I really don't like whatever genre it is you want to call Explosions In The Sky. I suppose most people label it "post-rock", but that has always seemed like an insult to rock. It is a genre that seems to be very one-trick-pony to me. Hush-hush, repeat, repeat, build, build in intensity, then rock like a muthafucka. However, one of my friends listenes to little else and she wanted someone to travel down to DC and hang out with her. So I agreed, but made sure she realised I was going more to hang out with her for the weekend, and not due to any pleasure I was going to get from seeing them live.

The show was held at the highly esteemed 9:30 Club, which, due to my distance from DC I had never been to before. And I have to agree that, in many ways, it is an excellent venue to see music. There is a main floor, in addition to a balcony. Although due to my local venue, The Chameleon Club, I am very used to a balcony... a better balcony, even. So while the re-appearance of a balcony in another venue was nice, it was in no way a deal maker.

What the venue gained in being balconied and just generally visually pleasing, it lost by the astoundingly expensive beer. I ordered the IPA they had on tap and was expecting a normal sized cup and normal price... but what I got was a small cup that MAYBE held 10oz and cost me $6. (And that's BEFORE tipping the bartender). Six dollars for basically a drop of beer. And it wasn't even an extra special beer... getting the standard Yuengling would have been the same price. Or a bottle of Coors Crap. Six freakin' bucks for a beer. I still get irate at the thought. If they were cheaper I really wanted to try the Dogfish Head they had on tap.

Eluvium played waaay too long for my "post-rock" tolerance to handle. It was just one guy on stage layering up simple riffs. Boring to watch, boring to listen to. I was really wondering if I was going to survive the whole evening.

I had never heard of The Paper Chase before... but considering the opening and closing bands I wasn't really expecting anything stellar.

However, they knocked my off my feet. I can't believe no one has recommended them to me before. I was trying to figure out a good comparrison, and the closest I could come would be a mash-jam between Primus, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, the noise-spazz guitar bursts of Thurston Moore, and VCR, with perhaps a touch of Ween thrown in for "good" measure.

Two songs into the set and I knew that they had immediately made the trip not just wortwhile, but essential. I have no idea how they ended up on a totally post-rock tour... but not only did they allow me to catch my breath before the achingly painful EITS set, but they were just great.

After their set, which I'm pretty sure my post-rock-loving-friend was not too into, I knew I had to buy their CDs. So after EITS's hour of torture I beelined to the merch booth and was dismayed to find The Paper Chase had a half dozen or so albums to pick from. Which I could not afford. So I picked two, Now You Are One Of Us and God Bless Your Black Heart, which I believe are the two most recent. They are awesome, so I'm going to have to get the older albums, also.

Oh, and the cherry to top off the evening was someone recognized my The Residents hoodie. Rare is the person who can do that...

Sorry that the other bands weren't better, and that the 9:30 Club's beer made you think less of the club. Bar none, soundwise, it is one of the best clubs I've been to in the country. Not to mention that the stage is at a perfect height compared to the floor.

As a rule, 9 times out of 10 I won't get beer at a show unless I know they have specials (such as the Ottobar). I think most clubs sell beer at an exorbinant price. Just one of those things to pad their profit margins.

Clearly you've never been to the Casbah

(in case anyone is interested, it looks like NPR has the show archived here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... Id=8073247)

I won't argue with that... though I would enjoy a chance sometime to see a band I actually care about to see, really, how it does stack up.

clearly you have no reading comprehension, as I was just stating from personal experience. How can I be wrong. I'll take yr advisement to visit casbah under review. Thanks.

no need to be butthurt. just an observation. jerkass. has nothing to do with being wrong. you can be completely right and still not have been to the casbah.

My point is that you had no idea whether I had been to the Casbah or not before interjecting that clearly if I had, that I would've chosen it as the best.

my point is that being from maryland, i figured pre-post that you hadn't been to the casbah. again i say, no need to be butthurt, sven.

I just saw the same show in ATL with terrible sightlines and cheap beer...

the show above was sponsored by npr. awesome, weird choice for them


saw this whole lineup at webster hall last night in new york. eluvium bored me, but i "get it" and probably wouldn't mind hearing the record.

the paper chase were so superb. what devine, paranoid performers.

explosions in das sky were killer, as per usual. no encore. the dude who looks like conor oberst in the band is fun to watch.

i saw this show last night. i really hated eluvium. paper chase was totally annoying for 95% of their set, only occasionally redeeming their awkward demeanor with some underlying intrigue in the structure of a song.

explosions were pretty good. i've heard a lot of good things and they delivered a powerful set with some amazing moments.