Odds and Ends of August

Washington and its surrounding burbs are dotted with all kinds of music in the summertime. It's almost impossible not to stumble upon many of the free concerts throughout the area, from Friday jazz nights at the National Gallery's Sculpture Garden to other free outdoor concerts, day and night, outside office buildings, in parks, in strip malls, in town centers...

Among all this musical bustle, clubs continued to host acts regularly. I've been a bit lax this month, overall, but here are some tidbits from some of what I've seen and heard in recent weeks:

Travis at the 9:30 Club (July 16)
Technically, this show was in July but I never got around to blogging about it (left to Spain the next day). Travis is a talented Scottish rock band who exploded on the scene in 1999 with their hit "Why Does it Always Rain on Me?" from their second album, The Man Who. They wavered a bit for a few years, then took their time with the newest album, The Boy with No Name, and it paid off; it's a gem.

Travis opened this show with lead singer Fran Healy entering from the back, walking through the crowd to the stage dressed as Rocky, while a recording of Eye of the Tiger played. After a short medley of recorded American music whipped the crowd into a frenzy, Travis played their long, inspired, and tight set. Healy's voice is truly an instrument in itself. The show was aired live on NPR and is archived, along with a set list, here: ttp://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11910318

The Grateful Dread
While vacationing on Martha's Vineyard in August, I enjoyed the sounds of The Grateful Dread, a bunch of talented local musicians who come together to perform reggae covers of Grateful Dead songs. The songs lend themselves quite well to reggae arrangements and the result was a hip and hippie set at the one microbrewery on the island, Offshore Ale House.

Back on the mainland, back home in Virginia, a Martha's Vineyard based band came to play at Reston Town Center on August 18th (a summer series I've come to know quite well). Entrain, fronted by drummer extraordinaire Tom Major, plays a mix of island rhythms, ska, and worldbeat, with a heavy focus on percussion and horns. Live, the band performs numerous percussion jams utilizing djembe, congas, timbales and other percussion. Their new singer Jeff fit in quite nicely. They're continuing to write and record and tour. Watch for them.

Junior League at Rock n Roll Hotel, August 17
Got a late start and only caught the last band that night. Junior League, a local band, mix country and blues influences into their indie-rock sound with the help of a mandolin and harmonica and the result is fantastic. Singer Lissy Rosemont's sweet and soulful voice is a joy. Their studio tracks make heavy use of fiddle. This band should have a bright future. Definitely look out for them...

***Club D sends a special thanks to the dude from the North Carolina-based band The Old Ceremony who scored her a ride to the club that night from the bar Zaytinya. Was busy interviewing the club manager for a freelance piece on that bar and missed this band's set, unfortunately, but I do love their sound and will catch them next time around. Check out their song, "Papers in Order." Catchy stuff!

Yorn, Guster Rock Wolf Trap

July 31
Wolf Trap, Vienna, Virginia

Yorn photos courtesy of Kerry Ellis
http://www.theoriginalblackcat.com

On a clear summer night, Pete Yorn and Guster paired up for an impressive show at Wolf Trap. Yorn and Guster had met seven years ago while playing South By Southwest in Austin, though this tour marks their first one together. Both bands played just about all of the material you'd want to hear from them, arranged pretty much just as you'd want to hear it.

Yorn played a full 80-minute set drawing heavily from his first album (that life-altering, life-affirming album called Music for the Morning After, which I still deem one of the finest rock albums of this decade). Joined at times by what seemed an unusual number of guitarists (three? four?), Yorn delivered a powerful show. One arrangement, though, didn't work that night. For the song, "On Your Side," Yorn sang the slow ballad well but seemed overpowered and outpaced by his band.

Later in his set, he mentioned he often gets requests for the song he was about to play, particularly recently when he played Bonnaroo, even though he didn't write it. That song, "Young Folks," is by the fab British indie rock group Peter, Bjorn and John (eh, "Peter Bjorn" does kinda sound like "Pete Yorn," so the confusion is understandable). Yorn also performed a couple of other covers in his set, as he usually does, including Warren Zevon's "Splendid Isolation," which also appears on his third, most recent album, Nightcrawler, and "There's a Light that Never Goes Out," by the Smiths. He also tossed in a couple of rockin' song from his EP, Westerns, the country tinged "Don't Mean Nothing" and "The Good Advice." Fantastic set.

Guster had a great night too (redeeming themselves for me after what I thought was a fairly awful show there last summer, as if then they had purposefully come up with the most pop-saturated, annoying arrangements). This time, though, their unique sounds, great percussion, and strong vocals and harmonies all shone through, and their arrangements were rockin'. This Boston-based indie band's set spanned their 13 years and five albums together. The set ended with "Happier" from Lost and Gone Forever, and included "Fa Fa" and "Barrel of a Gun" from that album, as well as "Demons" from their quintessential second album (1996), Goldfly.

During the encore, Yorn joined Guster on stage for a fantastic cover of "Suspicious Minds," only to solidify the fact that this co-bill was an excellent plan.

Pete Yorn's setlist:

June
For Nancy
For Us
Life On A Chain
Splendid Isolation (Warren Zevon)
Just Another
The Man
Closet
Policies
On Your Side
Murray
Young Folks (Peter Bjorn and John)
Crystal Village
Strange Condition
Good Advice
Don't Mean Nothin'
There is a Light That Never Goes Out (The Smiths)

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Pete Yorn