(Review by special DCist contributor Justin Kielsgard)
Despite the debilitating D.C. humidity, summer is a time when people live in the open air. It’s a time when restrictions are looser, when possibilities seem fuller and closer. And no band represents the idea of possibility or freedom better right now than the eclectic 12-piece ensemble Pink Martini.
For about two hours on Monday night the 9:30 Club was transformed from Hipster Haven to Continental Cabaret. In their D.C. debut, Portland, Ore.-based Pink Martini poured a colorful, multi-lingual, genre blending concoction into a tall martini glass (pun intended) and showed D.C. that our TV mothers were right: “You can be anything you want to be when you grow up.”
Led by classically trained pianist Thomas M. Lauderdale, Pink Martini eludes classification. A fusion of rumba, neo-classical, and Latin jazz among other styles, Pink Martini creates a sound that is undeniably personal. Incorporating several percussion instruments, the trombone, cello, piano, and trumpet, the band experiments with musical genres in a way very few groups have: respectfully. Pink Martini is not searching for hooks or a quick paycheck. Rather, they seem to be conducting an adventure through musical history that is guided by a need to learn rather than to exploit. When you hear Pink Martini play a Cuban rhythm, you don’t think it theft. Instead, it becomes clear that it is an interpretation, an influence.
Monday’s performance pulled out a large crowd consisting of people of various ages, nationalities, ethnicities and orientations. Inside, couples danced on the floor and balcony, which is usually veiled in rivulets of imported beer and cigarette butts, as if they were in a Parisian lounge. Pink Martini’s D.C. fans are as diverse as the band itself; in line to get in, one could hear French, Spanish, Russian, and Japanese being spoken–which is not strange for D.C., but it is for a concert at the 9:30 Club. Their fan base is not simply multicultural, but multigenerational, which may be the most hopeful element of this hopeful band. There are no prerequisites to liking Pink Martini. Like the many cultures that inspire their music, Pink Martini is a band open to all, taking from several sources and giving back to more.
