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

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Get in there, mix it up, get out, and move on.

The BreakUps w/ Thee Lexington Arrows @ The Black Cat - Backstage 1/12/09 - $8

Since DCRC has been exceptionally lazy as of late, opting for NFL playoffs over live music and showing up so late at venues that we miss the bands, I took a walk down to the Black Cat on Monday night to remind myself what live music felt like.

Opening band, Thee Lexington Arrows, played for a smattering of weekday warriors and was loud enough for me to easily hear them in Food for Thought at the front of the club. I asked for a doggy bag for the extra sound that I wasn't able to choke down. Female fronted Bawl'more band. Loud. Rowdy. Self described "surf rock"....which didn't come to mind immediately, but yeah, okay.

I have rather unsophisticated tastes, so I tend to measure new bands I see/hear on one of two scales. Scale one: bluntly put, will the band in question promote/support fornication after or while listening. Scale two: would I want said band to play at a fictitious party that I am throwing for all of my fantastically hip fictitious friends. For both TLA and the BreakUps, we will use scale number two. Using scale one isn't all that appropriate and would likely involve the police or a trip to the emergency room were things to go in that direction.

So would I, Potsy, want Thee Lexington Arrows to play at a party I was throwing? You bet. I mean, I didn't say I would pay them, but they'd make for a good time.

DC's The BreakUps topped the two-band bill and maintained the smattering of folks at the Backstage, including some young lady celebrating her birthday (and her mom). The BreakUps work a throw-back nostalgia rock sound that includes a warm, comfy, organ. Okay, that last part reads a little ghey, but get over it. The organ is a key ingredient to this rock stew. The BreakUps do the low-fi thing but aren't sloppy about it. I wouldn't say that they are the most imaginative act I've seen lately, but would I want them to play at a party? Sure. It's been said before, but there are essentially a garage band. I especially liked the fact that their songs average around 2 minutes each. Get in there, mix it up, get out, and move on.

I was a bit distracted by the look of one of the front men. It took a while but I decided he most looked like a cross between Eric Stolz (Pulp Fiction Stolz - not Mask Stolz) and either a bespectacled Bruce McCulloch (Kids in the Hall) or a bespectacled Peter Scolari (Bosom Buddies). Anyhow, I should mention that I was joined by Tedwin for the latter half of the BreakUps. Good to see him out and about. And good to be out for a show.

2 comments:

Jumbo Slice said...

I use the "would I want this band to play my party" criteria as well. It's a fair way to judge a band (or the type of parties you host).

I checked out their MySpace page and saw one reviewer compared them to The Mooney Suzuki. Um, that's not exactly a compliment guys...

Dead Letter said...

Well they say "to each his own". . . but if we are talking about the fist two Mooney Suzuki CD's ("People get Ready" and "Electric Sweat") then I would take it as a stellar compliment. Long live primitive R&B and thank your lucky stars for bands like the Greenhornes and the Mooney Suzuki! I was at the show and they sounded like a high energy mid '60s R&B band with a big hunk of American garage thrown in the mix.