Tuesday night in the nation’s capital was either a political watch party with the State of the Union or a night spent with a viral, indie-folk, alternative rock star, Peter McPoland.
Halfway through his Big Lucky Tour, McPoland stopped in DC to show off his highly experimental album at 9:30 Club. There is a rich story behind the development of this album that McPoland crafted during a self-imposed exile. McPoland isolated himself from social media and streaming services, armed with a flip phone, iPod loaded with The Beatles, and a reel-to-reel tape machine rescued from his uncle’s basement, McPoland spent four months in this isolation to record the sixteen-track project entirely on his own. McPoland entered a “Digital Silence” and supplemented his highly digital gear with analog/old-school equivalents.
The background of this album is important to put into perspective, considering Peter went from this isolation to release to a highly successful tour. At 9:30 Club on Feb. 24, the performance was largely stripped of the synthetic backing tracks and digital sequencing. Instead, the sound of the night was built entirely on stage. By cutting off the digital sound that propelled his early career, McPoland proved he can truly succeed as a musician in any genre. The performance delivered a raw, unpolished vocal delivery and a reliance on traditional musicianship. The energy in the room must’ve felt so strong that McPoland’s tuner pedal stopped working mid-set!
But first laying the groundwork for the night was DUG. A Dublin-based duo consisting of Conor O’Reilly and Californian-born Jonny Pickett. DUG approached the performance at the 9:30 Club as if they were performing at a bar in Ireland. They took a seat front and center on stage, Pickett with his banjo, and O’Reilly with a classic metal-bodied resonator guitar. The instrumentation was entirely acoustic, with the duo even having a harmonium and stompbox between them.
The audience, expecting an indie rock headliner, was very pleasantly surprised when DUG began their set. A standout moment occurred during the duo’s track “Promoter Man.” O’Reilly gave us a little background on the track, a satirical critique of the greedy, power-hungry middlemen who exploit artists in the music industry. Pickett instructed the 9:30 Club to boo every time the lyric “Mr. Promoter Man” was sung.
DUG concluded their set with “Cumberland Gap.” With Pickett climbing down into the crowd to instruct the crowd on a group circular dance that I can best describe as an Irish “Cha Cha Slide.” The performance was full of an energy rarely seen at the Club, not a hype mosh-pit, but a giddy group of fans having fun. Towards the end of the song, the duo told everyone to grab a partner and just start dancing!
Watch DUG perform “Cumberland Gap” live for the Coal Drops Sessions on YouTube:
When Peter McPoland took the stage shortly after 8:30pm, the performance was immediately surprising in its acoustic and collaborative nature. McPoland strolled up to the mic with an acoustic guitar around his neck, and three of his bandmates joined him for an almost acapella performance of “Dead Air.” Despite Big Lucky being a solitary, self-recorded project born from isolation, the live performance was a largely collaborative effort. Joe Curtin was on drums, Landon Laney on bass, and Josh Suarez on electric guitar and keyboard.
Curtain, Laney, and Suarez are not hired session musicians recruited out in LA, Nashville, or through industry connections. The group is McPoland’s childhood best friends and former high school bandmates. There was a chemistry on stage that truly demonstrated this as a group of friends just having fun performing music they love. McPoland paused frequently to individually spotlight and banter with his bandmates, breaking down the barrier between the star and the unknown backing band. Jokingly introducing the band, “This is Joshua Suarez. You guys are gonna come to love Joshua Suarez.” Introducing each member with the same spiel.
Watch the official music video for “Dead Air” by Peter McPoland on YouTube:
The best way to describe McPoland’s stage presence is highly personable; you can really tell McPoland truly enjoys making music and bringing enjoyment to a crowd. The performance was a spectrum of sound from his more acoustic tracks to his much heavier alternative-sounding tracks. With a healthy bit of interacting with the crowd between each segment. Telling the venue about his adventures in DC, specifically about missing the penny. Taking the time to ask if anyone had a penny on them and taking a headcount, “I don’t want them, I just wanted to make sure they were still around. This show is in honor of the penny tonight.”
Leading the show with a largely new folk tracklist, the pressure was suddenly released as the recognizable guitar of “Shit Show” rang out through the Club. It’s a chaotic fan favorite from his earlier discography and was greeted with a noticeably unhinged enthusiasm. The entire floor of the 9:30 Club was clearly very into the song, swaying with some force in sync. Curtin pounded the drum kit with ferocity, while Laney and Suarez held down the chaotic melody. McPoland’s vocal delivery bordered on a scream, fully embracing the punk-adjacent aesthetic of the track. The integration of the track in the middle of the set alongside the softer folk material of Big Lucky showed off McPoland’s impressive musical versatility.
McPoland reflected on his last performance in DC during his 2023 Piggy tour, openly critiquing his past mindset. He said his goal during that era was to “be a little cooler… cooler than I was.” he said it was a rookie mistake and said, “Inherently I am not cool. I’m not cool.” To the fans of McPoland, this perfectly encapsulated the transition to his modern folk sound in the Big Lucky era. McPoland explicitly stated to the crowd: “I don’t think there’s anyone that’s gonna come in here that’s gonna love music more than I do and love putting on a show more than I do.” He summarized his pivot by announcing, “We’re going back to our roots… Peter McPoland, the uncool folk singer, is on his way back to town.”
Setlist (Retrieved from Setlist.fm)
Dead Air
Good Day
What Do You Do To Me?
Speed of the Sound (of you)
Slow Down / Mary Anne
Blue
Shit Show
Romeo & Juliet
Mold
I Love The Animals
Bruised Orange (John Prine cover)
Roll Away My Stone
Digital Silence
A Place Like This
Here are hotos of Peter McPoland & DUG at the 9:30 Club on Feb. 24, 2026, courtesy and copyright of Caden Forrester.
Peter McPoland
DUG
