Ugly Purple Sweater is a ‘homegrown’ DC-band with a narrative style that speaks of far-away, ancient, epic poetry. The quintet blew its audience away at the Kennedy Center on November 30th by performing 50 minutes of pure lyrical masterwork. The band’s inventive and innovative word-play served to do everything from offer DC history lessons to literally tear-inducing stories about relationships and love. Lead singer Sam McCormally played up the hometown advantage, giving a shout-out to his mom and the local haunts all DC’ers know and love. Rachel Lord also contributed beautiful vocals, as well as exhibiting her melodica skills which were quite unexpected (I’m sure they were good as well… but since I’d never seen a melodica played before I have no frame of reference for comparison!). Will McKindley-Ward, Rishi Chakrabarty, and Mike Tasevoli were equally solid as guitar and drums support. Basically, you can tell this group is at-ease and where they should be when on stage. Although the band has traditionally stuck to east coast tours, I hope they expand their presence with the debut of their January 2013 EP. If they end up near you I’d highly recommend stopping by their show.