BrightestYoungThings: DC In NYC: Deleted Scenes / Dutchess Leo @ Cake Shop

all photos: Alyssa Lesser

Our love for Deleted Scenes runs deep here at BYT, so I went to catch their show at Cake Shop the other night. As expected, the guys completed a sincere, melodic set of classics from their album Birdseed Shirt, as well as a bunch of new songs that were pleasingly awesome. Time and time again this band capably combines wistful lyricism with undeniable hooks and fervent melodies to produce something that is comfortable and turbulent all at once. This brand of rock and roll...it feels familiar and new and contemplative and unsettled, and I kind of love that. Duchess Leo is a soulful electronic act with swooping melodies and lots of potential. I really felt their set, despite my wishes that they would have murked up more of their too-easily-discernable, obvious computer beats. I still felt it, and people were grooving around and seemed pretty into it. After the show, the welcoming upstairs bar at Cake Shop was monsooned with anxious young hipsters awaiting the following show, Soft Pack. I wanted to stay, but after being pressed up against a bunch of random bodies for a while I moved the drunken raucous and merlot next door. The best things in New York never stay under wraps. New year commitments stand to take more pictures, see more bands, meet more people. So I'll see you soon.