DC ROCK CLUB
Long live rock, I need it every night

Friday, March 30, 2007

One Trick Pony- The Ponys w/ The Black Lips-Black Cat 3/24

This reminds me of Jimbromski.


Since I have been working on another RC related project, I will keep my review of last weeks show brief. I have to admit, I had high hopes for this show after listening to a few of The Ponys discs. I like the garage sound of their music and with an opener like The Black Lips (who we also saw open for Be Your Own Pet) it had the makings of an execellent Rock Club outing. We set off from Potsy's place as usual and arrived just in time to catch the Lips. It seems like there were some technical difficulties from the get go, as I could barely hear the lead guitar. They sounded pretty good nonetheless and put on a good show for about a 2/3 full Black Cat mainstage. I really like that tune "Boomerang", which they played about midway through their set. This is when I think the Lips are at their best, with that southern tinged, 60"s style garage rock, with all 3 guitarists bouncing in unison. Sometimes though, it is almost as if they are trying a bit too hard to be "punkish". My main beef was with the lead guitarist and his constant spitting of a large "loogie" up in the air and then catching it. This is fine and entertaining if you do it ONCE, but not like a dozen times. Somehow the move loses its edge. Its kind of like if Pete Townsend did the windmill on every song. You have to know when to pull out the party tricks and use them sparingly.

I think we missed The Ponys first few songs as we were downstairs/outside between sets. It seems like they had fixed the tecnical difficulties from the opener and The Ponys were really belting it out. I have to say they sounded a bit different live. Much louder and more feedback driven R and R. The lead singer was like 7 feet tall and reminded me a lot of Thurston Moore (played the axe like him too...). I was a bit underwhelmed by The Ponys set, I guess i was just expecting more. They played a short set, w/o an encore. The show reminded be a bit of the Tapes n Tapes show from last October. A good CD which led to an unispired live performance. It wasnt bad, but wasnt great. RC Rating: Black Lips 6.6, The Ponys 6.0

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Behold, The 'Stache



In anticipation of Sacklunch's Black Lips/Ponys review, I'm finally posting the picture I took at our first Black Lips show. Take a look at at that glorious 'stache. As Chazz Michael Michaels would say, "Go ahead. Drink it in."

Needless to say, I think all of Rock Club should be sporting mustaches. I'm long overdue for one. Here's a picture of me with a whispy 'stache in the spring of '86. That was the same year I saw Judas Priest at the Capital Centre, which as we all know is the only Rock Club show to receive a perfect 10.0 rating.

Saturday, March 24, 2007

American Hardcore

American Hardcore: Rock Club rating - 7.3
Let me be James Blunt for a minute. I expected the movie to kind of suck. I saw a few medicore reviews and that lowerd my expectations. So, did the movie suck or was it actually quite entertaining and an excellent choice for a Rock Club movie? If you guessed the latter, you win absolutely nothing but the small feeling of self-satisfaction. Take it. It may be the only one you get today.
Hi, I'm James Blunt and I'm a tool. You are so beautiful...
The movie got off to a funny start with old punks talking about how much they hated Reagan, their parents, their bosses, cardiagan sweaters, the uptight attitudes of the times, etc. To illustrate America of the early '80's they used great stock footage of the whitest people in America, all outifitted by J. Crew. The punks also went off on the classic rock bands of the like Journey and Fleetwood Mac. Jimbromski took exception to the constant dissing of Fleetwood Mac. I didn't mind it so much.

As Potsy pointed out before we started the movie, most hardcore music blows. The movie confirmed this but it also showed that some of it was quite good. The clearest example was Bad Brains. They flat out kicked ass. Then they kicked it some more. Seeing footage of their shows makes me wish Rock Club had a time machine. Instead of scanning the local clubs to see who's coming to town, we'd travel through time solving crimes. Then we'd celebrate by going to the greatest concerts in rock history. The crime solving was Jimbromski's idea. I'm on board as long as we have our own mystery machine.
Hi, I'm Ian MacKaye and I'm not a tool like James Blunt.
They interviewed a number of old punk rockers for the documentary. Two really stood out in my mind. The first was Ian MacKaye. He came across much more lucid and thoughtful than the other people interviewed. Of course, most punks in LA, Boston, and NY did more drugs than a touring funk band. Meanwhile, Ian was straight edge. I'm sure there's a lesson here for Rock Club. Maybe it's time to clean up, go legit. No more meth labs. Something we should consider.

The other person I enjoyed in the movie was a guy called Mugger. He was part of the Black Flag road crew. He told some pretty funny stories, one of them being how he came up with the name of his band, Nig-Heist. His band didn't amount to much, but somehow he became part owner in SST Records. Eventually, he was bought out. He dumped his money in tech stocks and now he's indepenently wealthy. I have to say, seeing these former hardcore punks years later as upright, middle-to-upper class citizens might be the most disturbing thing in the movie.

I give American Hardcore a 7.3. Very entertaining despite some bad music. I now invite your comments below...

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

This Reminds Me of Erin


This is Gil Gerard now, and no, it's not a joke. Should've kept up with the disco dancing regimen.

Monday, March 19, 2007

This Reminds Me of Me

Man, I see Gil Gerard, and it's like I'm lookin' in a mirror:

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Mexican Footballers--Threat, or Menace?

DC United vs Chivas de Guadalajara, Concacaf Champions Cup, 03/15/07
RFK Stadium

The latest Rock Club outing was a trip to RFK to see DC United face off against Chivas. It was cold as fuck and rainy too, so it felt like we were in England, circa 1985 or so, just laid off from our jobs at the mining pit, going to see Luton Town play Scunthorpe in 40 degree weather and pissing down rain. After the game we went to the chippy, then smashed up the pub.

RFK, 3/15/07

You may ask yourself, what, pray tell, does sports have to do with rock? I think the 1985 Chicago Bears conclusively answered that question with their hit single, "Super Bowl Shuffle," as well as with their rock-n-roll quarterback, Jim McMahon. Furthermore, MTV's "Rock-n-Jock" shows, where luminaries such as MC Hammer and Jose Canseco would play softball together, further cemented the relationship between rock, and sports. So, with that in mind, we found ourselves at RFK last week.

Jim McMahon (artist's representation)

Okay, so what about the game itself? Well, Chivas, thy name is fiasco. There was no chance of tailgating, as 3/4 of Rock Club arrived at RFK 10 minutes after kick-off. First, they were delayed by the presidential motorcade. Obviously, Bush was going crosstown to feast on black babies, or whip political prisoners, or somesuch. At least, this is what I learned from listening to The Thermals album. We all pretty much agreed that if Clinton snarled traffic, it would be due to a nookie run, and we would forgive him for it. Such is the leftward bias of Rock Club. Further delays were encountered as they drew closer to RFK, due to the deluge of Chivas fans from up and down the Eastern Seaboard (aka "Megalopolis") coming to the game.

Surprisingly enough, we only missed about five minutes of the game--I found out later kick-off was delayed for ten minutes, for reasons which are unknown to me. Chivas, in my opinion, dominated possession but didn't take very many shots. I was surprised that they were bigger than our guys. I guess I'm just conditioned by all the five feet-tall Guatemalans and Salvadorans in my neighborhood. Perhaps Mexicans eat more steak, who knows.

DC United's midfield was crap, Moreno is overweight and past it, and Gomez was marked out of the game. Luckily for DC, the first half ended 0-0.

It didn't stay that way, though, as Omar Bravo knocked a ball in off of Bryan Namoff's ass in minute 61 for a 1-0 Chivas lead. At this point, Jason quoted Joe Namath, saying that "...DC United is struggling...Christian Gomez is struggling...I wanna kiss you." See below:



After 90 minutes of flaciddity, DC's offense woke up as man-ape Ben Olsen somehow won a free kick right on the edge of the Chivas penalty area. At this point, I did something that I am very ashamed of, but that may have motivated the United players and swung the game in our favor. Chivas forward Adolfo Bautista (better known as "Bofo") is an excellent striker and a Mexican national team regular, but he wears a gay-assed headband during games, and also sports the number 100 on his shirt, which is also stupid. So, around minute 90, I yelled, at high volume, "Bofo, you're a twat!"


Now, "twat" is a very rude word, but I felt secure in yelling it, as we were surrounded by mostly Spanish-speaking Chivas fans. If they did know English, I highly doubt that their knowledge of swearing goes any further than the fuck-shit-asshole trinity. However, I followed up my curse with a gesture--not the middle finger, but the arm-thing that Italians do. As I yelled and gestured, a cute little girl in the row ahead of us looked back at me, and we made eye contact, and it really looked like I was cursing her out. Terrible. Thankfully, her parents didn't notice and I avoided an ass-whuppin'. After the final whistle, Dan was philosophical about the incident, saying, "somebody had to take it to the next level."

This is not the little girl I swore at, but she was at about this level of cuteness/innocence

That made me feel better, and as il fenomeno Luciano Emilio scored on a header from the free kick to tie things up in injury time, I have to say that I made the difference in this game. Unfortunately, I cannot make the trip to Guadalajara for the return leg, so I predict in my absence that DC won't be able to make it to the final round of this tournament. Oh well. After seeing that game, it's hard not to conclude that Chivas aren't the better team.

I'll rate this outing a 6.2 on the rock-o-meter. The elements brought the score down, as did the presence of so many disloyal Chivas fans, but I'm always up for professional sports, so there you are.

Monday, March 05, 2007

Thermal Energy (The Thermals-Black Cat-3/2/07)

I will start out by saying that I was pretty hyped up for this show so my opinions may be somewaht biased. It was good to have RC at full strength as it had been sometime since all 4 members were present for a show. Good work by Potsy for getting the tickets in advance as the show was sold out by Friday evening. I had the luxury of a designated driver, so after a short, yet productive visit to Potsys apartment (sorry CO-OP) we all headed over to the BC. My apologies to our friends in Statehood, but I was downstairs during their set, still taking advantage of my designated driver situation. Jumbo went up for a few songs and proclaimed that "they sounded good" and "seemed to be getting better with each show". I will trust his opinion seeing how he has seen every Statehood show to date.

The rest of RC ventured upstairs to see the next opening band, The Big Sleep. This 3-piece out of Brooklyn plays an interesting blend of guitar rock. Definitely better without the vocals. They rocked the house and the capacity crowd enjoyed their musical stylings. At one point I thought they sounded a bit like prog-rock veterans Rush, with the Lifeson/Lee sonic assault in full effect. The only thing that dampered my experience was the two alternative lifestyle dudes dancing next to me. Guys, this isnt Tracks, lets simmer down a bit.

The Thermals took the stage and proceeded to rock the house. It was a nice change of pace from the other shows we had been to lately (I am talking to you Midlake). Quick, uptempo anthems really got the crowd into it. The lead singer (I dont know his name and am too lazy to look it up...) seemed almost surprised by the enthusiasm of the crowd. Does DC have a repuation for lame crowds? This was not the case on Friday night as the crowd was worked into a frenzy with "Pillar of Salt", a single off their latest album. They played for about an hour and concluded with an encore of a few songs.

I think one reason I enjoyed this show so much was not only the quality of the music and excitement of the crowd, but the length of the songs. There is something to be said about songs that run 2:30-3:00 minutes in length. There is no chance to get bored and you know the next tune is right around the corner. I believe Rock Club needs to attend more shows like this, as opposed to the Midlakes/Gob Irons of the rock world. That type of music is fine on CD whilst making sweet love to your wife (sorry Potsy) or as background music when working. So far, it appears that the RC shows that have gotten the highest ratings are the ones with energy and noise. It was good to have the R back in Rock Club. Rating 7.9.

Note: I would have given the show an 8.1 or 8.2 but Jimbromski set the numerical bar kind of low with his review of Sleatter-Kinney (and you all know how I feel about that show).

Who's Coming?

Okay, updated listings.

Did you know there's a place called "Baltimore," north of Washington D.C.? Me neither. Anyway, there is such a place, and sometimes musicians perform there. Musicians such as.....

CHUBB ROCK

Woo-hoo! More rap-on-tap: EPMD & Black Sheep at the 9:30.

Also, as already mentioned previously, Dismemberment Plan at the Black Cat. Oh, but it's sold out.

But wait, there's more. Scandanavian Superstars Peter Bjorn and John will be at the 9:30 on April 30. Speaking of PBJ, some dickhead accused me of being all elitist and shit for mentioning them in my Thorkelsons wrap-up, and now I come to find out he's got their album. Did you really think I wouldn't find out, my friend? I know you're reading this, jackass. This is what happens when you fuck a stranger in the ass. You get mentioned, albeit anonymously, in the blog.

Here are some possible blog post titles for the Peter Bjorn and John show. Note that I do not know which part of Scandanavia they are from, and cannot be arsed to look it up, so I've got ideas for all three countries:

1--Norwegian Woodie (as in, I liked the show so much I popped a boner)
2--How Swede It Is (obvious, but must be noted)
3--Hitting the Swede Spot (I like this one better than 2)
4--Greetings From Bore-way (if it sucks, and if they're Norwegian)
5--Finnish Line (maybe there's a big line to get in...this one's lame, hope they're not from Finland).

Anyway, here's the listings:

Date
Venue
Band
3/6/2007
Black Cat
Clinic
3/6/2007
9:30
Badly Drawn Boy
3/9/2007
Ottobar
The Walkmen/Broken West
3/11/2007
RNRH
The Horrors
3/15/2007
RFK
DC United/Chivas
3/16/2007
RNRH
The Raveonettes
3/20/2007
Sonar
Heartless Bastards
3/23/2007
9:30
RjD2
3/23/2007
RNRH
The Walkmen/Broken West
3/24/2007
Black Cat
The Ponys
3/25/2007
Rams Head
Robyn Hitchcock
3/27/2007
Black Cat
Fake Accents
3/28/2007
9:30
Cold War Kids
3/29/2007
9:30
Ted Leo
3/31/2007
9:30
EPMD/Black Sheep
4/3/2007
RNRH
Long Winters/Broken West
4/5/2007
RNRH
Black Angels
4/6/2007
Fletcher's
Chubb Rock
4/6/2007
Wolf Trap
Roger McGuinn
4/7/2007
9:30
Kaiser Chiefs/Walkmen
4/8/2007
9:30
Lily Allen
4/9/2007
RNRH
Erase Errata
4/10/2007
9:30
Low
4/13/2007
Black Cat
Junior Boys
4/18/2007
9:30
TV On The Radio
4/19/2007
9:30
TV On The Radio
4/28/2007
Black Cat
Dismemberment Plan
4/29/2007
Ottobar
The Wrens
4/30/2007
9:30
Peter Bjorn and John
5/2/2007
RNRH
Sunset Rubdown
5/4/2007
Black Cat
Konono No. 1
5/13/2007
Black Cat
Sloan
5/13/2007
9:30
LCD Soundsystem

Thursday, March 01, 2007

I Love It When a Plan Comes Together



I just got an email from Eric saying The Dismemberment Plan is getting back together for a benefit show on April 28th. It'll be the first time they've played in almost 4 years. Needless to say, I insist Rock Club make its presence known at this show. Maybe we can all wear snowmobile suits or something. I don't know. I'm just spitballing here.

Tickets go on sale tomorrow at 5PM. Let's get ours right away.