This review written by DCist Contributor Matt Sedlar

Washington, D.C., you should be ashamed of yourself. The all-ages crowd at the 9:30 Club on Saturday night may have turned local boy Matt Pond against us, and it might take flowers and an apology to get him to come back. How did this all happen? Let’s recap.

The evening began with a subdued performance by Australia’s Youth Group, a four-piece rock outfit with a lot of shimmer but no shine. While singer/guitarist Toby Martin’s vocals rarely varied from standard Brit-rock fare (see: James, Coldplay, etc.), the rhythm section consisting of Danny Allen on drums and Patrick Matthews on bass managed to keep things flowing nicely. One particularly funny aside: Martin seemed in awe that Ray Davies would be playing the same stage on Monday. One would have been hard-pressed to find anyone in the crowd old enough to know who Ray Davies is, much less be a fan of The Kinks. The band even played one song that suspiciously came close to ripping off the chorus of Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone.” For a band named Youth Group, in which each member looked a bit over age 30, most of their references — intentional or not — must have flown over the audience’s heads. Did we fail to mention that the tweens were out in full force?