Nothing better than great music in a super casual setting. U Street Music Hall reminds me of nothing more than my friends’ unfinished basements, where we used to ‘party’ (read: drink precious sips of gin/vodka/etc poured into tupperware from our parent’s liquor cabinets) in high school. Mix that pleasantly dank-but-oddly-comforting setting with great tunes, and you’ve got a good time.
The X Ambassadors and Haerts show was just another success story for U Hall. The enthusiastic crowd was especially of note because U Hall was competing with 9:30 Club who was sponsoring (no big deal) Haim the same night. Despite the competition, U Hall and its bands delivered. X Ambassadors rocked the crowd with several of the band’s hits, most notably Jungle, which can get the froofiest (<– technical term) hipster head banging and jonesing for some camouflage-print skinny jeans.
Haerts, though, stole the show with their unassuming ways and great sound. The band came to the stage about 6 minutes late for their 11 PM set time, making some in the crowd grumble (“Isn’t this a GERMAN band? Punctuality guys, c’MON.”) but those grumbles were soon replaced by cheers. The frontwoman, Nini Fabi, was absolutely exquisite, with a china-doll face and a skin-tight checkered cat suit. So cool. The band rocked its crowd favorites – my particular rock-out moment came during Hemiplegia (which I’ve been listening to on repeat ever since).
Very fun show and super accessible bands. I’d really recommend checking both out.