The Scene

MusicDetour.com’s commentary on music, performances, and the DC metro area music scene

Last week, DC’s own The breakUps held a CD release party at The Black Cat.  Maybe that was a little odd, considering that Illness at Ease came out in 2009, but who cares?  Their soulful and rollicking fusion of Hammond-organ-punctuated R&B  and punk is straight out of the coolest clubs of four decades ago.  They can wait a while to bill a show as a CD release party if they want to.  My review of this insanely enjoyable album follows after the jump.  (more…)

This Saturday don’t miss the funk while you celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. The Monster Band will be bringing it’s funky cover tunes to Whitlow’s on Wilson this Saturday, January 16th. The show should start around 10pm, but be sure to come early and enjoy Whitlow’s happy hour. It’s usually 5 bucks to get in to Whitlow’s, so it won’t break the bank.

Focusing mostly on new wave and songs that established the foundation of what we used to call alternative music, a new 80s cover band is about to hit the bars of Maryland.  The New Romance will play their first gig at Sonoma’s Bar in Columbia on Saturday.  They also have a couple of shows scheduled at The River Watch in Essex, including a New Year’s party.  Check out their demos on their site and you’ll agree they are a pretty rad addition to the Charm City scene.

Big In Japan have enjoyed a kind of residency at The Windup Space in Baltimore, playing every Sunday evening in August.  Instead of merely having another band open for them each week, they have invited their guests to collaborate with them on stage.  I cannot imagine how much extra practice this entails, and when one considers that these shows are free, the monetary rewards must be even more limited than they usually are for such bands.  These shows are rock for art’s sake, and I highly recommend that you check out the final show of this series on the 30th when they will be joined by Katrina of Celebration.  This past Sunday Big In Japan’s guests were The Expotentials.  Details of the best show I have seen in a very long time follow after the jump. (more…)

Morrissey, who has cancelled shows this week in England, turns 50 next week.  Tomorrow night, fans will gather to celebrate Mozzer’s half-century at the Ottobar in Baltimore.  The debut of the newly reconsituted Smiths tribute band Sorrow’s Native Sons will be the highlight of the evening.  Chris Quinn, formerly of Girlfriend in a Coma, and still of Treading Lemmings, will reprise his role as perhaps the best ersatz Moz in the world.  Expect to hear some of The Smiths weepiest odes, like “Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want This Time,” which never made a Girlfriend in a Coma setlist, mix with livelier numbers like “Still Ill.”

Will we sing “Unhappy Birthday” to Morrissey?  Yeah, probably.

For quite awhile I’ve been meaning to catch The Reagan Years, one of the most successful 80s cover bands in the region for over a decade.  I have also intended to visit Bourbon Street since it opened last year in the location of the venerable but erstwhile Hammerjacks.  TRY play one or two shows every weekend, mostly hither and yon from suburban clubs to small-town bars in Maryland.  Since such venues are just not my favorite digs for catching a show, I waited until they played Bourbon Street.  The Reagan Years as a band are a helluva lot greater than I remember the historic Reagan years to have been, but I caught them on the wrong night in the wrong venue.  Read why, and some suggestions of better nights to see them, after the jump. (more…)

Baltimore’s Sidebar is a great place to go each of the next two Fridays if you are nostalgiac for the 1960s.  On the first Friday of every month, DJ Amanda Otto hosts Reaction, “a mod party for the new millenium,” with bands and guest deejays.  This week her guests will be DJ King Gilbert and The Hot Pursuit.

“DOO-LANG,” “Baltimore’s 1st Annual 60’s Girl Groups Celebration,” will happen next Friday.  DJ Matt Walter will be spinning girl group discs and The Motorettes will play a set of classic girl group tunes.  Be my little baby and be there!

Last Saturday, dozens of music fans crammed into the Sidebar, a place with a lot more charm than cubic footage, to see eight diverse bands pay tribute to The Clash.  I arrived for the last hour of the “video brunch” prelude:  Clash videos and documentaries projected on a screen with bloody marys (highly recommended!) and mimosas on special.  I caught every set of every band in its entirety except that I missed the first few songs of The Mandroids‘ set while I ran from closed take-out joint to closed take-out joint looking for dinner, before eventually settling on surprisingly good chicken tenders from 7-11.  Each band brought something different to the stage, contextualizing The Clash within larger spheres of influence.  In lieu of a detailed review of each band, a rundown of highlights from the night follows after the jump.  (more…)

For about five years, the Ottobar in Baltmore has hosted Sing Your Life, a Smiths/Morrissey karaoke night, three or four nights a year.  Thursday night’s Valentine’s event will be special, because the promoter just announced that the night will be capped by the debut of The Smiths tribute band Sorrow’s Native Sons, featuring two founding members of previous The Smiths tribute band Dreaded Sunny Day.  Expect Sorrow’s Native Sons to play several more gigs in the coming months around the DC and Baltimore area.  The night will begin with a set of acoustic Smiths and Morrissey covers by Johnny Love of Johnny Love & Speed.

On February 7, eight excellent punk and ska bands from the greater DC and Baltimore area will get together for the second annual The Clash tribute night at the Sidebar Tavern on Lexington St. in Baltimore.  It is obvious that the Clash have been a tremendous influence on musicians and fans for three decades and counting.  The politics underlying their lyrics and musical compositions are more relevant now than ever.

So it is refreshing that these bands will put aside their own setlists for a night to pay direct homage to Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, and their influences.  Cover is only $7, so get thee to Charm City, rockers! For a list of bands playing, check-out after the jump. (more…)