A Short Trip

If you aren't getting away this weekend in a big way, don't forget the one and only Charm City lays a mere 40 miles and a crab cake up I-95. We at DC ROCKS never stop singing Washington's praises, but we also believe that travel is the best education. Baltimore is a short distance, but a different world from here. It's "the city that reads". It's home to Arrabers, John Waters and Cafe Hon, Fell's Point and Edgar Alan Poe's grave. Have a picnic in the shadow of The Pagoda in Patterson Park or eat your way through Lexington Market. If you want to splurge, save room for Henninger's- a very cool bar and most excellent restaurant. And then go see those those crazy boys that brought you Razz way back when. Now aptly named The Howling Mad, they will be in Baltimore this Saturday Night at Metro Gallery.

Don't miss the show this Saturday night at the Velvet Lounge-a tiny little club planted in our new/old U Street night scene. Seeing live music there is always an up close and personal experience. There are no big screens- you don't need binoculars, and the cover is always under ten bucks. The show this weekend is well worth it-a winning combination of veteran talent and new music. Here's the scoop from Glenn Kowalski of 7 Door Sedan:

This Saturday 7 Door Sedan is having the first show in over month. We slowed down a bit after a mad mad October that almost did us in, but we're back baby!

We're thrilled to perform with former members of Razz—The Howling Mad. I've been trying to get a gig with these guys for awhile now. They have been doing this for quite some time and one of my most powerful memories is seeing them at the now legendary Keg in Georgetown. They're howling for sure.

Thanks to Phil Duarte of Pup Tent for putting this gig together, and we're happy to share the bill with them as well. They have amazing material and are a unique experience. A paranoid power trio. I just made that up. But seriously, check these guys out if you haven't yet.

This is a real "Guys with Guitars" show. We're talking major guitar slingers, seasoned singer/songrockers, and a hot Saturday night. 

My understanding is the following Velvet Lounge schedule:
Doors open at 9 for access to band area. Schmoozing, warming up with a drink, etc.
10 pm sharp: 7 Door Sedan, followed by Howling Mad, then Pup Tent.

Lyn2 would like to add: 
Puptent and 7 Door Sedan are so special to me that it should be illegal that they are playing together when I am out of town for work. Howling Mad are one of a kind and previous iterations of these guys' talents define DC music history for me. Please be there for me.

The No Dead Horses Tour

A large part of my DC Rocks mission statement is covering the amazing in your face shows around here- the small places with low covers - and lucky for us- a DC scene rife with talented, veteran musicians.
This week's jaunt down Washington's musical memory lane -includes former members of The Razz, The Slickee Boys and The Hangmen to name a few. See them this FRIDAY NIGHT when Ottley! and The Howling Mad take The teeny tiny Velvet Lounge by storm.
(Speaking of in your face- nothing quite says in your face more than catching a show fronted by either Michael Reidy or Martha Hull.)

Sign me up !!!

The thing about these bands is that they are made up of musicians that- despite their years on the scene- are NOT stuck in the way back machine. Their music and sound is still evolving and impressive, and the energy level is somewhere off the charts. As they say on their own behalf it's about- "reuniting -not retreading."

I'll buy that. And for eight bucks- you can, too- this Friday night- Velvet Lounge- The No Dead Horses Tour. Opening up will be another local favorite- Dollar Bin.

Good Things Come

Intimate is what they used to call tiny clubs. (Now a days I favor hole in the wall.) They are small, perhaps cramped even, but what they lack in space they make up for in attitude. The good kind, not the bad. The kind where the bass player moves over a little so you can get into the bathroom or the heckler in the crowd is your buddy and the drummer's cousin. And this is the place where you find tout these things because the atmosphere is anything but stuffy. So here are a few such dives, I mean intimate places, that i like to frequent and what's going on this weekend. ( I always like to start a weekend early.)
Thursday night Ruthie and The Wranglers are at The Sunset Grille. The Grille is so small you sometimes have to wait in the other room for someone to leave. Mercifully both rooms are equipped with a bar. Once in where the bands play, you can choose a bar stool or sit at one of maybe three tables if memory serves me. You never have to worry about being close enough to the band there- if you were closer you'd be in it. And people still manage to dance.

Then in town there's The Velvet Lounge, Drinks are served downstairs and upstairs is like someone's basement- dark and kind of small with a sound system befitting the 9:30 Club. If the band rocks, the people rock and so does the floor, but that's part of its charm. This Friday catch The Lookies -featuring the Rummager (ex-Velvet Monkeys, Gumball) Rambling Shadows (ex-Velvet Monkeys, Crippled Pilgrims) and 7 Door Sedan (ex-White Boy) My friend, Bill says: I love these 3 bands, they are each quite different, and don't have any following. It's gonna be arty, punky, psychedelic, and all original. And GREAT.

Following the law of PILE IT ON- there's another show Friday that older DC rockers can appreciate, and where young punks can pick up a tip or two at yet another small venue- The Quarry House. You get to know people at The Quarry House because we all smash in there together and steal each other's tater tots. Greenland a young local group with a great older sound and The Howling Mad will be there featuring local rock legends Michael Reidy and Abaad Behram. Look for them between the women's room, several cases of beer and the sound equipment.

And last but certainly not least on Saturday it's Ottley!, 7 Door Sedan and Dollar Bin at The Sidebar in Baltimore. I haven't been there, but according to Glenn of 7 Door Sedan band stickers are holding this place together. More on this show on Friday.

Thirty Years and Back Again

prabir and the subs with the silver beats back stage

The Silver Beats sold out the 9:30 Club last Friday night turning the space into a roaring arena. But Prabir and The Substitutes rose to the occasion knocking out all of us who knew them, and grabbing the attention of everyone else with their charm and good looks.
(Oh, and they rocked the house down.)
The next night, back at 9:30, there was a smaller but still respectable crowd- older rock and rollers-some with youngins in tow. It was hard to believe that all six Thirty Years Over DC bands weren't the newest thing or haven't been playing together forever-as everybody was vibrant - each delivering a strong set. According to Mark Noone, show-biz guy-"Killer drummers were everywhere." A straw poll showed it hard to pick a favorite, but I thought Howling Mad put on their best show that I've seen. Michael Reidy was irrepressible as usual- making fun of the club's new panini sandwich. And Ottley might have to be the Who's who of DC's bands-all three are such veterans. Martha Hull's voice is still as bewitching as ever.
One of my favorite old time moments came when Dan Palenski (former Slickee Boy) sat in with Ottley and delivered his signature cover of I'm 18 while Boyd Farrell (Black Market Baby, Rustbuckit) was front and center in the audience singing along.
The evening ended with 9353, and I thought they were particularly mesmerizing and powerful. I don't know where I was, but I missed them at 9:30 last summer.


9353 /photo: Kathleen Hellington

If you missed this show, Ottley and The Rambling Shadows, plus other bands from way back when will be at The Quarry House later this month. Keep an eye on their schedule.

P.S. Thanks to Lisa and the 9:30 Club for making this particular show possible and for recognizing the importance of getting us together for the heck of it, and not for a funeral.
Hail hail rock and roll-
and life.

Party Party Weekend @ The 9:30 Club

Yes. It's Prabir and The Substitutes on Friday night AND a big rock show Saturday night BOTH at the The 9:30 Club, but what can you do? It happens. One is the future, one's from the past. And speaking of the past....


Mark Holmes, d.j./artist from the olden days at the 9:30 Club made schedules an art form. You can see an assortment of these framed in the basement of the new club where ghosts reside at the original back bar. (I sure have a boat load of memories there. My best friend once passed out and hit his chin on that bar twice in one night. Not to mention... well, don't get me started.) The 9:30 Club used to advertise itself as a place in time, and this Saturday night we can all get in that way back machine thanks to Marshall Keith (Slickee Boys, Ottley) who had a light bulb moment last summer at the DC Space benefit for Tom T:
I really liked the idea of a bunch of acts doing short sets. It kinda reminded me of those shows in the 60s where there would be a back up band, and then 10 acts would do 2 or 3 songs each. So Marshall grabbed the right person that very night, made his pitch, and now the idea is coming to life.
To all of us who were hanging out or playing in bands at the beginning of the DC new wave/punk scene, the 9:30 club is like Grandma's house. Makes me all warm & fuzzy.

Boyd Farrell (Black Market Baby, Rustbuckit) has a slightly different take on the old 9:30: The putrid smell of old beer and puke..I had to wash my clothes twice after spending just 5 minutes there.

Anyway.

Marshall especially wanted to get The New Standard on the bill since they missed playing the gig last summer. The New Standard emerged from a band called The Penetrators which formed in 1977 and played at The Atlantis- The 9:30 Club's first incarnation. In 1979 they opened for The Cramps at the LBJ Club - a gig listed in some music histories as DC's first true punk event according to George Dively, a founding member. In 1980 The Penetrators broke up, and George went on to reform the band as The New Standard with Mash LeGrande and Matt Makaio. As a three-piece 'power pop trio', we took quite a few people by surprise, playing songs at breakneck speed with complex chord changes and 'beatnik poetry' lyric.
The group has been on and off again over the years, but like a lot of these bands- they're seasoned musicians ready to throw it out there again. The 9:30 Club gig January 12 is an excellent opportunity for open-minded indie/alt music aficionados to revisit or discover one of DC's least-known 'great original bands'.

And the cover is $12- what a deal at just two bucks a band!!! (And don't worry the smell is gone- smoke free even)

Here's the low down from Marshall:

30 years over DC- The Resurgence: Limp records veterans in great new bands. We're doing condensed 30 minute sets so you hear la creme de la creme de la creme only. Former members of Razz, Penetrators, Slickee Boys, Black Market Baby, Velvet Monkees, Trenchmouth, White Boy, Crippled Pilgrims and more- Headlining the whole shBang is 9353. (our comrades from a couple of years later)
Doors open at 7:30.

8-8:30 The New Standard
8:45-9:15 Rustbuckit
9:30-10 Rambling Shadows
10:15-10:45 The Howling Mad
11-11:30 Ottley
11:45-12:15 9353

Click on the card below to read it and get a blast from the past-
Be sure to check out Sun 13

artwork by Mark Holmes 1981

Got Nick?

The Nick Lowe tribute show this weekend (which includes almost our entire population of local musicians and then some) is sold out. I hear the powers that be sold it as a seated show which can be a drag according to the powers that don't be that wish they could dance. It should be a great show, but take heart if you didn't plan ahead- you can hit a movie and rest up for next weekend. That's going to be a busy one including Prabir at the 9:30 Club Friday (some of us can't get enough) or Chopteeth and The Junkyard Saints at the Surf Club. (Whoa- THAT's a dance party) Then on Saturday there's the 30 Years Over DC punk frenzy at the 9:30 Club including Ottley and The Howling Mad. (and it should be)
Maybe we'll all have calenders by then.

A Picture's Worth

I feel like I struck gold when Chip Py said he'd come out and take pictures of the bands for me. If you look at some of my older postings, you might see sort of lousy snapshots taken with my camera, or when I was really desperate, my phone, but it was better than nothing. Now all I have to do is relax if Chip's on the job, and hopefully he'll stick around because a girl could get used to this. Fast.
So if you couldn't make it to any of the Slickee Boys shows over the weekend, or if you did - you can get a good idea of what went on by heading over to Chip's site for more great shots like these two- plus more of The Beatnik Flies, Prabir and The Substitutes and The Howling Mad. Take it away photo guy. You rock.
.

It's Not Completely Too Late

Slickees at the Surf by Chip Py


If you weren't there- you missed a great night. The Slickee Boys show at Chick Hall's was a blast. All three bands- The Slickees, The Beatnik Flies and Prabir wowed the crowd. Look for more pictures of last night's show taken by Chip Py, DC ROCKS own indefatigable photographer, coming to this site soon.

And Slickee fans - you can still get 'em while there hot at The Ottobar tonight in Baltimore.
Tonight's bill also includes The Howling Mad ( Ex- Razz) Chelsea Graveyard and the Screams at Midnight (the band with the world's longest name) AND Jukebox Zeros. Doors at 8 - all ages venue.

The Lizard King Really Did Sleep Here

Mark Opsasnick walks this earth part man, part detective, part living encyclopedia of DC centric music. I mean the man is unstoppable in his quest for knowledge of all things that make this "capital rock". I have just lately been waking up and realizing that we have a boatload of good music around here. (I always knew that we had our share, but I thought it was more of a shrimp boat - not the Queen Mary.) But Mark, a DC native, has been and still is working on the chronicles of our musical past for years. His book Capitol Rock covers the clubs and bands from 1951 until 1976-from teen clubs to the Capital Centre- chasing rumors and nailing down facts about DC stories. Did Jimi Hendrix really play with Roy Buchanan? Was Led Zeppelin's first DC gig at a teen club in Wheaton? This is the book with the answers. It stirs up memories of places like the Varsity Grill (whoa that hits home for me)and Strick's-and gives detailed histories of bands like The Cherry People, The Hangmen, and Grin.

(photo by Alan Kresse)

Another undertaking, The Lizard King Was Here, zeros in on Jim Morrison's time spent in Alexandria where he attended high school, and is filled with first hand accounts and extensive information- literary, social and musical- as well as local details. To say that Mark is a meticulous researcher is an understatement. He even mentions the orange bricks of the bookstores Morrison was said to frequent in Georgetown which he traces to a poem Morrison wrote.

The thing is the past is still with us: you can still go to concerts with national local stars like Nils Lofgren, Jack Casady and Jorma Kaukonen. More regional legends such as The Slickee Boys, The Beatnik Flies and Howling Mad (ex- Razz members) will be playing later this month. And now you can read about where they came from or who they grew up seeing right here in our own back yard. (Move over G.W.- let Jimi (and Jim) take over.) You can find the books at Mark's site:
www.capitolrock.com or hit the link at the top of this posting.

P.S. Don't miss The Slickees et al at The Surf Club Dec 28th- a show that just might make it into the next rock book.

Rock out Rockville This Thurs/ Oct 25

(Ottley! named themselves for this guy
Hangman,Dave Ottley)

Once upon a time there was a Band, or maybe I should say once upon a time there was a Garage which begat a band called The Reekers which begat a band called The Hangmen which were so dang hot they locally knocked the Beatles off the charts according to Garage Hangover: "What A Girl Can't Do knocked the Beatles' We Can Work It Out/Day Tripper out of the top spot of the charts for Arlington radio station WEAM on Feb. 7, 1966."

How's that for deep cut trivia?

If you don't believe it, you can ask Bob Berberich himself this Thursday night when he plays with Ottley! at the big rock show that Joe Lee (of Joe Lee's Record Paradise) and Damian Einstein are putting on. Bob was there- playing drums with The Reekers and The Hangmen, and he's here now keeping the beat in Ottley! with Marshall Keith and Martha Hull of Slickee Boys fame.

But that's not all. The Beatnik Flies and The Howling Mad are also on the bill. I could go on and on, but all three of these bands played last summer at the d.c.space reunion at the 9:30 Club, and I can testify that all these veterans can still kick you know what-and are quite possibly better than ever.

So how much would you pay to see these local legends?

(Three of these guys are in The Howling Mad)

Twenty? Fifteen? Would you believe a mere 8 clams gets you into this extravaganza?
(And you can spread the love-take the kids- and get another generation going-it's an all ages show- just $5 for the student set)


(The Flies took their name from this song.)

When I was a kid I thought Rockville, MD was pretty much nowhere, (and the way things have turned out, it still pretty much is) but this Thursday, October 26 should prove the exception.
It's all happening at 7 p.m. at El Boqueron II, 1330 East Gude Drive.

Come out and see Rockville rock.


(I can only guess where The Howling Mad got their name.)

And The Bands Played On

Here's just a tiny sample of the great bands that
turned out for Tom Terrell and the dc space reunion
Sunday night. As promised the performances started
in the late afternoon and ended around 1:30 a.m.-
running over time only about 25 minutes.
It was unbelievable efficiency in action.
Hats off to the crew at 9:30!



The legend that is ... Chuck Brown.



As promised Tiny Desk Unit virtually reunited
with Michael Barron on the West Coast. Bob Boilen
is playing and working a tiny Mac, while Susan Mumford
sings.
How cool is that?




The Howling Mad with Michael Reidy who can still
deliver a band with energy from outside this universe.














The Beatnik Flies and Mark Noone played together like
they've been doing it forever (which they kind of have
though not with each other)

I'm leaving tons of people out because I was too busy yacking.
If anyone has good pictures- send 'em to me.

All present gave their all- and all were proof positive
that you're never too old to rock this town.

Raise Your Hand If You Remember 1977

OK. Thirty years was a long time ago. Jimmy Carter was president. Star Wars came out. Elvis Presley was still alive. (until August) Disco was in, though punk was here. The Ramones' "Teenage Lobotomy" and The Sex Pistols' "God Save the Queen" were up against The Eagles and Fleetwood Mac. Alice Cooper went into rehab; Elvis didn't make it. Talking Heads and the B 52s were coming up. The funk band, Parliament put out "Get Down and Boogie". Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd were still touring. (All that music and my class picked Boz Scagg's "Lido Shuffle" as our song.)
On the dark side, Debby Boone was elected best new artist. My college housemate played "You Light Up My Life" for more than two hours straight- an experience which scarred me for life.

And last but not least, dc space opened its doors.

My memory is crystal clear, but for those of you who are little hazy, and you know who you are, here's a little primer on just some of the names performing this Sunday at the dc space reunion @ the 9:30 club :

Marshall Keith, (Slickee Boys)
Martha Hull, (Slickee Boys, DCeats, the Steady Jobs, The Dynettes)
and Bob Berberich (The Hangmen, Grin, Rossyln Mountain Boys)
are all in Ottley.

Boyd Farrell, (Black Market Baby)
Mike Dolfi, (Black Market Baby)
and Sean Saley (Government Issue, Moodroom)
are in Rustbuckit.

Michael Reidy, ( Razz, Nightman)
Abaad Behram ( Razz, Johnny Bombay & the Reactions)
and Doug Tull( Razz Tommy Keene Billy Coulter)
are in The Howling Mad.

Also, Mark Noone ( Slickee Boys and too many bands to mention) will perform for the first time with The Beatnik Flies, an historic event.

Speaking of too many bands to mention, the performances are limited to ten minutes each and scheduled from 4:30 p.m. until 1 a.m. with five minute change overs. (This is not the old 9:30 by the way, but a very professional night club with a huge staff.) All kinds of music and performing arts will be going on- see previous posts for a large, but partial list.

I would pay twenty dollars just to see a few of these acts, but most importantly this event will help our friend, Tom Terrell and his ongoing struggle with cancer. Not a fun fight or a fair fight, but he's fighting just the same. Please come and celebrate the local scene here, past and present, and give a hand to Tom. Besides being a good cause, it's going to be a great party.


(Michael Reidy @ the 9:30 Club, 2006 by Steve Edgar)