BrightestYoungThings: Live DC: We Were Promised Jetpacks @ Black Cat

(continuing the mega-giga coverage of the Monday night show at the Black Cat, John Foster has decided to write 2 reviews for it-one for We Were Promised Jetpacks and one for the BrakesBrakesBrakes/Twilight Sad which will be coming up right after this. All photos: Will Mullady-ed)

The room is full.

The bar is empty.

The room is full.

The bar is empty.

"You're winning me over!"

The pounding in my chest. Steps three at a time. I hear that sound. The sound that will pour out of a thousand windows in just a few months. Lauren seems even prettier than usual. "It's just beginning" she whispers. She knows something I don't. Not just yet. Everything seems more intense. The anticipation sizzles on my tongue and buzzes in my ears and as I reach for the door it crackles through the room.

Making my way through hundreds of people that have somehow come to cover the black and white tile on a perfect Monday night and stare at what at first seems like a collection of kids - and I mean fucking kids, with baby fat and barely there facial hair and poofy 'dos - why do I feel a need to get so close to them? I have to be "there."

That crackle climaxes in the surge halfway through "It's Thunder and It's Lightning" and we all release, moving slowly together. Eyes wide. It is happening.

I won't be writing down every song so screw you readers. You should have been here! (You can't say you weren't warned.) I am going to give in - as if there was any other option. A simple hello to the crowd elicits more applause than 75% of the headliners I have seen on this stage. They are almost embarrassed about the response, and truth be told, we are a little embarrassed as well - so willing are we to turn ourselves over to someone we've only just met.

Adam steps away from me, from us, but he doesn't give up the words. His voice is big enough to fill the room sans amplification. We sing back. Of course we do. The precision slash and bash closing "This Is My House, This Is My Home" lets us know we've got a honest to goodness rock show on our hands before they double time it into "Quiet Little Voices."

We know our place now. They have us in total. Even if you had never heard the song before you would have just known where your "ohh ohh ohh" refrain was required. They tear it to pieces. Burn the whole fucking room down. They mean it. WE mean it. It means everything.

They drag us around by the collar and then prop us up and smack our faces repeatedly and demand we love them. And we do. They don't even need to ask - we just know now to rapid clap in the thumping intro for "Short Bursts." When does DC do this? God it feels good.

I look at Dennis behind the soundboard. He has seen it all before but he knows. You can see it in both of our eyes.

And it's over.

I then notice that no one. No one. Has gone to the bar for the entire show. Hundreds of us. Not a drink sold - but our devotion has been purchased.

We just stared ahead at a collection of ordinary kids cracking jokes about having to trade out their kilts for jeans to tour America who then changed all the rules and rocked us to our core.

The gossiping girls next to me finally have a moment to spill on the days triumphs in temping while an older loner sporting a Chameleons "Strange Times" tee lingers out of place. Two of my favorite social groups. And we are bound together.

Because we were "there."

Because we ARE "there."

(Adam disappears only to reemerge later with all of his hair shorn. Baptized. He is a man now. He is a star. They all are, and they burn bright and they deserve your love and you give it because you have born witness and you have no choice and they take it and they keep it. Now we need only wait to see how high is high.)

"You're winning me over."

Brightest Young Things

Live DC

Live DC: We Were Promised Jetpacks @ Black Cat

THURSDAY 3/8

Pat Green @ 9:30 Club

Previously in Live DC:

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John Foster!