The City Veins

Another weekend, another trip up I-95, up past Bodymore, Murderland (The Wire reference, anyone?) and into Delaware. Last week we were in NYC, this weekend a little less cosmopolitan. But I’d take a Wilmington show at Mojo 13 any day. Not necessarily instead of Arlene’s Grocery, but it’s a great experience regardless.

In our last band, Charles and I often played in this small blue-collar town south of Philly, Aston, PA. And there were many great things about that venue: electronic trivia games, a “Strikemaster” bowling game, $1.50 beers, a guy who repeatedly offered Charles snort-able illegal drugs, and a solid and devout crowd. While some of the listed elements of the club were unimportant and un-useful (Charles says no to drugs), the fact that there was always a natural draw was a load off our mind. To this day, we constantly worry about the number of people we bring to a show. Thus, a place where people just show up to have a good time can yield some serious benefits. That’s not to say these places are ideal; the people who go out to Whitlow’s and hear music are not likely to be live music enthusiasts, which is why we avoid that Clarendon strip with the Ballroom, Grille, and Whitlow’s. But out of town you’re looking at 100 or so potential fans, and it’s the best proposition you have available. We’d rather play Velvet than Whitlow’s because we know people will show up and actually care, but out of town that’s not necessarily the case. In fact it’s not the case at all.

Alright, I’m tired of blogging about that crap.

Let’s do some random thoughts about DC area bands.

JukeBox the Ghost: As Charles likes to say, these guys are “blowin’ up”, which means you’ve already heard of them. Or if you haven’t, it’s your fault. While we were playing a venue of 150 square feet in a suburb of Wilmington, DE, they (along with Bellman Barker) were selling out the Black Cat. So I will try to keep my venomous jealousy out of my mention of their music.

If you have not heard them, they are neat. I think that’s actually the best word to describe the goodness that is they. They have that same sing-songy I-love-the-Decembrists-but-I-understand-that-songs-should-be-less-than-six-minutes-long thing that Bellman Barker has, which is to say they also love Steven Sondheim. But if you cannot have fun listening to their music, well, then you have no appreciation of pop melody. And I’m not talking about N’Sync pop, I’m talking about classic pop—Jerome Kern, Hammerstein, Schwartz, Porter—the Great American Songbook. Sure, Jukebox the Ghost is a modern Indie band, but they love something about old forgotten melody. And it’s pretty good.

There is a lot of crazy-good shit happening in DC these days. I think for the better, it seems a diversion from the classic DC-Punk scene—which was wonderful—but there needs to be some branching out for DC to get its due. I need to read more about these bands; I wonder if all of the members of Jukebox the Ghost, Bellman Barker, Middle Distance Runner, etc. grew up in the DC area. My suspicion is that they did not and that this new sound is a result of the growing transient population of DC. But what do I know?