Lightning Bolt @ DC9
Photo by Chloe Elizabeth from socketsrecords.com
Trying to decipher the Lightning Bolt setlist from Wednesday night's DC9 show would be nearly impossible for all but their most dedicated fans. We know they played "Colossus" from last year's Earthly Delights, because we heard Chippendale say as much during between-song banter, but I'm amazed that the crowd even figured out that much. Even hearing Chippendale say, "can I get more kick drum in my monitor?" sounded like some distorted order coming directly from Satan's mouth due to the heavy vocoding on the microphone attached to his mouth. (To boot, the device was hidden under a mask that resembled a robber's ski mask, if it was made of your grandmother's old curtains.)
But, really, it didn't matter. The inhuman speed of Chippendale's drumming combined with those otherworldly vocal grunts and Brian Gibson's quick yet heavy bass lines elicited the sort of visceral crowd reaction that rarely comes, even within the course of multiple years' time.
Simply put: this was easily the best show I've ever seen at DC9.
Washington, D.C. gets a bad reputation for standing still at rock shows. Admittedly, there are usually more crossed arms than dancing feet at most concerts, but the crowds at shows like Titus Andronicus at St. Stephen's Church and Double Dagger at the Black Cat Backstage have proven that District residents will move -- if they are moved. It didn't even take all of one song to move the Lightning Bolt crowd. Admittedly, the speed of Chippendale's drumming initially left half the crowd bobbing heads and half the crowd picking their jaws up off the floor, but once the breakdown hit, it was all over. People were going crazy. Anyone in the front row did not stay in the front row -- sheer inertia propelled them either onto the monitors or on top of the stage. Otherwise disaffected concertgoers pumped their fists and started crowdsurfing. About two songs into their set, one crowdsurfer actually pulled himself up onto the ceiling beams and hung upside down from the beam. And here we thought this was a move reserved only for Fugazi documentaries.
The crowd hardly lost steam. They spilled over each other in waves that mimicked the heavy pounding from Chippendale. Since Macaw and the Buildings guitar orchestra set up and finished in record time, Lightning Bolt actually powered through an hour-long set (including an encore delayed by minor technical difficulties) by 10:17pm. By this point, at least ten other people had joined Lightning Bolt on the stage and the floor was a dangerous mess of sweat.
Nobody minded.