Georgetown Alums Play The Velvet Lounge Sunday Night
The Georgetown music scene may be small, but it is intricately linked (partly due to the Guild of Bands), allowing for a lot of malleable band lineups and creative collaborations and all-around good times, good times which in turn lead to beautiful, inspired music that thrives on its extremely varied sources. The Shaking Hand is one of these groups, made up of two Georgetown alums and friends of WGTB, Matt Strom and Ezra Finney.
To give you a sense of how mushy and incestuous this music scene is, Ezra and Matt both played in City Folk with former WGTB General Manager Dan Cook, Jeff Reger, and Kiran Gandhi (who was the recent subject of an Abditum.) City Folk is quite familiar with our stage in Bulldog Alley, and Ezra recently graced it again, this time drumming for Mercies at our Block Party this spring. Not only did he play in Mercies’ set, but he stepped in to play drums for RA the MC. The other two members of Mercies, Justin Scott and John Russell, were also in two separate Georgetown bands during their time as undergrads. Oh, and Matt was a WGTB DJ. Am I getting all that right? Are you confused yet? Do you want a family tree? Do you at least want to see these guys live? Well you’re in luck, because The Shaking Hand is doing a set at The Velvet Lounge this Sunday night.
Maybe it’s because they’ve been playing together for so long, but Ezra and Matt have a great sense of timing and an even better sense of melody, keeping a compelling thread throughout their songs even as they surround them with feedback and gritty rock ‘n’ roll. In the seven tracks on their album, Canibalinho, there are undercurrents of post-punk, TV On The Radio influences, and Jan-and-Dean style beach music harmonies, culminating in a sound that’s aggressive without being overly demanding; it balances the jangly, dark “Bikini Wax” with the almost surf-rock-esque “Public Pool,” leaving room for a grungy cover of “Ridin’ Solo” (yes, that “Ridin’ Solo.”)
Y’all, it’s good music. Check them out this Sunday night at the Velvet Lounge (more info here).
You forgot about the Chris Norton thread — former WGTB DJ/Music Director that’s a touring member of The Shaking Hand. John Russell is performing with Shaking Hand as well. And let’s not get started on the Ocelot connections…
Remember the time City Folk played that one show?
The one where they played “NJ Transit?”
That was awesome, you guys!