This review by DCist Contributor Andrew Wiseman.

This reviewer went to see opener Giant Drag at the Black Cat, but came away very impressed by headliner Pretty Girls Make Graves. Constantly building and relieving the tension in their angular songs, the Seattle five-some are good performers, it’s as simple as that. Lead singer Andrea Zollo, guitarist Jay Clark and bassist Derek Fedesco are each entertaining and very watchable. Zollo is a great frontwoman, blasting out her vocals and dancing around with her hair in her eyes, while Clark ran from front to back of the stage over and over, burning through his guitar parts, and the extremely tall Derek Fedesco played bass like he was a lead guitarist. We wondered before the show why one of the mic stands was so high – it’s because Fedesco looks like he could play power forward for the Wizards.

The sound was very crisp, with the jagged and sometimes very fast guitar coming through clearly and the bass loud and easy to recognize, although Leona Marrs’ keyboards were a little hard to hear at times. All of the songs were good, but “All Medicated Geniuses” and “This is Our Emergency” particularly stood out. And the energetic performance brought out a pretty diverse crowd, both age- and style-wise.

Photos by Kyle Gustafson. More photos here.