Thursday, June 19, 2025

311 – Dispatch -- Monday, October 21, 2024 -- 9:30 Club -- DC

 --- Intriguing sitar(?) before they come on stage.

--- “Skin The Rabbit”: way more electric than before — fits 9:30 Club!!

--- Cool space-station version of “Time Served.” The back half has force AND finesse — this is already way better than the start of Wolftrap!!

--- “Came For the Fire”: the crowd’s useless, but the band sounds great.

--- Wow, the last time they were at the 9:30 Club was in 2001!

--- “Open Up”: I’d never noticed the “that is your flaw-aw-aw-aw” part. That was cool.

--- Their belief in “Midnight Lorry” is beyond belief. I don’t dislike it, but continually including this mid-tempo meander when you have that many songs is not right. That said, the light-on bellow, keyboard, and rockabilly vibe do offer solid contrasts. Wow, the ending delivers. They’re incapable of a bad song live!!!

--- “Johnny Whoops”: debuting a new song about his neighbor whose father regretted his son going to Vietnam. Heh, I thought it was ska, and the trumpet at the end confirmed. Clearly the weakest song of the night — until the trumpet showed up to charge through the melody. See comment at the end of the previous paragraph…

--- “Break Our Fall”: not a ton of room to riff, but who needs it when it’s that catchy!!

--- “Past The Falls”: a reinvented deep cut!!!! Spacey, soaring, brand new?!

--- “Bound By Love” happened.

--- “Trinket”: “This song does not rock. It’s about Emily Dickinson though, who rocked, and wrote about rocks and grass and what not, so I guess it does.” Some decent handheld xylophone instrument, and points for boldness, but wow. This is least crowd-pleasing setlist ever.

--- Heh, “since my kids are into pop music, every time I hear the intro to ‘Passerby,’ I hear a Duo Lipa song…You should sue.” The pump up section of “Passerby” is hard to resist!!

--- “All This Time” takes a while to get there, but the insistent guitar solo at the end is solid.

--- Says something DC-specific for once. A little All Lives Matters, but he does encourage voting. 

--- Heh, “The General”: are they allowed to play a known song? The heavy electric wow-wow-s are cool. The crowd’s “go now; you are forgiven” chorus does not feel earned, but woo for everyone bouncing and the drum pound towards the end.

--- Heh: “DC can sing, what?”

--- New album in May of next year. [Update: now here! Hope Yellow Jacket is better than the Showtime’s sadistic tv series.]

--- “Only The Wild Ones”: no pressure, pure breeze!! America: Location 12 is a gem.

--- Hahaha at their showdown during “Crazy Train.” They’re literally flailing on the ground lol. The rhythm, volume, clarity of the vocals, and commitment is infectious. What a surprise!!!!

--- Aww, they want the crew members to come up closer to the stage.

--- Wow, “Letter to Lady J” has teeth?!?! And they dedicate to Sarah who wrote a letter about it!

--- “Doe A Deer” / “Flying Horses” / “Elias”: an ending for the ages!!!!!

Grade: A


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