Last night I went to a The Surge/Ribbons show at the Black Cat, a club near the U-Street/Cardoza Metro station. It was the first time I'd been to the Black Cat and on the whole it was a pretty good experience. There were a couple of pinball machines and an old school game console as well a good number of seats in the bar/lounge. The show itself was $8, I got a ticket through ticketmaster, but I'm guessing the average show doesn't sell out so you may as well just buy tickets at the door and save the fee.
The aucustics in the back room were reasonably good. I had some difficulty making out lyrics but not dramatically more trouble than I normally do at a rock show where I don't know the songs. There wasn't too much notable about the venue otherwise, conversation was fairly easy in the bar and if anything the back room for the show was a little too big given audience size.
As for the music, I can't give that much of sophisticated analysis, I'm not particularly hip nor have I really delved into punk before. I don't even know the genre boundaries that well, I'm more likely to be able to identify the genre of a Rock Band outfit than of a song. That said, I really enjoyed the performance by The Surge. The band's drummer is Spencer Ackerman which was why I was checking them out in the first place. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but the anger and loudness level was about what I go for. Most of their songs were original and my favorite two were at the end which both built up over time which is something I really enjoy when done right. The Surge doesn't have any music online or CDs yet, but I'll buy one when the time comes.
The Ribbons were actually a bit more of what I was expecting, but not quite what I was looking for. Singer/guitarist and, to use Spencer's term, quite a frantic drummer. They were good and loud, which I enjoy in short bouts, but as a result I had a fair amount of trouble following the singing on the lyrics heavy songs. That might also have been a matter of a sick lead singer which caused them to cut the show a bit short. I'm glad I stuck around for them and that they played as long as they did, but they aren't really my thing so I didn't pick up a CD.
For the curious, what is my thing? I just bought Muse/U2 tickets for their 9/29/09 show over at Fed Ex field. I didn't know they were coming to town and seeing the ad in the Metro made me very happy.
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