Dark Meat/Vomit Lasers Family Band - The Red & the Black - June 10 2009

The afternoon began with me getting an early start to beat rush hour traffic out of DC and get to Vienna, Virginia to see Luka Bloom, a classic Irish folker. I was surprised at the traffic trying to get onto Constitution and begin heading west and took a U-turn only to get into another jam. Fortunately I had the radio on NPR and I hear about the shooting by some archaic white supremacist who this planet had to suffer with for 88 years. So, another U-turn and I got out of the way of traffic through several road closures and a bridge closure. But there was another good show, closer to home, so off I went...

Dark Meat/Vomit Lasers Family Band - Actually two of this band opened with another guitarist whose name I failed to catch. It was a nice set with a George Clinton cover and several other psyche-rock jams. But Mr. Soundman, next time watch the painful vocal bursts. I mean, there was only one guitar amp mic'ed along with one vocal mic. How hard can it be?

The full, and I mean full band hit the stage later. Well, the trumpeter stood in front of the stage, but the other seven members were there. I was worried when the singer/guitarist didn't really explain how many microphones they needed until the bass player got there. It started pretty messy, but decent and then it all sort of made sense by the next song. There was the trumpet with a faint piccolo, and trombone (also doubled with keys and percussion) in addition to 2 guitars, bass, drums, backup vocals. Kind of a post-rock sixties psyche-garage band sound. Very reminiscent of a band I enjoyed a lot called the Linus Pauling Quartet. Raucous, unique and lots of fun. A really fun band I will go see again anytime they come through.

Quote of the Night: After explaining to the booker/money taker that Luka Bloom's loss was his gain tonight, he said that yeah, someone dies like that and bridges and roads lock down and someone dies on this side of town (Northeast) and nobody blinks...