The Long Blondes @ Rock and Roll Hotel, DC [5/17/08]

I hadn't really been intending to go see the Long Blondes last night. I saw them - and this weirdness - last June and, while I thought they were fine, I wasn't terribly motivated to see them again. And then there's the fact that the reviews for their new album haven't been particularly good.

However, after missing Los Campesinos on Friday, it had been a week since my last show, and I figured I may as well head to the Rock and Roll Hotel. Plus, I'd been wanting to catch opener Drug Rug for a while now.

I'm glad I did. While the show wasn't anything spectacular, it was still pretty entertaining. I mean, how can you not enjoy watching Kate Jackson slink around stage in the flimsiest of outfits? The new songs didn't impress me much, though there were a couple decent ones ("Guilt", "I'm Going to Hell"). The old songs rocked, though, and more than made up for the band's recent attempts at disco.




I was even more impressed by Drug Rug. I've been seeing their name around the web for the better part of a year now, but missed opportunities to see them in New York, DC and Austin. As my friend Matt pointed out, they have a real strong classic rock vibe going, which worked pretty well on everything except their first song, which seemed like a really bad Foghat cover. Once they started playing songs with some harmony, though, they were really quite good. Well, for the 14 minutes or so they played, at least. (At least one band member was sick so they kept the set to Jay Reatard-length.)




Tonight is Bishop Allen at the Black Cat, which I'm really looking forward to. Tickets are still available, and I highly recommend that you venture out on a rainy Sunday night.