Sleater-Kinney @ The Anthem (10/25/19)
“The Center Won’t Hold”- oh what a perfect aphorism for Sleater-Kinney! The swirling mix of politics and band dynamics and music and visuals, wrapped up in one neat phrase. But does it ring true?
At a basal level, the loss of drummer Janet Weiss in summer 2019, leaving Sleater-Kinney as a two-headed monster of Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker, is the most obvious test of that premise. Would Carrie and Corin be able to maintain the momentum that has been building since their 2014 reformation without their centerpiece drummer?
Luckily, the answer from their show at The Anthem on October 25 was a resounding yes. To start with, new recruit Angie Boylan was so solid at the kit that I didn’t even notice Weiss’s absence. Sleater-Kinney don’t really do slow ballads, so pretty much every song is high energy romp. Some louder, some heavier, nothing too extreme- this ain’t Beck. It’s not necessarily a Ramones level of consistency, but it does require a solid musical foundation to succeed. Angie was up to the challenge of holding things down, anchoring the entire show and keeping the band together musically
Up front, the center held solid as well. Though Corin sings more leads and Carrie is more likely to bust out the Angus Young rock star moves, neither one was dominating the spotlight. Each mostly stayed to their respective side of the stage, leaving the middle as an open space for improvisation, if not necessarily attention from the crowd. The way the two frontwomen traded off lead vocals and guitar lines was reminiscent of latter-day XTC or The Clash, equally balanced partners complementing each other perfectly.
Even the political insinuations seemed to melt away. Coming out of the Pacific Northwest with a well-known penchant for left-wing lyrics and strong liberal views, I was expecting an angry diatribe about [insert abortion, immigration, climate change, etc.] during the show, or a tirade against apathy, or an “with us or against us” statement of principle. Surprising then that, other than the obligatory Trump pot-shot, neither Carrie nor Corin engaged in any real political banter during the show (especially since we were, you know, in DC). Instead, the band seemed intent to let its music do the talking.
So despite the titular warning, the center did a pretty good job holding. Here’s hoping it avoids collapse.
Set list
- The Center Won’t Hold
- Hurry On Home
- Price Tag
- The Future Is Here
- Jumpers
- Reach Out
- No Cities to Love
- RUINS
- What’s Mine Is Yours
- All Hands on the Bad One
- One More Hour
- Restless
- Light Rail Coyote
- Bad Dance
- Ironclad
- The Fox
- LOVE
- Can I Go On
- A New Wave
- Animal
- The Dog/The Body
- Entertain
Encore:
- Broken
- Start Together
- Bury Our Friends
- Words and Guitar
- Modern Girl
Encore 2:
- Good Things (Preceded by band introductions)
- Dig Me Out
Gary Clark Jr. + Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats @ Merriweather Post Pavilion (8/25/19)
3 days of peace, love and music? I can’t imagine it. I can’t imagine the experience, the nauseating feeling, the overwhelming sensation of misery. While coming down off of drugs? While hungover? While tired and sweaty and hungry. And trying to listen? To enjoy? To comprehend and connect with music? No. I can’t imagine.
This is what I can imagine.
A perfect summer evening: not a cloud in the sky, a warm but not hot day, no humidity, a slight breeze. Lying on my back in the grass, unencumbered by weather, unmolested by anyone. My only feeling one of utter exhaustion, with a slight headache thrown in for good measure.
And then, the music kicks in. With a bang, for sure. But in the background, the distance. Just right the level of volume and dynamics to keep me awake, intrigued, without fading into muzak.
Gradually, the energy builds. The crowd starts to sway and move as one. The band keeps pumping, rising and falling, careful not to peak too soon or fall too low. I slowly stagger to my feet, moved by the atmosphere. And I am standing. And I am moving. And I am dancing. SOB.
And then everything calms back down. Euphoria fades into the background, replaced by mood, atmosphere. No dancing now. Just grooving, recovering. The headache, the pounding, the sweat- all evaporating into the ether as the music rains over me.
Adrenaline levels rise with each song, doing more for the collective mood than any drug. I can hear the notes, I can feel the sound, but I don’t need to see a thing. Now let the music roar, let it scream. Let it send a jolt across this land. It is eternal for those who hear it, it is legendary for those who heard of it.
And when it’s over, there’s no traffic getting out. Can you imagine it?
Night Sweats set list:
- Shoe Boot
- Be There
- Look It Here
- Baby I Lost My Way, (But I’m Going Home)
- Say It Louder
- A Little Honey
- Howling at Nothing
- Shake
- Coolin’ Out
- You Worry Me
- Wasting Time
- Boiled Away
- Hey Mama
- Instrumental Intro (Luke solo)
- I Need Never Get Old
- SOB
Gary Clark Jr. set list:
- Bright Lights
- What About Us
- I Walk Alone
- Got to Get Up
- Feed the Babies
- You Saved Me
- Our Love
- Feelin’ Like a Million
- I Got My Eyes on You (Locked & Loaded)
- Low Down Rolling Stone
- Pearl Cadillac
Encore:
- Come Together (The Beatles cover)
Tuxedo at 9:30 Club (8/4/19)
Tuxedo is the answer to the question, “What would happen if Justin Timberlake were a member of the Rat Pack?” Image is everything, influences are anything, innovation is nothing. Does it matter that the music is grab-bag mix of Chic, Prince, Hall & Oates and New Jack Swing? Should we care that their stage movements consist of grade-school choreography? No. Tuxedo are legitimate because they say they are, and to hell with you if you don’t want to join the party.
Mayer Hawthorne and Jake One proudly wear their shtick on their well-coiffed sleeves. The swagger with which they perform their music brings out intricacies that can’t possibly be found merely listening on Spotify, the kind of intricacies that inspire a crowd full of fanatics willing to dress up in sequined jackets and dance themselves silly on a Sunday night. Hawthorne can’t touch someone like Paul Janeway (from St. Paul and the Broken Bones) in terms of vocal ability or energy, but he struts his stuff just the same. As for Jake One, I’m not actually sure what he brings to the party. Occasionally he’d pluck at a keyboard or add some barely audible vocals, but overall he seemed to be there more for aesthetics than anything significant. The true stars of the show (beyond Hawthorne) were keyboard player Sam Wish and guitarist Christian Wunderlich, who supplied the grooves that kept the party going on the dance floor.
I can’t deny the catchiness of the music (some of which I’m still humming 24 hours later) or the spectacle of the performance. It may not rank with the most memorable shows I’ve seen. I might not be able to pick any of the songs out of a lineup in a year’s time. But if I wanted to get a party started, I’d definitely throw some Tuxedo on the playlist, grab a martini and shake my ass. Can’t get more legit than that.
Set list:
- You & Me
- Dreaming in the Daytime ft. MF Doom
- Shy
- The Tuxedo Way
- Number One
- Shy (with snippet of So Ruff, So Tuff by Zapp)
- You & Me
- 2nd Time Around
- Vibrations
- So Good (with snippet of Feels Good by Tony Toni Toné)
- The Right Time
- On a Good One
- Good Times (Chic cover)
- Toast 2 Us (with snippet of Juicy by Notorious B.I.G.)
- Get U Home
- July (with snippet of Corsican Rose by Mayer Hawthorne)
- Designer Drug (Mayer Hawthorne song)
- This Beat Is Mine (Vicky D cover)
- If U Want It
- OMW
- Rotational
- Fux With the Tux
- Do It
- Watch the Dance
- Henny & Gingerale (Mayer Hawthorne song)
Nas + National Symphony Orchestra at Wolf Trap (July 14, 2019)
None of it made sense. Not the artist. Not the venue. Not the crowd. Not the weather. Even still, he almost pulled it off.
In 1994, Nas released the seminal Illmatic. He has seemingly been living off it ever since. For the album’s 20th anniversary, he decided to partner with the National Symphony Orchestra for an innovative performance of the album at the Kennedy Center. Five years later, he repeated the pairing for the album’s 25th anniversary, this time appearing at Wolf Trap.
Whereas the hallowed halls of the Kennedy Center had likely never before been graced with music from a rap album, the laid-back vibe at Wolf Trap seemed almost too obvious a setting for the unusual pairing taking place. On top of that, the excitement of doing something unique, the special vibe that surrounded the original collaboration, was lacking. The boiling heat probably didn’t help with the energy level either.
I have a feeling that Nas noticed. He raced through the album’s first nine songs, never really giving the NSO a chance to assert themselves or for the crowd to really get involved. A song like “Life’s a Bitch” could have been completely transformed by the addition of a full orchestral backing; instead, the crowd barely roused itself in time to yell the chorus. The songs on Illmatic are so excellent that they were able to overcome the inertia just on their own, but just barely. It took until the album’s final song “It Ain’t Hard To Tell” to even get everyone out of their seats, and even then it was more due to a collective realization that the performance was almost over than any excitement inspired by the music. After the last few bars had wound down, the orchestra departed and the entire experiment wrapped up, less than 45 minutes after it had begun.
Everyone breathed a huge sigh of relief when Nas kicked into a solo set with his own band, running through his surprisingly long list of hits (with the notable exception of “Ether”, despite the pleading from the drunk dude next to us). Annoyingly, most of these songs were presented in medley form, with Nas content to present small fragments rather than force himself into full performances. The one exception was on “If I Ruled the World”, the one time the crowd truly got engaged (come back Lauryn Hill!). And after another 45 minutes, it was all over, this time for good.
As far as experiments go, I’d say the pairing of Nas with the National Symphony Orchestra was a worthwhile effort, a fun way to reimagine product that might have become stale. But the problem, as always, is that sequels are never quite as good as the original.
Set List
W/ National Symphony Orchestra
- Intro
- The Genesis
- New York State of Mind
- Life’s a Bitch
- The World Is Yours
- Halftime
- Memory Lane (Sittin’ in da Park)
- One Love
- One Time 4 Your Mind
- Represent
- It Ain’t Hard to Tell
Encore (solo set)
In some order:
- Made You Look
- If I Ruled the World
- One Mic
- The Message / Street Dreams
- Hate Me Now
- Got Ur Self a Gun
Florence + The Machine at Merriweather Post Pavilion
Chanteuse is a lazy term for a female singer. It implies mystical (Nico), angelic (Cat Power) vocal powers that lift the singer so far beyond musical norms that they transcend to a higher plane of existence (Edith Piaf), one to which mere mortals are not invited. So it is for Florence Welch, who has carried this “untouchable” stereotype for her entire career. At her show at Merriweather Post Pavilion on June 3, she demonstrated the fallacy of such labels.
The music that Florence + The Machine make is perfect for a summer evening outdoors: lush, ethereal, bombastic, and anchored by drum sound so huge it would make Nigel Olsson jealous. On top of it all? Oh right- that voice! That voice! It soared, it dipped, it rang, it reverberated all around the newly renovated venue, its beauty enchanting and its power inescapable. Could Eddie Vedder hit those notes? Would (young) Robert Plant be able to wring out such emotion? So overwhelming on its own, that voice is almost better suited instead for cameo appearances (such as on “I Come Apart” by A$AP Rocky, a personal favorite).
Yet Florence’s stage presence is not that of a sedentary crooner. She covers as much ground as Steven Tyler or Mick Jagger. Her movement is much more Stevie Nicks than Kate Bush, full of off-kilter twirls rather than sophisticated pirouettes. She keeps up a constant rapport with the audience, joking, cajoling, imploring, all of it natural if not necessarily authentic.
And then there’s the music. Slowly-building dirges like “Only If For a Night” created the atmosphere. Up-tempo jams “Dog Days Are Over” and “Shake It Out” brought the energy, going over easily on their own momentum. Still, I wasn’t fully convinced until Florence broke out and went
full-on Bono during “Delilah”, decamping from the safety of the stage and sprinting up and down the aisles as fans raced to either grab a piece of her or avoid her train of security guards (whose presence suggested that move was pre-meditated).
Every time she seemed spent, Florence would find a second wind, turn and bolt down another aisle to kick off another verse from yet another vantage point. It seemed that even she couldn’t get enough of the moment. Even after she returned to the front of the amphitheater, you could sense Florence’s reluctance to return to the stage; instead, she hoisted herself up on the front rails while continuing to sing into (indeed with) the crowd. By the time she finally dragged herself back onstage, the show had climaxed.
Florence’s performance, an awe-inspiring display of vocal prowess mixed with a genuine display of devotion to her fans, shattered any preconceived notion of aloofness. She’s not just a woman, or a voice, or a singer, or a performer. Just a great entertainer. So much for labels.
Set List:
- June
- Hunger
- Ship to Wreck
- Only If for a Night
- Patricia
- Dog Days Are Over
- Queen of Peace
- Jenny of Oldstones
- 100 Years
- Moderation
- The End of Love
- Cosmic Love
- Delilah
- What Kind of Man
Encore:
- No Choir
- Big God
- Shake It Out
Ex Hex at 9:30 Club (5/10/19)
There was something about Ex Hex that was so familiar, yet so hard to define. Was it the Bikini Kill aesthetic? The Sonic Youth self-ironic glam? The steady, infectious beat of The Go-Go’s? The Ramones vibe turned down a few decibels? Probably all of these mixed together. Whatever the recipe, it made for an entertaining (yet brief) gig at the 9:30 Club on May 10.
Band leader Mary Timony has been a local guitar god celebrity for years, and she earned her reputation as she traded shredding licks with Betsy Wright, alternating leads like Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd. But the true star of the show was drummer Laura Harris, who pounded out a steady rhythm that kept moving the band forward, never allowing the momentum or energy in the venue to drop. The songs were loud but not abrasive, upbeat but not fast, poppy but not necessarily catchy. By the time the show wrapped, it felt like we had eaten a good meal: tasty, satisfied, but wouldn’t necessarily need to eat the same thing again right away.
Opening act The Messthetics featured former Fugazi members Brendan Canty and Joe Lally playing alongside guitar showman Anthony Pirog. Although it’s blasphemous for DC locals to criticize anything with the slightest tie to Ian MacKaye (no matter that most if not all of them didn’t actually live here when either Fugazi or Minor Threat were active), Katie and I both found their instrumental jamming bland and uninspired. I’ll now go sit in the corner and listen to Repeater over and over to repent. Locals rule!
Setlist:
- You Fell Apart
- Diamond Drive
- How You Got That Girl
- Tough Enough
- Another Dimension
- Beast
- Radiate
- Good Times
- Rainbow Shiner
- Don’t Wanna Lose
- Cosmic Cave
- Everywhere
Encore
- Radio On
- Hot and Cold
Rollin' and Grumblin' 