Tweens at Black Cat
In case it is not immediately obvious from looking at the photos, it was hot that day! The temperature may have hit 100 degrees outside and I'm guessing it was at least that hot on stage under all those lights. So here are my photos of Tweens melting (or at least their hair product).
Gringo Star at Black Cat
At first I had a hard time believing that this was the same band I saw before. They were so clean-cut before! All I can figure is that this was the end of their tour (13th show, I believe) and that noone remembered to bring a razor. This is the face of touring, folks.
Avers at Black Cat
Sometimes listening to a band's stuff on Bandcamp can be terribly misleading. If you listen to that one song by Avers and check their tags (psychedelic, shoegaze) then you would probably go to their show expecting to hear something like Dead Leaf Echo. Wrong-O!
Simply put, Avers are a rock band. Okay, they're a rock band which is informed by psych rock, which dips a toe or so into country and roots rock (I guess that would be two toes, maybe one from each foot?) But they didn't forget to bring the volume. Or the stage presence: some of these folks were bouncing around stage like rawk stars. It turns out they're more like Alberta Cross, or maybe the late-80s Mekons. This was a very pleasant surprise.
So, uh, oops! I guess I should have checked out their SoundCloud too.
Baked at Black Cat
Boy, talk about truth in advertising. I'm not sure that I would call this band psych rock. They're not quite as strictly psychedelic as some of the other bands I've covered recently. But boy, the ambience is just overwhelming, a real heavy dose of something which is actually kind of mild and mellow. So yeah, Baked, that's exactly it.
Titus Andronicus at Black Cat
At this point I don't remember which came first, Titus Andronicus the band or Titus Andronicus the play. They've been around forever and clearly there is no stopping them. So please just enjoy these photos, painstonkingly captured by me from my vantage point in the pit (and then later at stage far left when the pit wore me out).
Cosmonauts at Black Cat
Hmm, these guys seem to have mellowed out a bit since the last time I saw them. Their sound is a little more epic now, a little more like a normal rock band, honestly. But they have enough of an edge to keep things interesting. Once a Burger band, always a Burger band.
Black Clouds at Black Cat
I suppose it would be too simple to just call Black Clouds DC's answer to A Place To Bury Strangers. However I am very, very lazy so there it is.
Now of course there are differences, the most obvious being that Black Clouds have no vocalist. They're all about creating soundscapes, and not nice psych-y "let's all get stoned and be happy" stuff either. For example they show some strong metal influences the disturbing "Everything Is Not Going To Be Okay". Their live show in general seems to be harder edged than their album, which is now two years old. Bands like Disappears like Nothing have been popularising the nihilistic psych thing lately. Perhaps Black Clouds decided to move further in that direction as well?