The City Veins

Last month I began our “Fan of the Month” column with Stan Chow, illustrator behind much of The White Stripes award-winning artistic themes.  This month we profile an actual fan–Spencer Ackerman–also of the DC-based band The Surge.

Profile:  Spencer is known for a good number of things, which is why we like to call him our fan.  He is a high-profile DC-blogger that has been the subject of a New York Times article, he is a former writer for The New Republic, and he has been to Iraq and lived to tell about it.  I know—all of this makes him sound like sort of an ass.  But Spencer manages to rock despite his seemingly hyper-political yuppie-dom.  The man has a “Death or Glory” tattoo, and he’s not a bounty hunter.  He is also the drummer of a very cool two-man band called the Surge, with whom we have played. 

How He Came to Be A Fan:  I don’t really remember which was the first gig Spencer made it to, but several months ago we played with his band on a bill at Velvet, along with his (and now our) friends the Stalking Horses from Baltimore.  He came away with a glowing report of our music.  Since then he has been the most vocal fan at every one of our shows, getting people pumped up and generally forcing everyone to have a good time.  If we got paid, he’d be on the roll.  He even performed “Death or Glory” with us at Mum’s in Baltimore (in part because I can’t remember the words).  He notices little idiosincracies about our music because he knows it so well and he has a musicians ear–pointing out aspects of our performance that range from show to show.  And he praises us.  Because we value his opinion, he deserves to be the fan of the month.

Go out tonight to see Spencer and The Surge at the Velvet Lounge at 9 pm.  It’s a monday–what else are you going to do?  And they write well-crafted and endearing indie-pop songs that you can guiltlessly bop your head to.