Written by DCist contributor Andy Hess

Dan Bejar, the front-man of Vancouver’s Destroyer, does a lot of things I hate to see at live shows. He barely addresses the audience. He has a tendency to play with his backed turned toward the crowd. He doesn’t look like he actually wants to be in the room, acting as if he’s just there to sing and then go on his way. If you’ve seen him perform with The New Pornographers, this shouldn’t come as a surprise. With the power-pop supergroup, he usually wanders in from off stage to perform when he’s needed for a song or two then goes and hides in the shadows. Despite all that, Bejar’s performance at the Black Cat on Tuesday night was not phoned in by any stretch.

There’s something inherently likable about about Spencer Krug. Just ask Wolf Parade bandmate Dan Boeckner who snidely referred to him as the guy that everybody likes. Although that was a clear barb, Boeckner has a point. Dante DeCaro, another fellow Wolf Parade member likes him enough to continue touring with Krug (under the moniker of opener Johnny & The Moon). Fellow Canadians Carey Mercer (Frog Eyes) and Dan Bejar (Destroyer) like him enough to work…

For the past two days, Washington DC’s 9:30 club has played host to two of indie rock’s most well regarded bands—The New Pornographers and Belle and Sebastian. While you’d never mistake one band for the other, the common traits of both acts on this nominally co-headliner tour are their highly inventive songwriting and dextrous musical arrangements. Over the past two days, fans of both bands came out in force, but it was clear after two…

On Saturday DCist headed to the 9:30 club to catch the New Pornographers, who are touring in support of their excellent third album, Twin Cinema. The sold-out club seemed even more tightly packed with bodies than usual, all of them anxious to hear the band’s tightly constructed pop. The 9:30 club’s recent price “adjustment” led us to spend more time than normal at our favorite pre-show watering hole. So by the time we made…