Katie Alice Greer fronts Priests at Black Cat on April 4, 2018. (Photo by Mickey McCarter)
What’s a band to do when their friends Ought are in town from Montreal? Why perform with them of course. But if you are DC’s own Priests, you may not want to steal any thunder, so you might perform under a pseudonym.
So Priests performed incognito as “Religious Figures,” opening Ought at Black Cat on Wednesday. (See our Parklife DC review of Ought!)
Ought perform at Black Cat on April 4, 2018. (Photo by Mickey McCarter)
Touring a sophisticated new album, Montreal post-punks Ought added a hint of glam to their nervous energy for a winning performance at Black Cat on Wednesday.
Ought (Photo by Jenna Ledger)
Montreal-based post-punks Ought released Room Inside the World, their third full-length album, via Merge Records last month. The guys are on a world tour, which stops tonight, March 22, in Portland Oregon. They perform locally at Black Cat on Wednesday, April 4.
Dan Bejar fronts Destroyer at Black Cat on Jan. 28, 2018. (Photo by David LaMason)
Dan Bejar is an artist who paints in colorful and sometimes disjointed lines of verse. Each song feels purposefully crafted, and each album a separate work of art, often with a completely different feel from one album to the next. Although Dan is a frequent collaborator in The New Pornographers, Destroyer has been his sonic vehicle for the past 23 years, and he refreshed that vehicle’s art in a vigorous show at Black Cat on Sunday.
Dan Bejar of Destroyer (Photo courtesy Motormouth Media)
Chamber poppers Destroyer released ken, their 12th studio album, in October via Merge Records. Destroyer launched a North American tour last night in Portland, Oregon, and the band will visit DC to perform at Black Cat on Sunday, Jan. 28.
Ex Hex performs at Black Cat on Dec. 30, 2017.
For the past year, I personally wondered if Ex Hex, one of the strongest bands to emerge from DC in quite some time, were going to be a one-album project. After all, their debut album Rips dropped in 2014, and the last 12 months were relatively quiet for the female power pop trio.
Ex Hex crushed my fears in a sold-out show at Black Cat on Saturday, remarkable not only for the wall-to-wall crowd but also the wall-to-wall sound in an upbeat performance that included several new songs! Every show I’ve caught by the band has been good, but this was simply the best.
The Black Cat (Photo by Kevin Harber)
After its New Year’s Eve party on Dec. 31, Black Cat, one of DC’s top indie rock clubs, closed its doors for roughly four weeks for repairs. The Back Cat intends to reopen on Sunday, Jan. 28, for a concert headlined by Destroyer, which features Dan Bejar of The New Pornographers.
