The Pipettes show at the Black Cat last night was worth taking the trip down 16th with the single slowest-driving cabbie I've ever encountered. I couldn't tell whether he was stoned, worried about points on his license, or nursing the car through some sort of existential crisis, but he slowed down for green lights, cars stopping two blocks ahead of us, and road seams. Over his cautious reaction to red lights several intersections ahead, let a curtain be drawn.
Once Rock Ninja, Historienne, and I got into the club, the crowd was so dense that we couldn't get very close to the stage, leaving Rock Ninja with a view that consisted mostly of "Pull Shapes" shirts on admittedly nicely built tall guys' backs. At least some of said guys were willing to dance in the limited space, so it wasn't at all a loss.
But that leads me to my next point, which is this: What is the problem with Washington audiences? Why is there so little dancing? I've seen it at show after show, everyone dressed all cool but just standing around nursing their drinks, motionless and slightly hangdog, like freshmen at Homecoming. Do we not know how to time the pre-show drinking? Does the hipster-wonk confluence induce social paralysis? Are we afraid that we'll get in trouble with the guvmint if we have rhythm? And if all of that is true, why does everyone suddenly dance as soon as the band announces the last song? Go ahead, embarrass yourself and your date from the get-go; flail around; show a little life. I promise, the bands would rather see you dancing badly but happily than staring like a group of bowling-shirted zombies.
Now we just need to convince the Flight of the Conchords to play Iota or another small space where we can hymn our new robot overlords.
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5 comments:
I think the problem with DC crowds is that they go to shows to be seen, not to see. I will admit that I don't dance much, but at least I bop/hop up and down and sing along :)
And I was right next to the guys with the homemade Pull Shapes shirts, and as much as I appreciate their enthusiasm, I would have been happier had they not kept kicking and bumping into my friend next to them (or stepped in front of him halfway through the show, blocking his view)
We were just behind them, so I hope that we didn't step on your feet. Maybe everyone in DC is worried about starting a rumble if they accidentally elbow the person next to them.
But the larger question here is why would one even pay the $10 to go to the Pipettes show in the first place if you didn't want to dance? The group exists merely to put on shows for people to dance to; it's not excaty groundbreaking music.
Some band are better than others at cajoling DC audiences into dancing. And it's one thing for Joanna Newsome to come and play her harp and then bitch and moan that the audience was too chill, but not dancing to the Pipettes? I felt bad for them, too- they tried, but sadly, our lameass DC audience proved to be their dancing waterloo.
On further thought, I blame the effort to be cool. I've been to shows in DC where everyone danced and sang and generally acted as though they were having a good time during the songs themselves, as well as during the designated between-song "is everybody having a good TIIIIIME" breaks, and most of those shows attracted a generous share of people who have given up on trying to be the in crowd. Carbon Leaf, Los Lobos, the Avett Brothers--the crowds were really energetic. But, and how can I put this nicely, we were not working on any sort of coolness cred. Embracing your inner enthusiastic dork is very liberating.
I'm 99.9 percent sure you didn't bump into me or my friend, so no worries :)
And yeah, I think there's a definite "Hey, I'm cool. I am at this/went to that show!" aspect of DC crowds. The Black Cat seems worse about this than the 930 Club (possibly because it draws lesser-known acts), but both venues seem to have that issue to a certain extent.
(Sorry if this is a double post. Blogger was giving me some grief...)
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