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Eyelids performs to a standing-room crowd at Comet Ping Pong, March 26, 2022. (Photo by Ari Strauss)
Northwest DC’s beloved pizzeria and concert, Comet Ping Pong, recently hosted Eyelids, the beloved Pacific Northwest power-pop group currently on tour to promote The Accidental Falls, the band’s most recent album which released via Jealous Butcher Records in 2020. I was there to photograph the show!
Eyelids perform at Black Cat on Nov. 19, 2017. (Photo by Mark Caicedo)
The last time Parklife DC talked to Chris Slusarenko of Eyelids was back in February 2019. At the time, Eyelids had started a musical project with Larry Beckett, famed poet and lyricist for singer songwriter Tim Buckley, slated to become “The Accidental Falls” (Jealous Butcher Records). Released at the beginning of 2020, the band was on the verge of mounting an extensive tour in support of the new album when the world shut down. We all know what happened next: tours were canceled, music venues shut down, and audiences went into isolation.
Now as music venues open and audiences return, Eyelids is once again heading out on the road, this time with a new bandmember and a renewed sense of gratitude, awareness, and optimism. After the stress and chaos we’re experienced since March of 2020, most of us have come to appreciate just how precious is the gift of music, and the joy of live performance — a feeling not lost on Eyelids’ members. In addition to Chris, we also had the pleasure of speaking with guitarist John Moen and new bass player Victor Krummenacher (Monks of Doom, Camper Van Beethoven).
Mark Caicedo of Parklife DC caught up with Chris Slusarenko, John Moen, and Victor Krummenacher of Portland-based power pop band Eyelids, prior to the group’s performance at Comet Ping Pong on Saturday, March 26!
Korine (Photo by Caro Ramirez)
Philadelphia dark-wave duo Korine launch a headlining tour that brings them to DC to perform at Comet Ping Pong on Thursday, March 3!
Dante Ferrando drums in The Owners at Comet Ping Pong on Dec. 9, 2021. (Photos by Ben Eisendrath)
Longtime fans of DC nightclub Black Cat — and good indie music in general — were greeted by a surprise when we emerged from pandemic lockdowns a few months ago. The Cat’s founders, Dante Ferrando and Catherine Ferrando, and longtime bartenders, Al Budd and Laura Harris, had formed a quartet.
They called themselves The Owners and sharpened their songs in the Black Cat itself as a ready rehearsal space while it was closed to the public. The results are pretty damn catchy, as evidenced in their most recent performance in a sold-out show with Bad Moves at Comet Ping Pong.
The year started out typically enough. But the way it began and how it’s ending are startlingly different. By the end of March, so many plans and hopes were dashed that now, as we race toward 2020’s conclusion, many of us feel they may never be realized.
Like so many others in this Year of Covid, I’ve had a chance to reflect, reassess, and reset for the coming year, sorting out what is, and isn’t, important. I enjoy photographing people, whether it be portraiture, cultural documentation, or musical performance. As a photographer, I strive to become invisible and capture moments as they are, not as I or the subject, would like them to be. Although photographing live music has been challenging as of late, I’ve been afforded the luxury of time to go through my archives and, as a result, have made a belated but important discovery: the final image must also render the photographer invisible.
Near Northeast performs at Comet Ping Pong on Jan. 9, 2020. (Photo by Mark Caicedo)
Watching and hearing Near Northeast’s evolution has been a wonderful musical journey. Since 2016, when I first became acquainted with this DC-based quartet, I’ve become a devoted fan of their extraordinarily crafted music.
Kristie Di Lascio of Loi Loi (Photo by Jen Meller)
DC synthpop band Loi Loi is a local favorite here at Parklife DC, and we are excited that frontwoman Kristie Di Lascio is releasing Me Dystopia, the first full-length album by Loi Loi, via Blight Records — today, Feb. 15!
In honor of the occasion, Parklife DC chatted with Kristie about how she made the record, what it means to her, and what’s next for Loi Loi. After you read our interview with Kristie, buy Me Dystopia on Bandcamp and grab a ticket for the record release show at Comet Ping Pong on Saturday, March 16.
Chris Slusarenko of Eyelids performs at Comet Ping Pong on Feb. 11, 2019. (Photo by Mark Caicedo)
How could anyone not like the music of Eyelids? Those bouncy songs reminiscent of Big Star and Badfinger, the infectious sense of fun, the sweet melodies and bummer vibes that infuse it with something more than your typical power pop. It was all there at Comet Ping Pong recently.
Chris Slusarenko of Eyelids performs at the Black Cat on Nov. 19, 2017. (Photo by Mark Caicedo)
Mark Caicedo of Parklife DC caught up with Chris Slusarenko, frontman of Portland-based power pop band Eyelids, prior to the group’s performance at Comet Ping Pong on Monday, Feb. 11!
Bat Fangs perform at Comet Ping Pong on Aug. 16, 2018. (Photo by Mickey McCarter)
There are few concerts more fun these days than a Bat Fangs show, as Betsy Wright and Laura King reminded us at Comet Ping Pong on Thursday. The ladies blasted into a rollicking set that produced a rather euphoric buoyancy throughout the audience, who packed the room to catch Bat Fangs on tour with The Love Language.