"It's that way all the time, you know" - The Whigs

Reasons I was expecting to hate the Whigs when I saw them come onstage last night at the Black Cat's backstage:

1) They looked like douchebags
2) Specifically, they looked like the kind of indie douchebags who decided to dress and cut their hair like they were 15 because it's "wacky" to do so
3) Four instruments on stage, but only three bandmembers - I smell a caterwauled piano ballad
4) Nipple-high guitars. Nothing makes you look more like a fuckin' shirtlifter than having your guitar six inches from your neck
5) The unusually high number of audience members with white hats and popped collars

Despite all this, though, they did rock really hard, and despite the mediocre sound system, you could really pick out a lot of the melodic subtleties. And it's hard to argue about passion with a man who breaks two guitar strings in a single 40 minute performance, as Parker Gispert did while doing his weird guitar hero two-step. Despite looking like the bastard son of Thurston Moore and a retarded albino girl working the fryalator at Burger King, bassist Hank Sullivert actually did a very good job behind the four string, and Julian Dorio is frankly one of the best drummers working today. I'm not going to start shouting "Rat Scabies!" or "Janet Wiess!" anytime soon, but he's pretty damn dynamic.

Basically, the Whigs have down that whole Southern power-pop thing to a science. They've obviously worn out the grooves on all their old Let's Active and dB's records, and songs like "Technology" and "Violet Furs" sound like pop hits waiting to happen. Hell, it's a distinct possibility, since they've been getting a lot of press lately, including a profile in Rolling Stone. Check 'em out, Chester, so you know what all the cool kids are talking about.

I'd also like to shine a big fat The Kids Are All Dead spotlight on a new local DC band called The Hall Monitors who came on last night and fucking ROCKED THE HOUSE DOWN! Throw in two shit-hot garage guitarists, a rumbling bottom end, and a batshit insane drummer who beats his snare drum bug-eyed while they compress all that's awesome about Teenage Shutdown (the best garage rock comp series ever, dork) into loud, foot-stomping, ass-shaking, sweat-pouring burst of electric white boy blues, and you gotcherself a band to make the boys drink and the girls cream, and vice versa. They supposedly have a CD coming out sometime in the next few months, and I sure hope to God they bottle all the excitement of their stage show. None of this reined-in, I-can-hear-vocals-over-the-guitars nonsense they have up on their MySpace.

DC, get ready for the rebirth of maximum rock 'n' soul.

http://www.mysharefile.com/v/6916275/The_Whigs_Technology.mp3.html

http://www.mysharefile.com/v/6692671/The_Whigs_Violet_Furs.mp3.html

http://www.mysharefile.com/v/3288532/The_Whigs_Written_Invitation.mp3.html