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Gang of Four performs at U Street Music Hall on Feb. 21, 2019. (Photo by Jason Nicholson)
As is well documented on this blog, Guitarist Andy Gill is going strong with the Gang of Four. The trio slammed into U Street Music Hall Thursday, playing classics and new tunes to an eager audience.
Gang of Four (Photo by Leo Cacket)
Legendary post-punks Gang of Four will release a new album, Happy Now, on March 29. Prior to that, guitarist Andy Gill and his crew will perform at U Street Music Hall on Thursday, Feb. 21.
Savages at 9:30 Club on March 27, 2016 (See the full blog)
As we wrap up 2016 here at Parklife DC, we looked back on our best concert photos of the year, where reviewed our 10 (actually 11) favorite photos on our blog.
But while Paivi and Kristie considerably brightened up our blog with their pictures, Theresa C. Sanchez and myself also have been out there photographing some concerts. So now we are rounding up the best of the rest to present some cool photos that Theresa and I captured over the year as well.
John “Gaoler” Sterry sings in Gang of Four (as Andy Gill plays behind him) at the 9:30 Club on Saturday, Oct. 8, 2016. (Photo by Theresa Sanchez)
#FBF – it’s internet slang for what some “kids” today refer to as “Flashback Friday” and is a way for people of all walks of life and interest to transport themselves back in time in an audio/visual manner.
#GoF is another acronym of sorts for a British punk band that was ahead of their time with regards to politic activism and social criticism in the late 1970s. You’d be hard-pressed to find many of rock music’s classic bands — R.E.M., the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against the Machine, and Nirvana to name a few — who haven’t called them an influence over the years. 2016 couldn’t be a more appropriate time then to tour given the contentious political climate and one of them most memorable elections underway in most recent history.
The latest version of the band visited the 9:30 Club on Oct. 8 to open for The Faint. (Read our Parklife DC review of The Faint that night — ed.) While the band has had many iterations since officially forming in 1977, they managed to retain guitarist Andy Gill is the sole original member.
Gang of Four (Photo courtesy Reybee Inc.)
Gang of Four founder and guitarist Andy Gill recruited a new vocalist a while back, and John “Gaoler” Sterry took up duties as the frontman of Gang of Four on the road.
A few years ago, Gang of Four released a new album with Gaoler on vocals, and now they have dropped a live album, Live… In The Moment, which appeared Sept. 9 via Metropolis Records.
Now Andy, Gaoler, bassist Thomas McNiece, and drummer Jonny Finnigan are on the road again, opening for Omaha synthpop band The Faint, and they all stop at the 9:30 Club on Saturday, Oct. 8.
Listen to “England’s in My Bones” by Gang of Four (feat. Alison Mossheart) from their Gaoler-fronted album What Happens Next on Soundcloud:
Gang of Four and The Faint kick off their tour tonight at the famous First Avenue, and that very strong bill will hit DC soon. Gaoler gives the act a different feel with slightly goth overtimes, but he does a great job with songs new and old. “Gaoler’s sweetly husky voice carries you through the song and it seems completely natural,” I said of his performance of “I Parade Myself” after the band last visited the 9:30 Club on March 2015.
Tickets are available online. Don’t sleep on this one, as this bill will sell out!
Gang of Four
Opening for The Faint
9:30 Club
Saturday, Oct. 8
Doors @6pm
$25
All ages
The Faint (Photo by Bill Sitzmann)
Synthpop quartet The Faint released a new song this year, and it’s pretty damn good… one of their better singles in quite a few years, I daresay!
The single will also see inclusion on an upcoming retrospective release by The Faint — CAPSULE: 1999-2016, due Sept. 30 via their longtime label Saddle Creek. To celebrate the release, The Faint are going on tour, and they stop at the 9:30 Club on Saturday, Oct. 8.
Listen to “Young and Realistic,” the catchy new single by The Faint, on Soundcloud:
The CAPSULE compilation arrives 17 years after the first release by The Faint — 1999’s Blank-Wave Arcade. The band rapidly matured and by 2001 released what many consider their masterpiece, Danse Macabre. The upcoming “greatest hits” includes contributions from albums Blank-Wave Arcade, Danse Macabre, Wet From Birth, Fasciinatiion, and Doom Abuse as well as “Young and Realistic” — and two brand new songs “Skylab1979” and “ESP.”
To me, the interesting thing about The Faint is that they almost always hit the perfect mark for what I consider “dark wave.” The Faint are a new wave band, but they eschew a lot of the sunny optimism of most new wave bands to drum up spikey dirges warning of difficult choices ahead. However, they never quite fall into the gloomy despair or overly distorted sound of modern industrial bands, saving them from easy categorization. And The Faint frontman Todd Fink is a joy to behold on synthesizer. (Seriously, it’s hard to find someone who can play synth with half as much energy!)
Opening for The Faint are Andy Gill’s new-look Gang of Four and Brooklyn dark-waver Travis Egedy, better known as Pictureplane. Don’t miss this action-packed bill!
The Faint
w/ Gang of Four, Pictureplane
9:30 Club
Saturday, Oct. 8
Doors @6pm
$25
All ages
John Sterry, Andy Gill and Thomas McNeice of Gang of Four (Photo by Leo Cackett)
When Andy Gill, guitarist and cofounder of the seminal post-punk band Gang of Four, was very young, he wanted to be a drummer, he said in a chat with Annie Clark of St. Vincent recently for the Talkhouse podcast.
“I do think of things in grooves and rhythms and pulses, and I very much think in those terms. I don’t really think in terms of grandiose melodic constructions,” Gill said when discussing his approach to playing guitar.
In performance, Gill uses his guitar much like he uses his voice: He’s direct and sparing when communicating with it. At the 9:30 Club Tuesday night, Gill brought the latest incarnation of Gang of Four on tour to play the very new album What Happens Next, and in so doing demonstrated the power in his approach to songcraft.
First, it has to be said, this is a different incarnation of Gang of Four, in which Gill is the only original member remaining. Vocalist John “Gaoler” Sterry has taken over for Jon King — and as a result it’s a different show. But Gill gave the band’s songs a remarkable level of consistency, which the audience warmly embraced. The two-thirds full room approached the new lineup cautiously but applauded very enthusiastically by the end of the performance.
Hailing from Leeds, England, Gang of Four pracitically created the blueprint for dynamic post-punk music, and the latest lineup of the band is set to perform at the 9:30 Club on Tuesday, March 3.
Shortly before they visit DC, however, Gang of Four will release its eight studio album, What Happens Next, on Feb. 24 on Metropolis Records. On the upcoming album, the band employs a number of guest vocalists: The Big Pink’s Robbie Furze, German singer/actor Herbert Grönemeyer, and The Kills and The Dead Weather’s Alison Mosshart.
Today, Consequence of Sound debuted the two tracks featuring Ms. Mosshart, including the lead single “Broken Talk.”
The full tracklist for What Happens Next:
01. Where The Nightingale Sings
02. Broken Talk (feat. Alison Mosshart)
03. Isle of Dogs
04. England’s In My Bones (feat. Alison Mosshart)
05. Dying Rays (feat. Herbert Grönemeyer) [English version]
06. Obey The Ghost Of The Colony
07. First World Citizen
08. Stranded
09. Graven Image (feat. Robbie Furze)
10. Dead Souls (feat. Hotei)
11. Dying Rays (feat. Herbert Grönemeyer) [German version]
Lead vocals for Gang of Four are now handled by new member John Sterry, formerly of Gaoler’s Daughter, who replaced Jon King, the band’s founding vocalist (who departed after 2011’s Content). The Gang of Four lineup now includes founder and guitarist Andy Gill, bassist Thomas McNeice and singer Sterry.
Gang of Four
w/ Public Access T.V.
9:30 Club
Tuesday, March 3
Doors @7pm
$30
All ages
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