concert review

Despite the fact that Breakbot sounds more like a character from some kind of new wave children’s show than it does a rising French recording artist, maybe that’s slightly fitting.  Breakbot is taking us back to kids’ stuff and relying less on complicated beats or experimental sounds while still providing some really innovative and enjoyable bass lines.  On the first night of his first United States tour, Breakbot helped to make U Street Music Hall resemble more of a Parisian discotheque, delivering a taste of his old school funk infused dance music. Read More »

“Oh man,” said Beach Fossils bassist Jack Doyle Smith as the band took the DC9 stage on March 1^st. “Ohhhh man.” Following two solid opening acts, Beach Fossils prepared to perform for a fired up crowd; boy did they deliver, with a rousing, roughly hour-long set that left the crowd ecstatic. Read More »

My friends and I have been freaking out about this concert since we first heard about it – Well, we have been freaking out about the possibility of seeing Mumford and Sons since we first met each other. This freak out has included: desperately refreshing pre-sale sites in order to get tickets in class while pretending to take notes, calling each other frantically to figure things out, my friends winning tickets through the 9:30 Club promotion, me dancing in front of MUG when I finally got tickets, constantly texting each other Mumford lyrics the week prior to the concert…the list goes on and on. Read More »

“I didn’t know if you guys would come out on Superbowl Sunday, but 9:30 said you would, and here you are!” said K (Kaoru) Ishibashi, mid-set during his concert this past Sunday at DC’s 9:30 Club. Later he would admit to the crowd of 1000 that this was the largest audience he had ever played for under his Kishi Bashi pseudonym.

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Whenever people talk about the blues, a line from August Wilson’s play Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom comes to my mind. When Ma Rainey, one of the first blues performers to be recorded, explains her melancholy about record producers not understanding the blues, she says, “The blues helps you get out of bed in the morning. You get up knowing you ain’t alone.” I certainly got the impression that ZZ Ward, who performed on campus in Bulldog Alley on November 10^th, had a number of mornings where the only thing keeping her strong was the blues.
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Niki & the Dove’s opening set for Miike Snow at 9:30 Club this week was short, sweet, and decidedly to the point.  I had my doubts at the beginning of the set – it was barely past dinner time, and the crowd consisted of seventy or so high-school age kids who had undoubtedly planned a strategic early arrival to ensure a front-row position for the headliner.  Niki & the Dove played for just over thirty minutes, but fortunately by the end of the set, I was won over.

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Concert:★★★★1/2

Album: ★★★★1/2

When I first heard of the Icelandic band, Of Monsters and Men, the first thing I thought of was John Steinbeck’s book, Of Mice and Men, followed immediately by the thought of a group sitting somewhere in a cave with fur coats on. I’m not sure why the latter came into mind. The band released their first album, My Head is An Animal, on April 3rd, and I had the pleasure of seeing them live the night before at Black Cat. The debut album is absolutely amazing and personally reminds me of a weird mix between Arcade Fire and The Head and the Heart, except happier (sort of).

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“It took you guys 16 f**king years to get here. But that’s ok, we’re glad you’re here,” was Dave Grohl’s greetings to all the fans who were experiencing their first Foo Fighters concert, on November 11^th, 2011, at the Verizon Center. There is perhaps only one adjectival phrase in the music world that can describe the scope of the Foo Fighters’ show; of Springsteen proportions. The Foos hit the stage at 9 o’clock sharp, following impressive, if not slightly poorly amplified, opening sets by The Joy Formidable and Social Distortion (for you classic rock fans, Social Distortion closed with an interesting rendition of Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire”), and then played for the next three hours; with the same intensity and energy that they hit the stage with. Read More »