Written by DCist contributor Dave Weigel

The husband-wife musical combo can typically make two choices about its act. It can be insufferably cute—here, think of Sonny and Cher. It can be so cool and collected that the audience doesn’t even notice the flashes of gold on their fingers—here, I’d nominated Thurston and Kim. Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel of Mates of State fall somewhere in the middle of the pack. There is no onstage cuddling. There’s no cutesy banter. Throughout a 19-song set at the Black Cat, they only indulged in one romantic anecdote.

”This club has a special meaning to us,” Gardner said shortly before they left for an encore. “Ten years ago, when we were living in Kansas, we drove here to see a show. Then we drove right back!”

On Tuesday, with their two daughters in tow, Mates of State gave D.C. a night of pleasant pop music that would have been worth driving a few hours to see. Not quite the 18 hours it takes to motor from Lawrence, KS to the Black Cat, but if any West Virginian came here to cure his piano pop withdrawal, he got his money’s worth.