and it was great there.
Michael, okay, I'll have to take your word for it. I was just so pleasantly surprised at what great songs, "See/Saw," ""Painted Shut," and "Always Wanting More" were that I was crestfallen that live he seemed to be hurrying through as many songs as humanly possible. What I wouldn't give for him to slow down and do a cover of "A Song from under the Floorboards." That'd be ace.