The Scene

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

Covers are fun for musicians to play and they are generally a safe bet for consumers.  Bands like to play covers of songs they enjoy, and audience members can be pretty sure that if a band doesn’t completely muck up their favorite songs they will have a good time.  Saturday night dozens of local rockers provided a fun evening of covers at the Black Cat’s 8th annual RUN FOR COVER.  Although I kind of expected a focus on Reagan-era nostalgia, what surprised me most was the display of female singers, as women fronted or shared the lead on five of the eight acts.  Read more about it after the jump. (more…)

Each summer, DC area musicians form one-night-only tribute and parody bands and rock out together at the Black Cat’s RUN FOR COVER night.  This year’s event will happen next Saturday, the 7th.  Tickets are only $10, and proceeds will support the Fort Reno Summer Concert Series.  DC rockers look out for their own.  Come on out.  There’s no telling exactly who you might see disguised as Mötley Crüe, Tom Petty, INXS, and others deserving veneration and mockery.

Summer in DC is now officially underway.  Congressmen and everybody else who can’t hang with the humidity has skipped town, but beginning Monday you can enjoy the cool sunset breezes at the highest and hippest spot in Town, in the shadow of a tower that belongs on another continent at the first Fort Reno show of the summer.  We now have the entire schedule.  The one gotta-be-there night has to be Monday, August 2nd, for The Evens.  Hoping that Ian MacKaye will play is almost a running joke, but the Evens are playing Fort Reno again for the first time in a few years.  Use the comments section to tell us what other night we’d be foolish to miss.  The complete schedule follows after the jump.  (more…)

Amanda MacKaye and the other volunteers are working hard to finalize the schedule for the Fort Reno summer concert series.  Once they release the full schedule we’ll let you know.  However, we do know that your first chance to check out a set of inside-the-beltway bands while you chill in the shadow of a tower that simply does not belong on this continent is just two weeks away.  Opening night Monday, June 28 will feature The Public Good, American Hearts, and Tiny Bombs.  Never heard of them?  Well, here’s a great opportunity to fix that!

Even though we are still surrounded by the material evidence of winter, Amanda MacKaye and the crew organizing the Fort Reno summer concert series are already accepting applications for the 2010 edition.  Send them your demos!  Contact info is here.

The Fort Reno series is a highlight of the summer for many DCists.  It is in everyone’s interest that the eclectic lineup be as strong as possible.  For bands, these shows offer great exposure to potential fans who might not happen to ever stumble across a given act at a club or on their MySpace.

Photo credit:  Ron Akins

Although weather wreaked havoc on the shows the week before, rain helf off last Thursday.  Instead, the large crowd, some with incredibly well-behaved dogs, who came out for the final Fort Reno show of 2009 were treated to tropical breezes and an eclectic mix of music by Grendel Babies, Casper Bangs, and Title Tracks.  The sign painted on the front of the stage coyly said “maybe next year,” but the Fort Reno website promises news about next year’s concert series.  I’m certainly looking forward to it.  A review of last week’s season finale follows after the jump. (more…)

On Monday evening I attended the third Fort Reno show of the summer.  Fort Reno is one of those “real DC” experiences that anybody living in the area needs to at least check out.  Part of what makes it great is that the bands seem to be chosen specifically because they would not normally be scheduled to play togehter.  Does pretty much any club in the area offer a superior concert experience?  Yeah, probably.  However, they have an excellent sound system run by a professional engineer.  The main difference is that the crowd is not necessarily there to see the bands as much as they are just there because it is the summer, so they have to go to Fort Reno  A description of the experience and review of the entertaining shows by Batala, the Small Doses, and Cigarbox Planetarium follows after the jump. (more…)

Free concerts at Fort Reno Park, near the American University campus, have been a staple of muggy DC summers for more than three decades.  Beginning next week, there will be a show each Monday and Thursday evening through the end of July at 7:15.  Fort Reno Park is near the AU-Tenleytown Metro.  Fort Reno shows are still embued with the spirit of the DC straight-edge punk scene, though a variety of local bands will play.  Dogs and kids are welcome; drugs and booze are not. Crowds can be large, with a wide range of ages represented, though most who come are teenagers who are very lucky to grow up in DC.

The full schedule has been anounced, with a few “TBA” slots.  Expect more news, and at least one or two show reviews, in the coming weeks.  More after the jump.  (more…)