98 – Wu Lyf – Sunday, November 6, 2011 – The Rock and Roll Hotel – DC

Seeing Wu Lyf perform was like seeing Protomen perform. It wasn't bad exactly, and it certainly wasn't boring; it was just strange. Strange can often good, and there certainly were a number of memorable moments during the show:

1. When frontman Ellery Roberts came on stage to a chorus of lupine growls. You don’t hear that at, say, an Avril Lavigne show.

2. Whenever Roberts beat his chest, thwacked his face, and stared at the white cross glowing above his head.

3. Whenever the ghostly reverb kicked in between songs. The surround sound and cool breeze added another layer of mystery.

It was hard to embrace the show overall, though, because these eerie moments were undercut by ridiculousness. Funny as it is to hear someone howl “spit on blood, spit on blood, spit on blood” and “the dollar is not your friend,” it makes it hard to take the person seriously. They clearly want to be taken seriously: Wu Lyf, Wolf is Life, get it?! Mannered non sequiturs like these, however, do not help their cause: “What’s up, Washington? That much is up!…I just ate some fried chicken; pot pies those are the worst; welcome to America, b----.” Huh? Growling during a specific song can be effective; talking to the audience in nothing but growl-speak cannot.

Grade: B-

97 -- Ra Ra Riot -- Wednesday, October 26, 2011 -- 9:30 Club -- DC

Ra Ra Riot is my most reliable chill band. If I’m ever riled up about stuff after school, I slip on earbuds, slip into Rhumb Line, and everything’s calm again. (The Mountain Goats’ Heretic Pride is another reliable de-stressor.)

Effective as this calmness is, it creates a potential problem live. Serenity can work well on a CD; it can also make for a really boring concert.

Fortunately, Ra Ra Riot was able to up the energy a bit and put on a convincing live show. “Ghost Under Rocks,” “St. Peter’s Day Festival,” and “Boy” were especially strong. The excitement generated by these songs enabled songs like “Winter ’05” to make an impact. Quiet could work because you had a contrast.

Unquestionably the high point of the show was “Dying is Fine.” Of all the different bands’ songs featured in class that year, “D.I.F.” may have been the most popular. This is quite an accomplishment because philosophy-driven violin pieces do not usually appear on middle school playlists. It’s hard to not like the song though, and with the extended jam session and band-crowd high fives, it was hard not to enjoy it in concert. Who knows – perhaps the next time Ra Ra Riot comes to DC, a few seventh graders will pass on B.O.B. and Justin Bieber, and check out some solid indie rock...

Grade: B+

96 -- Givers -- Tuesday, October 18, 2011 -- The Black Cat -- DC

Dark almost always beats light. You remember Scar, not Simba; Beast, not Belle; Darth Vader, not Luke. And yet, in a two-night showdown, with Smashing Pumpkins at the 9:30 Club and Givers at the Black Cat, light won! The Smashing Pumpkins’ show was enjoyable; the Givers’ show was INCREDIBLE. Sketch, Deej, Evan Rochkind, and I stood a row from the stage the entire time, jumping, shouting, clapping, slapping, amping up all possible energy. Givers had only released one album, so almost everyone knew all ten songs. For those 52 minutes, it felt like everyone in the audience was a groupie; everyone experienced the same rush.

Immediately after the show, I bought a t-shirt -- only the 8th band t-shirt I’ve ever bought. For the first time ever, I was actually able to talk with the band, telling the lead singer that the kids in my class really liked one of their songs, asking him whether the band got its name from Lois Lowry’s novel (they didn’t), and congratulating him on a heckuva show. I then went out to text/call James Oberndorf and Hark Tagunicar, insisting that, for their own good, they needed to come to the next Givers’ show. Same goes for anyone reading this: if you ever notice Givers are touring in your area, check them out. Everything will start “up,” keep going “up,” and soon you’ll be “up up up” and away.

Grade: A+

95 – Smashing Pumpkins – Monday, October 17, 2011 – 9:30 Club – DC

This Smashing Pumpkins show was not as good as the previous one. The newness that I felt from the start of the last one was gone, the organ section in the middle was a bit dull, and the overall vibe felt more generic than psychedelic.

Fortunately, Billy Corgan was still Billy Corgan, so you left entertained. First, he blinded everyone with ultra bright lights; then, he invited everyone to “come down where the crickets love”?! At one point, he croaked “bang bang you’re dead, hole in your head;” at another point, he screeched “Sally sells seashells by the seashore”?! Most surprisingly of all, he actually pointed to and thanked the audience at the end. Way to confound expectations by doing what you expect from every other performer!

The most rewarding part of the concert was seeing it with James Oberndorf. To see a person care about the music as much as I did, to hear him describe how he’d “gone through a time warp” and reconnected with his youth, was thrilling. He eagerly explained drop d tuning, he wooo’d through “Siva,” “Soma,” and “Cherub Rock,” and when “Butterfly” came up as the last song, he flipped out. He wasn’t the only one...

Grade: B+