Brightest Young Things

Staring into the crisp night, listening to the hum of late Friday traffic, my hand reaches for my car keys. I hold them firmly - yet don’t yet open the door. Filling my lungs with the sweet mix of clean winter air, tinged with the flavor of the pizza joints that line the road behind me: I want to remember what this evening looked like, smelled like, tasted like, felt like, and most importantly – sounded like.

I have been fortunate enough to experience a number of “special” evenings while making my rounds in the music world. The funny thing about those nights is that the attendees often don’t know how “special” they were until well after the fact. Tonight was a little different (though no less special.) The crowd gathered at The Writer’s Center was delighted to see that the performance would be in such a wonderful room, and they had an inkling that the prospect of local icon J. Robbins stripping down his catalog of songs to an acoustic format might very well be amazing. What we didn’t know was how true that might very well be and how intense the early part of the proceedings would emerge as.

For the first time that I can remember, everyone shuffling out knew they had born witness to one of those evenings and I, like those around me, rushed to share that euphoria with anyone we could.

Nothing ironic. Nothing jaded. Just an amazing sequence of performers that could never be repeated, and in a way, you wouldn’t want them to be. We all walked into that winter night feeling – feeling something – anything – but knowing we had witnessed it together. We had “felt” together.

A small Filipino woman leaves the audience and takes up the area behind the podium. She seems tiny, yet strong, sweet, yet determined. Basically she seems like a Grandmother. The kind of woman we all treasure somewhere in our family. Marianne Villanueve begins reading from her novel “Mayor of Roses,” in a plainspoken fashion, recounting a story from her childhood that fascinates her even today. That she isn’t a direct participant in the unfolding tale, other than her constant following of the circumstances as it plays out, makes her more central as it unfolds - rather than detached. The story of an “offering” for a local Mayor turning into a malicious gang rape sneaks up on the collected and seems to instantly cut off the air to the room.

I am beginning to feel physically nauseous as this shrinking figure before me recounts the details of this tragic event, as if reading about a neighbor having made renovations to their house. Everyone is holding tight to their chairs and you can feel the entire room uncoil when she shifts to the mundane details of the assailants’ vocations. Skipping ahead to the trial brings little relief, but her powerful prose finally comes to an end.

Andrew Bieierle, himself small and grey and familiar, has the daunting challenge of following this haunting tale. His “First Person Plural” is more than up to the task. Adding a singsong quality to his simple cadence, telling a first hand account of life as a co-joined twin, he eases us into his upbringing. Two minutes into his reading I walk around the seating to shoot a photo from the opposite side and I am AMAZED to see that he only has one head. So believable is his writing.

Revealing the pitfalls of his circumstances, but more importantly the change in family dynamics as they ripple out to cousins and what not, shows a disheartening reaction, which is swept aside by the resolve of his parents. Just hearing about the potential introduction of a two-headed G.I. Joe in order to increase their self-esteem (and then the change of heart when considering the extra head falling off) says so much about parenting in general. When he is finished, we all are left wondering if we are the “lesser” for only sporting a single skull atop our shoulders.

Chad Clark (who co-curates the music portion along with The Caribbean’s Matt Byars) takes the mic to introduce DC’s post punk icon J. Robbins, well known for his time in Government Issue, Jawbox, Channels, Burning Airlines and now Office of Future Plans. Clark finally seems to take a little pleasure in his long-winded reputation and does a delightful job of injecting some warmth into the evening.

Joined by Gordon Withers on cello, the cold truth is that this set up shouldn’t work. Virtually all of Robbins work is highlighted by tight turns and propulsive rhythms – hardly the fare to break down to an acoustic presentation. But Withers is quick to demonstrate the power of the melody lines underneath the crunch of his recordings, bringing them to the forefront. Robbins’ winning personality slowly emerges and his guitar playing brings to mind the joys of Joe Strummer, rather than the bevy of math rockers that follow in the Jawbox shadow.

Robbins shows us that true performers and amazing songwriters are two things: One – always worth seeing live, and two – even more rare than you might think.

He adds a tiny drum machine to the mix halfway through and pulls it off (“Savory” even takes on a bizarre samba rhythm later on – and still kicks ass.) He then dedicates a number to the recently departed Iain Burgess, while admitting that Burgess himself would have felt the entire evening “terribly fey.”

Perfectly summing up the set, J. admits he is “stoked” about having an iphone and being able to tune his guitar to it. Only he is forced to quickly admit he isn’t “punk” enough to live with it’s slightly out of tune results. He may however, be “punk” enough to smash the whole thing to pieces.

Instead, he doesn’t smash anything – but rather reinvents it to show it’s naked roots. Strong and hearty roots - laid out and nurtured by a talented and creative songwriter. It’s almost enough to make me finish off this review with a rote “bloom” metaphor – but I won’t do it. Nothing about this night was rote.

Everything about it was special.

Previously in Live DC:

• 2/14: PHOTOS: PHASE 1 OF DUPONT OPENING NIGHT
• 2/14: PHOTOS: Art Soiree's Love Masquerade
• 2/14: LiveDC: Sharon Van Etten/ Shearwater @ Black Cat
• 2/14: LiveDC: Die Antwoord @ 930 Club
• 2/13: LiveDC: George Clinton & The Parliament-Funkadelic @ 930 Club
• 2/13: LiveDC: Veronica Falls/ Brilliant Colors @ Black Cat
• 2/13: LIVE DC: Steve Aoki/ Datsik/ Alvin Risk @ Fillmore
• 2/13: LiveDC: The Darkness @ 930 Club
• 2/9: LiveDC: Theophilus London @ 930 Club
• 2/9: Best Weekend Bets