Tag Archives: Black Cat

Be Your Own Pet, Black Lips, and The Points at Black Cat

As planned, I missed the first two bands, only because opening acts are no longer worth it for me (plus, I am seeing four to six shows this week); I leave watching usually-bad performances for the younger generation.

Speaking of younger generation, Be Your Own Pet rocked. The onstage energy and (minimum) humorous banter made this show worth seeing, even if they only played for at most 45 minutes (and with no encore! I love these guys!). The crowd was a bit beligerant for some reason, but oh well; DC crowds are known for their oddities, although this is mainly their non-dancing and depressed attitudes. Overall, it reminded me of punk/rock shows where people were excited to watch and bands excited to perform, a combination that usually happens on a smaller or more local scale.

Surprisingly, this show was not packed and did not sell out. I had bought my ticket in advanced because I assumed the hipster community would come out in force for this Thurston Moore-approved, Pitchfork-lauded group. Not so.

Besides being an extremely good show–and one that will be considered for, but not win, my show of the year–it also brought to mine the occasionally used “maturity” aspect of a band. Normally, describing a band as “mature” happens when the band has become old and no longer rocks like they once did. Used like this, the term is fairly lame as it is not helpful, but that’s the way of the music critic.

Regardless, BYOP, despite being an excellent band and putting on an excellent show, is a useful example in highlighting what should be meant by a band being mature. For example, none of the equipment was set up when I arrived (although this could some sort of snafu, as they started out their set telling Baltimore to go fuck themselves; i.e., perhaps they played Baltimore the other night and something happened that caused them to be late). And one of my pet peeves, which BYOP did, was discuss the set list on stage and in between songs; it is great to tweak or add songs based on the show, but a band needs to know what’s what and not make the audience wait (especially when you are only playing a 45 minute set!). There are a couple other minor examples of this but none are as significant.

Over time, the band will probably “mature” into a properly performing group, although hopefully without “maturing” into not rocking.

Ratatat, Envelopes, Panther at Black Cat

A band like Ratatat makes you really think. One of the questions I have is why do they have such bad bands open for them? Both Panther, a lone gent, and Envelope, a four piece with three guitars, are part of that re-energized thread of rock where effort is uncool (and I don’t mean unkool). They, and their fans I suppose, are content with mediocre songs, mediocre talent, and–the worst part–a half-ass attitude that provides those classical music critics of DIY legitimate grounds for attack. At least Envelopes are consistent with lines such as “We don’t care” that are repeated for most of the song.

Another question Ratatat raises is why don’t more young white people like hip hop? True, the proper question is why doesn’t everyone like hip hop, but that’s a different conversation. Here we have a band that blends a wide variety of music (metal, prog rock, jam band, ambient, electronica) while maintaining a core (instrumental) hip hop sound. This is exactly the type of bands that should be attracting anti-hip hoppers and converting them into die hard underground heads.

In the end, they performed a great show with tracks from both albums (they only have two, right?). The sound was good, stage presence solid (including Slash-like guitar playing and sounds), and show rocking–in spite of the overwelming number of youngin’s.