DC ROCK CLUB
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Friday, October 17, 2008

Jews gone wild

Monotonix w/ Imperial China - Thurs. October 16th - DC9 $10

I don't know where to begin, but I'm going to be brief. My ears are still ringing from Imperial China's performance at DC9 Thursday night. They were kind enough to pass around ear plugs before they began, but I only managed one. Two ears plugs prove to be better than one, as it turns out.

We've seen IC before, and Jumbo Slice has a bit of a band crush on them, I think. And they put on a good show, with super high energy, to a big crowd at DC9. At one point I thought that their lyric-less jams would serve as solid music to a video game in which you hunt down zombies through a swamp. At times, they got a little too self indulgent and drifted toward the experimental jazz vein, and sometimes they didn't synch the dueling drumming very well. But over all, a great combination of synth, percussions, and I appreciated the limited vocals.

Now on to the headliners, Monotonix. We had caught the tail end of Monotonix when they played with the Silver Jews last month at the Black Cat, and it was clear that we should have gotten there earlier.

The clip below will give you a sense of what went down last night and does what my words would fail to do. Just note that the first half of the clip takes place in one of the booths at DC9 with the second half of the clip being shot outside just off of U street.



Like Pleaseeasaur, this is an act you have to see at least once, but one that you probably don't need to see more than twice. The music is secondary to the performance, but for $10, you can't beat the entertainment value.

6 comments:

Jimbromski said...

best video clip ever shot by a DCRC member, hands down

sacklunch said...

Wow. It's too bad I was feeling so lethargic last night and stayed in, that looks like a good time.

So they were playing out on U St? How did that happen?

Potsy said...

At one point, a drum (not a drummer, but the drum itself) was crowd surfing, and it headed down stairs.

Members of Monotonix followed, as did the crowd. They were rocking out front on 9th Street, but then headed up and around the corner behind Nellie's Gay Sportsbar.

It was like a riot. I was waiting for the police to get involved.

Anonymous said...

Nice reportage. But I want a full accounting of the health code violations that also went down. I may never order any drinks with ice from the bar upstairs again.

Unknown said...

actually, when you only get one earplug, you can also try breaking it into two and putting them in your ears. it actually better with some people.

Jumbo Slice said...

How's Monotonix's music? Any good or is the appeal all in the performance?

Still hoping Imperial China finds their way to Austin one of these days. Maybe they'll be playing when I visit DC in December.