DC – If I had the chance to give two words of wisdom to an opener on a weekday, especially a rainy weekday, concert, it would be: be punctual. Please god, be punctual, especially in Washington DC where most people not only admit to, but proudly claim, the ‘nerd’ label.
Unfortunately, no one gave that message to The Chance, the second opener at the 1,2,3 show at the Black Cat Wednesday December 9th. The band was supposed to take the stage at 9:15 and didn’t end up playing until 9:45 – but then went on to play their entire slightly off-key, totally unintelligible hour- long set. I wish I could list the songs they played but I really couldn’t distinguish one from another and couldn’t make out a single word. Please note, I am not big on negative reviews – I love music, bands, the concert scene – and as badly as things may go – I can usually have a good time. However, I do feel justified with this assessment because it was corroborated by a very nice group of concert-goers I had actually seen at last week’s excellent Wendell Jimbrough/Sunbears!/Andy Zipf show. We all agreed The Chance should work on improving their lyrics and refining their sound (we were all big fans of ‘Bing’ the guitarist though – who seemed to have a cult following in the very young crowd and had a great bald head/faux hair flip movement going on.)
When 1,2,3 finally took the stage a little after 11, the crowd had not only thinned but aged. I had imagined the band as a duo, but there were actually several musicians on stage – and they looked nothing like I expected after watching the very blue-collar “Work” music video. I was pleasantly surprised by the look: extremely laid back. I feel like most indie bands I see take pains to carry off the ‘casual-but-contemplated’ wardrobe choice for shows, but 1,2,3 literally just got on and jammed in comfy looking sweaters and jeans – no flashing lights, no ridiculous argyle – just there to play. They opened with Work which is just a fantastic song. When I was first listening to the band, I was put off by their punk sound, but Work is one of those songs anyone will love: it’s catchy without being cliché. The band also featured “Scared but not that scared” from their debut album, New Heaven. (In the interest of full disclosure, I left early – I’m serious about my self-imposed midnight bedtime on weekdays, so I didn’t see the band’s entire show which I imagine was a solid effort the entire way through.) Overall, I think the Pittsburgh-based group remains a bit too punk for my taste, but I thoroughly enjoyed their stage presence and show and would highly recommend trying them out.