It was an all-European, all-the-time line up last night at the 9:30 Club as DCist headed out to see a bill of Long-View, a group from Manchester, Scottish quintet Dogs Die In Hot Cars and Parisian band Phoenix. Though we’d been hearing some buzz surrounding all three groups, especially following Long-View and DDIHC’s recent performances at SXSW, we went into the concert without any expectations, but came out pleasantly surprised.

The best word we can think of to describe openers Long-View and their style is “sleepy.”

Their music, while polished and pretty, didn’t do too much to keep us awake during their set, and even the band members looked like they had rolled right out of bed with their mussed-up hair and droopy eyes. Though we didn’t find their performance particularly energetic, lead vocalist Rob McVey has a lovely voice, and some of their catchier, dreamier songs were a pleasure to listen to.

Dogs Die In Hot Cars, despite their terrible, terrible name, played a set full of energy and charming abandon. But their singles, “I Love You Because I Have To” and “Godhopping,” with their new wave-y hooks and almost ska-like undertones, were the only songs of the set that really stood out to us. The rest of the tunes sounded like a pastiche of Talking Heads and Dexys Midnight Runners — not necessarily a bad thing, and the band compensated with their playful, exuberant performance — but much of their music seemed like a syrupy rehash of
songs that sounded better the first time they came around in the 1990s.