All photos by Alexander Schelldorf. Words by Lang Kanai.
Last night, U Street Music Hall played host to a bill featuring three of the city’s most unique homegrown bands, who, united through friendship and artistic admiration, put a bill together that showcased some of the city’s burgeoning musical talent.
The Sea Life, one of the the District’s best loved indie bands, delivered a compelling performance, taking full advantage of the Hall’s space-ship sound system to open the show with galaxy-blooming soundscapes. Lead singer John Weiss, who was instrumental in putting the bill together, delivered the powerful yet vulnerable vocals that have made them one of the city’s best-drawing bands.
New Paltz, New York’s What Moon Things kept it in the stratosphere with all-encompassing tidal bass notes. Jake Harms wailed over an often dreamy guitar from underneath a mountain of curly blonde hair. It was easy to get lost in the clouds with this trio. But the New Paltz natives were just jarring enough to interrupt any extended reverie with an unexpected shift in tempo, key, or tone. The result was an engaging set that dovetailed perfectly with The Sea Life and primed the crowd for the slightly more raucous BRNDA.
By the time BRNDA took the stage around 9 p.m., the crowd was ready to shake a leg, and Dave Lesser and co. didn’t let them down. Infectious tongue-in-cheek tracks like “Jesus Be My Boyfriend” and “Serious Band From Washington, D.C.” got people bouncing around quickly.
BRNDA might be the most joyful band in the city. Before kicking off the set, they tossed glowing balloons in the shape of grotesque fireflies into the crowd which could be seen playfully landing on your half-annoyed, half-amused neighbor’s head throughout the performance. BRNDA’s confectionery songs sweetened up an evening that had been, to that point, a little heavy on heavy, and it was with something of a sugar high that the crowd waited for the fourth and final act.
Baby Bry Bry & The Apologists, while in possession of perhaps the most polarizing band name in the city, are arguably some of its most polished performers. Sporting uniform shirts and armbands, the Apologists entered one by one under the cover of darkness, slowly building up for the grand entrance of Baby Bry Bry himself, who, with a wink and rakish purse of the lips, promptly began charming the crowd with an assortment of stage-moves and banter. Throughout the performance he’d jump down into the crowd to sing along with a fan or instigate a personal dance party. Oh, and the music was good, too. The Apologists offered an eclectic blend of rockabilly, blues, and punk that, under Bry Bry’s spirited leadership, shot the crowd into another dimension.
Little could have improved on this bill that saw three of D.C.’s most noteworthy bands playing under U Hall’s celebrated sound ceiling. Little, save perhaps, a free mixtape at the door featuring recent tracks from each of the four bands.
“The impetus (for the tape) was trying to make up for what, I think we all agreed, was an unfortunately high ticket cost,” says BRNDA’s Leah Gage (drums). Although nearly every band on the bill hosts their own house shows at venues including Bathtub Republic, The Communiverse, Babe City, and the now-defunct Alamo, there’s a limit to how many people can see a show in those venues and “we really wanted people to see [the bill],” says Gage, making the tape a nice way to “sweeten the deal.”
Cassettes are enjoying something of a revival in recent months. “They’re physical things that people can hold,” which is what The Sea Life’s Weiss enjoys about them. Show goers “can take it with them after the show, and it’s not just a novelty but a souvenir.”
Even without the now-vintage recording device, the memory of this perfectly curated evening will live in our minds for years to come.
