my brother the welder @ the red and the black (DC)
While traveling, I often check tour schedules to see if bands I like will be playing in the towns I’m going to. It’s worked out pretty well: I’ve seen A Silver Mt. Zion in London, Godspeed! You Black Emperor in Athens and Benni Hemm Hemm with Casiotone for the Painfully Alone in Boston. I didn’t do that this last trip though, but a friend in DC found a show for us to go together. He found this show, it turns out, because he was playing in the backing band of a friend of his.
Up until this point, My Brother the Welder has been one man, Taylor Jenkins, in his bedroom. He’s produced a handful of demos (some of which you can download from the band’s my(brotherthewelder)space) and a new 7″. Last Thursday’s show, the band’s first, served as the release party for the 7″.
The small upstairs room of DC’s the Red and the Black was fairly full with mostly friends and family. There was some nervous energy in the atmosphere, but it didn’t show in the band’s performance. The band’s soft pop folk songs, often reminding me of early New Amsterdams, came across well. The two guitars and Taylor’s voice held down the sound, which was rounded out by glockenspiel, banjo and wurlitzer.
I have to say that for a first performance, I was pretty impressed. Besides the almost entire lack of banter, one wouldn’t have been able to tell that this band hadn’t taken the stage before.
