Recent DC area musicians in concert
My concertgoing in recent months has mostly been small bands, and small venues, frequently without even the courtesy of a ticket price for admission. But I’ve seen a lot of interesting local artists based in the DC, Maryland, and Virginia areas. Some of these are poised for a larger national stage in the near future. Here is a quick synopsis of some of the regional musicians I’ve gotten to see and all the last few months.
Seán Barna is a favored rock presence, coming out of the DC area with roots elsewhere, who pulls from various strains of American and British rock, including glam, heartland Springsteen-like ballads, and the transgressive gender bending elements of mid-period David Bowie. Despite the Gaelic spelling of his name, Barna is completely American, but his best point of reference may actually be Mike Scott, of the 1980s Irish band the Waterboys, whose heartfelt and deeply impassioned warble, backed by a mix of rock instruments and Irish overtones, was called “the big music” in the 1980s — the title of a 1984 Waterboys single.
In a show at DC’s Comet Ping Pong, Barna and his ragged band showed how he has expanded a lyrical vision focused on family and competing visions of masculinity and gender. Barna loves big themes and big emotions, singing with grandeur and pathos at times. There’s a lot of internal conflict in his lyrics, but a lot of joy in the band and its raucous, periodically naughty songs. Singing in a mix of fluttery falsetto and earnest rock ‘n’ roll growl, Barna is a compelling front man.
His songs have caught the ears of Adam Duritz of the Counting Crows, who appears briefly on Barna’s new EP-length record Cissy. Cissy delves deep into family heartbreaks and confusion over gender and sexuality. His vocal stylings can be a little bit histrionic, but there’s no doubt of the sincerity of your passion behind songwriting. Barna looks like he might be emerging as a more prominent commercial artist in the coming years, so keep your eyes out for him.
Another area presence who’s been quietly bouncing around the regional scenes is Shannon Carey, who records and tours under the name
Luray — also the name of a beloved regional tourist attraction famous for its underground caverns. Shannon Carey is currently based in Richmond but has moved around a lot. She’s the sister of Sean Carey, who records with Bon Iver, which has given her a little bit of attention from the music press. In concert at DC9, Luray played as a solo artist contrary to Carey’s usual small touring band. She accompanied herself only on solo banjo, and performed a mix of new songs and some of the material that she’s been previously recording and touring. It was a low-key, genial performance that positions her as a sometimes-whimsical, sometimes-contemplative modern indie folk songwriter. NPR’s Bob Boilen was there and gave her a hug and spent a few minutes chatting, probably sharing tips on publicity and marketing, as the show was exceedingly underattended.
The DC-area label BLIGHT. Records has a few local bands gaining attention, foremost among them
Stronger Sex. This is a two-member, gender-ambiguous duo that recently put out a well-received full length, There is No Stronger Sex. As part of the DC Public Library’s frankly awesome collaboration with local bands and labels, they played the rooftop of a nearby library on a recent late-summer evening on August 22nd, with powerful electro-synth grooves that reverberated throughout the neighborhood. Stronger Sex draw from disco and electroclash with a punkier aesthetic. The killer track in their library set list was “Temptation,” from their self-titled 2015 full-length. Leah Gage helmed the synthesizers and drum machine while Johnny Fantastic took lead vocals with melodramatic fervor. Almost everything in a Stronger Sex set is recorded and heavily processed and addresses gender and sexuality, like “Girltown Strut,” which incorporates street harassment and catcalls in a woman’s voice to a female-identifying protagonist.“Hassle” is Stronger Sex at its glossiest, an eight-minute synthpop gem starting glossy in which a dark undercurrent takes hold, with lead singing by Leah Gage. Imagine a more woke Sylvan Esso or Yaz for a new generation. The next day I actually caught a BLIGHT. Records release party for the BLIGHT. Makes Right II cassette at Dew Drop Inn, in which some of Stronger Sex’s labelmates like
Luna Honey shared their new work in front of many local friends and allies. I don’t know this scene so well but with local musicians like
Br’er, Eskimeaux, and others, they do merit close attention. (Also, in a funny bit of intro-scene dynamics Stronger Sex has a song on their new record called “Séan Barna.”)
The last of the DC-area bands I saw in recent months, although not in chronological order, was the
Beauty Pill, the much-admired and long-running art-rock/philosophy ensemble led by Chad Clark.
Playing as a "symphonette," Beauty Pill played songs from their newest record
Beauty Pill Describes Things As They Are on the much-loved Millennium Stage free shows at the Kennedy Center back on June 24, in collaboration with Hometown Sounds. Clarke is a genuinely heroic figure in a way, a polymath and theorist inspired by jazz and art-rock and Afrofuturism and critiques of colonialism and capitalism. Also, he has a bionic heart. At the Kennedy Center, Beauty Pill did fractured Steely Dan-style pop musing on race and desire (“Afrikaner Barista”) and pulled from a wide range of styles, including jazz, baroque, and go-go, among others.
The Beauty Pill can be easier to admire than they are to enjoy. The music could be spiky and the tempos sometimes off-putting, but Chad Clark is a true Renaissance man. He deserves, and does receive from some quarters, remarkable degree of respect from musicians and critics for both the caliber of his work, and the tremendous thought process behind his music creation. It should come as no surprise that Clark is also a talented author, whose work has appeared in a wide array of local and national outlets.
