Capital Swamp: The DC Resource Thread

So late :(

Late-night coolness is much more important than how tired you will be at work tomorrow! If you were a mere student you probably would have tomorrow off. Running into the wee hours on a weeknight also sells more alcohol, proves that this is dance music and not early hours live music, and helps the club try to prove that DC is not just an uptight, early to bed politically conservative town.

I'm with you.

Late night events are kind of embedded in nightclub culture, not just here but all over. We've experimented with putting headliners on earlier but we rarely hit peak crowd before midnight, and when we try to push things earlier it makes the artists unhappy and we end up with a lot of the audience who came late disappointed to have missed it.

There is always the DISCO NAP.

Ah yes, I do remember that. Thanks for the explanation.

Would be all over this if transport to the regions wasn't so difficult.

Yes, that's the other issue, if you don't have a car and don't live close, having to get a late-night bus or cab or something to get home.

it's terrible in nyc, a lot of things don't get started until 1:30 - usually i've fallen asleep waiting to get ready. luckily it made being home this past week easier, catching ride on through silver spring to the bus or subway into dc and back seemed like a breeze after treking from borough to borough.

finally checked out the music hall, great space

new black cat web site is snazzy: http://blackcatdc.com/index.html

Nice. It's designed by Alec Bourgeois who works for Dischord, has played in bands, and is a friendly guy who I first met way back when.

When you click on the calendar I see it lists the door opening time which for Black Cat means the first band is on a half hour later (if there's live music).

Awesome. I've been reticent to go along in case the bands go on too late and I have to leave before they start to get the last train.

Still feel ashamed I missed Twin Shadow last week.

For the Cat you just have to kinda do the math--figure opening act geta a half hour to perform, factor in time setting up for next band, etc.

On the day of the show, the 930 club site lists the doors open time and the exact times the performers are scheduled to come on. Oakenfold at 11 tonight (not my thing though, just a for example).

Are they pretty good with their times? Rock N Roll Hotel weren't, and I was actually going to have to leave in the middle of the second band to get the train (though that's a particularly bad area to be reliant on the metro).

You can call ahead at Black Cat to ask for set times--in my experience they have been relatively accurate. RNR and DC9 tend to run late, sometimes very late, and 9:30 Club often starts right on time or even a bit early. (You can also check set times on 9:30's iPhone app.) They actually pushed up the start of Brendan Benson's set about 15 minutes last week because of low attendance.

just here to announce that i am v amped for upcoming waaves & gang of four shows

re: Alec Bourgeios: I still say the Capital City Dusters were a totally underrated power pop band.

By the way, curmudgeon, in terms of clubs putting on acts later in order to sell more alcohol sometimes that's the case, sometimes not. In general people stay about the same amount of time and spend about the same amount of money no matter how the times run.

At U Hall last night the headliner didn't come on until 12:30, which is pretty typical on weekdays for big acts. He played until about 2:30 but our last call on weekdays is at 1:30 so we're actually giving up an hour of liquor sales by having the event run that late.

how was it? I'm driving 7 hours today and decided to save my energy.

Pretty amazing night, actually one of my favorites since we opened. Great crowd, people danced the whole night, Tensnake's set was really fun and well received (he bumped up the tempo on a lot of the tracks and it had a nice energy), and the transition to Jesse Rose was really natural and he's a fantastic DJ (I hadn't seen him before).

That does sound great. My nitpicking--12:30 is typical for Uhall, but it looks like on weeknights 930 had Oakenfold scheduled for 11:30. I'm also curious based on that W. Post review that stated Simian were spinning sounds on a weeknight for the folks sweeping the floor by the end of the night.

well to be fair i don't think people are into smd dj sets as much as they are into their production work and remixes of. i asked around just out of the sake of having something to do and no one was interested.

I'm thinking I might like J Wow (dj from Buraka Son Sistema I think) at U St. Music Hall Wed. 12-8

When certain DC rock bands play 930 I either can't go or I miss the on-sale date and the shows sell out quickly- Walkmen on Friday and Dismemberment Plan in January

Was supposed to be taking someone to see Walkmen Friday but saw it's sold out. Ffffffffuuuuuuuu-
Anything else going on? Standard indie venues are kinda weak this Friday afaik

there are always people selling tickets outside of the venue, you can probably just head over there.

Not to run the starting time on worknights thing into the ground, but I received this e-mail from the Salsa Room in Arlington (and no I did not contact them and ask anything):

We've been asked this a lot about this Sundays Sonora Ponceña concert...

"What time will the concert start?"

All our Sunday concerts start at 9PM...we know everyone works on Monday so we get the show started on time...concert should be over by 11pm.

Of course the club will be open till 2am if you want to stay and get your party on.

salsa social events intended for dancers (like things at the salsa room) are less late-night-partying-minded. not so much drinking (it's harder to spin) and usually done before midnight before the clubby meatmarket types arrive. unless i made that up... which i don't think i did.

Sounds logical.

Any Hume fans here?

Hume is great!

think i saw them at sonic circuits festival... if i'm thinking of the right band.

Just keep reading nice things about them

Poor but Sexy (ex-D. Plan) at Velvet Lounge tonight. Are they becoming the new Steely Dan, or funkier than that (or neither).

PG County rules:

Fri. Dec. 10-Omega el Fuerte at Copocabana in Hyattsville, MD for $50. I saw El Gran Combo here many years back. It's a nice big space.

Sun. Dec. 12 Voltio at Galaxy in Hyattsville

DJ Rupture wrote about Omega in Fader and on his blog. Yea, yea, none of those places are walkable from metro.

There's a benefit for local bluesman Memphis Gold Thursday night at the Surf Club in Hyattsville. The Surf Club is just a bar attended by mostly Spanish-speaking locals on weekends, but on Thursdays they are doing rootsy blues and rock live stuff. There's a "roots Rock Riot" show there on Dec. 30th.

Alas, you need a car likely to get there (maybe a bus from the metro would work, not sure).

hey if yall didn't hear titus andronicus & the pogues are doing a two nighter at the 9:30 in like march

i have already lost my shit on twitter about this, so i'll spare you

Probably sold out already. The Pogues charged $75 I think the last time they were here and I skipped it. I know Titus are a big deal too, but they've been here 2 or 3 times now in the last 9 months. I missed those appearances so maybe i shouldn't be grumpy (have not made up mind completely re their Civil war references and dramatic emo but Springsteenish retro approach)

DC media, please lets stop all Jeff Tweedy coverage for a bit and give someone else some ink and pixels (and yes I liked him at one point)

Just read the thing on the City Paper site about the new wave of DC emo (well, one band, called Monument) and got really excited for some new take on a Rites of Spring/NOU type thing... sadly, the sample sounded like watered-down Christie Front Drive.

Too bad.

(...but hell, I'm thrilled to hear about ANY new DC bands!)

I think last year The Pogues show was so expensive because they played on St Patrick's Day - may be less this time around.

March 8th this time (March 7 at Rams Head Live in Baltimore) but I don't think tickets are for sale yet.

While the references online to prog-rock in their sound scare me, I need to check out that Hume album

you couldn't pay me to go to that Pogues show...

My pals Jeff and John talking about the 25th anniversary of Heavy Metal Parking Lot on Carson Daly's NBC show last week:

http://www.nbc.com/Last_Call_with_Carson_Daly/video/heavy-metal-parking-lot/1264381/

Yeah, I noticed that, it'll be interesting to see how Heavy Metal Picnic will be.

I missed to sold-out Government Issue reunion Saturday night (I'm still waiting for a reunion of an earlier version of the group with Mitch Parker and Marc Alberstadt). A video of "Teenager in a Box" from Saturday looked nice.

So in a different vein, I also missed dj J Wow from Buraka Son Sistema at U St Music Hall last week who interests me a bit. Oh well.

missed the

I wonder if any craziness ensued at the Patti Smith book reading at the NPG Saturday, in view of the recent censorship scandal?

I missed the Juan MacLean at U Hall the other night as well...oh well