DC ROCK CLUB
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Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Harlem Night

Harlem w/ Tennis System & Foul Swoops - April 19th @DC9 - $10

We are getting close to the one year anniversary of sacklunch's last post on this site. But that doesn't mean he's completely absent. This Monday night, Harlem performed at DC9, and it was a sacklunch pick. Nice job sacklunch. Never mind that Jumbo Slice has been talking up these guys for over a year now. He's a deserter and shall be ignored (for now).

We only caught the last couple of songs from openers Foul Swoops, but they were good, and they looked like they were sophomores in high school. Be sure to check them out if you see them on the bill somewhere. Young rockers.

The Tennis System? Not so much. I liked one out of the five songs I heard them play before retreating downstairs. But a part of me just couldn't get past their look. It was distracting. You know when little girls play dress up and wear their mom's clothes and put on make up and look rather messy and ridiculous? Enter The Tennis System. Half of their membership played dress-up, apparently trying to look like 80s rock stars. I wasn't buying it. Leather vests were bad for Danzig, they're bad for Tennis too.

Then came the very loose threesome, Harlem. Fronted by Michael Coomers, who began the set behind the largest kick drum I've ever seen, I'd say these fellas were well pickled by the time they went on. Sloppy and dealing with technical problems, it didn't matter. These guys were having fun, were self-effacing and they managed to keep it together. "Thanks for paying to see us practice," Coomers joked after his guitar cut out mid song. They took requests from the crowd which filled the club about 80% on a Monday night, and they pleased.

I haven't mentioned that Coomers looks a lot like How I Met Sarah Marshall star, Jason Segel, but I'm pretty sure they're the same guy. Judge for yourself (Coomers may need to lay off the french fries a little).


Better live than on record, despite (or maybe because of) their messy performance...here's their music video:

2 comments:

Unknown said...

ha, i mentioned the jason segel thing to somebody that night too. uncanny!

sacklunch said...

When is the actual 1 year anniversary of my last post? Once that is acheived, perhaps I will post again.

Good show. Just listened to the album again this morning, and it is solid. I agree with your assessment of the other 2 bands. Tennis System didn't do it for me either.

It's usually a good time at DC9. For some reason, most of the shows I have seen there lately have been solid.