Last Friday evening, I somehow found myself half way between a mosh pit and a rave frenzy at DC9.
The cause for this upheaval?
A live performance by the British band Does it Offend You, Yeah?.
People were not dancing per se, nor were they pushing and shoving per se…what they were doing was jumping. That’s right the entire night was marked by the floor of DC9 being ready to collapse by all the vertical up and down. Which I suppose is a good response to music that in itself is hard to define, not quite rock, not quite electro.
I was surprised to find that the show was actually sold out and some of my friends had to find elsewhere to party. Now, I don’t know if this was just to cap the room upstairs so it wouldn’t turn into a death filled steam pit of disease and debauchery ( ..ahem Nouveau Riche over the winter) or if truly DIOYY have some die hard fans. Regardless, the room was filled to a comfortable capacity. The heavy sounding drums and guitar mixed with the retro synths produced an eclectic and intriguing mix. I was really enjoying myself and getting into the music. I really couldn’t tell if I was at a hardcore show or at Chromeo. Whatever, I’d rather be confused than bored. The crowd responded appropriately with fist pumping, crowd surfing and a lot of screaming. Basically the performance was exactly what I expected.
Despite putting on an energy filled and solid performance, the venue seemed to have emptied out by the end of the set or at least the crowd had thinned considerably. Which leads to the one downer – every other song seemed like a replica of their one sure fire hit. I mean, true they only have one album out but I felt as if it was a bit monotonous. Not to fret, Here’s to expecting good things in the future….
this band is the absolute worst. i thought the flash of the pan had already fizzled out with these guys?
September 9, 2008 at 12:48 pm1. literary references
2. bands that start with “The” and ends with “-s”
3. Ghostland Observatory
“this band is the absolute worst. i thought the flash of the pan had already fizzled out with these guys?”
Exactly.
September 9, 2008 at 3:48 pmYour ears are easily offended, yeah?
September 9, 2008 at 5:58 pmexcellent set. exactly what i expected and wanted and was more than pleasantly surprised to see the dc crowd acting a bit mental for what is essentially a dance act.
dc has a long history of not dancing to dance acts performing locally. it’s rather tragic to see a room full of people standing still to say, fatboy slim @ the 9:30 club, or even LCD Soundsystem.
The real revelation of the night was the opening act, Zambri, a 5 piece outfit with a guitarist, a drummer, a bassist (who was in possession of i think the thinnest upper arms i have ever seen), and two lead-singer synth-playing sisters whose vocalization and harmony and counter harmonies wove in and out of the individual songs providing an interesting vocal driven band running counter to many of their current new york brethren.
Unfortunately both their myspace page and their official webpage don’t have much information about their band, which is unfortunate because i was curious about the musical background of the sisters and wanted to know more about what pushed the direction of the music they made.
the ep they had for sale was a scant 6 track affair which did little more than expand upon song extant on their myspace.
September 10, 2008 at 8:30 amI guess these guys could be considered the “worst” if you don’t like to have fun at shows.
September 13, 2008 at 1:39 pm
But…. did it offend you, yeah?
September 9, 2008 at 11:58 am