Hélène De Thoury of Hante performs at Tiny Cat Music Festival on Aug. 3, 2018. (All photos by Paivi Salonen. Words by Mickey McCarter)
Working Order Records, home to DC’s own synthpop duo Technophobia, held its first Tiny Cat Dark Music Festival to celebrate “dark electronic music” over the weekend at Black Cat. By any measure, the first edition of Tiny Cat was a wild success, drawing 10 bands of remarkably different soundscapes together over two nights of immersive music.
In the Whale perform at Black Cat on Oct. 2, 2016. (Photo by Ben Eisendrath /Instagram+Twitter: Insomnigraphic/GrillworksBen)
Hard rockin’ punks Nathaniel Valdez and Eric Riley, known as In the Whale, will perform at Black Cat on Thursday, Aug. 23. You can win tickets to go with Parklife DC!
The Shondes (Photo courtesy Team Clermont)
Vocalist Louisa Solomon and violinist Elijah Oberman formed punk rock band The Shondes in Brooklyn more than a decade ago to put their political activism into song. And you would be right if you might imagine that a feminist band known for their incendiary lyrics might find fresh cause in the current political climate! The Shondes come roaring back onto stage at Black Cat on Aug. 9, and you can win tickets to go with Parklife DC.
Wussy performs at Black Cat on July 14, 2018. (Photo by Mark Caicedo)
On a limited US tour to support its new album, What Heaven Is Like, Wussy stopped at DC’s Black Cat for a show that delighted long-time area fans and surely made a few more. Running through an energetic 15-song set tilted toward the new album but also included a few early gems on Saturday, Wussy surely lived up to the high bar rock critic Robert Christgau set when, back in 2005, he called Wussy “the best band in America.”
Wussy (Photo courtesy Ticketfly)
Wussy released What Heaven Is Like, the band’s seventh studio album, via Shake It! in May, and they soon will embark on a short tour that includes a stop at Black Cat on Saturday, July 14.
Des Demonas perform at Black Cat on June 28, 2018.
Des Demonas rolled onto stage in burst of psychedelic soul on Thursday, opening Algiers.
Franklin James Fisher performs with Algiers at Black Cat on June 28, 2018.
You’ll believe in the effectiveness of soul music as a form of protest when you see Algiers, the experimental rock quartet from Atlanta.
Frontman Franklin James Fisher has a powerful voice that goes low or hits high when called upon to do so, but mostly it booms gracefully through a room as it did at Black Cat on Thursday.
