Thu 6 Sep – Icon Of Coil

Been a while since we've been to a show at this venue. In fact, the last show we went to was when it was still Jaxx (indeed, when I tried to check in on one of my social apps, "Jaxx" is still findable but "Empire" isn't yet). At any rate, the name's changed but little about the venue has.

Was a mostly decent lineup.

First band (forgot their name, already) was kinda dreadful. They kind of looked like Severus Snape had decided to try his hand as a lead singer for an electro…

Sun 17 Oct – The Halloween Hootenanny

Gates opened way too early - far earlier than guests started showing up in any number and earlier than many of the "exhibits".

Alice Cooper put on his usual good show. He's amazing for being nearly as old as my dad would be, this year.

Zombie was excellent as usual. I can only wonder what he thinks of the lameness of DC crowds, though. I mean, pit was full but almost no one was dancing. Everyone was too busy watching the damned show through the viewfinders of their cell phones and digicams and…

Sun 22 Aug – Animalia Tour

So many times I go to industrial shows, after listening to a band (or bands) on Last.FM, I find myself rather disappointed by what I see when I get there. There's so many "2 guys and their MacBook Pro" acts out there. Both Android Lust and MKIO are notable exceptions. They're full bands that put on a good performance.

The only thing that made this show less enjoyable than it could otherwise have been was the sound quality. The sound at Fur nightclub is EXTREMELY harsh. They need to put it some kind of…

Tue 15 Jun – Concrete Blonde: 20 Years of Bloodletting

This was a pretty decent show. I'd been a big Concrete Blonde fan back when they were touring in the early 90s. Hadn't seen them since they'd played in DC in, like, 1994 (or thereabouts). Hadn't realized that the reason I hadn't seen them was that they'd broken up (several times) and retired.

I kinda figured this was going to be another one of those "we're touring because we're broke" things that a LOT of old indie/punk/etc. bands have been reconstituting to do the past several years. Surprisingly, this didn't…