The Upstate Life

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

TUL's Take: Thunderbirds Are Now! @ Rock and Roll Hotel

It takes a lot of effort for The Upstate Life to go out on a Monday night. It's the first day of the workweek and all we want to do, quite frankly, is be left alone and watch 24 (especially when it's a two hour episode). We're cranky, tired, and have to face four more days at the office. Basically, Monday night is The Upstate Life's night. However, if there was one band we wanted to see that would force us to leave our apartment and venture out into Northeast DC, it would be Thunderbirds Are Now! Justamustache hooked us immediately, but their latest album, Make History, really compelled us to catch these dudes live. Last night's show at the Rock and Roll Hotel was not only the group's last date before heading to the UK, but it was also the band's final pairing with Brooklyn's Oxford Collapse. For only $12, it was a pretty solid double bill.

Oxford Collapse took the stage a little before 10pm last night. The Brooklyn-based band was supporting their recently released LP Remember the Night Parties, the band's third full-length. Oxford Collapse's fast-paced, guitar-driven indie pop-rock reached its highest peaks during their performance of "Lady Lawyers", one of the album's best numbers. Midway through the set, Thunderbirds Are Now's Ryan Allen joined the band for a few songs on guitar to add another layer to Oxford Collapse's sound. All and all, OC was a solid opener and are definitely a band to look out for.

At around 11pm, Thunderbirds Are Now! introduced themselves to the intimate DC crowd which we estimated to be no more than 100 people. TAN! kicked off the evening with "Bodes Adjust" from Justamustache which promptly lead into the rocker "Better Safe Than Safari". The Detroit-based group possessed an incredible amount of energy onstage and put forth a great live performance. Between Allen jumping from the stage and playing guitar in the crowd to keyboardist Scott Allen frantically throwing the mic and/or tambourine around, TAN! did a great job at getting the small audience into the show. The best part of the band's hour-long set was when they closed the evening with an extended rendition of "Make History" while joined onstage by their friends and tour mates. We left the Rock and Roll Hotel that night very impressed with TAN! and honestly can't wait to catch these guys live again.

Posted by Brett at 11:56 AM |