Brandt Brauer Frick -- U Street Music Hall - Jul 31 2012

Brandt Brauer Frick - I have not been to the U Street Music Hall in quite some time and was enjoying the ambiance far more tonight than in the past. It is a clean, urban, clinical bar and dance hall with thankfully a few stools this time around for us older earlybirds to perch on. After nearly drifting away to the trance music from the house DJ, an electronic trio hits the stage. Fortunately for me, electronics may be the key ingredient, but they feature a full-time drummer and one guy who plays a lot of keyboard. The other guy on knobs and buttons is plenty busy as well as these three cook up an intricate array of sounds. The cool thing about it is that the way they control the dynamic building of the songs. They add volume, pace, and intensity in a mannered pattern to keep people on the edge of their seats or feet. There was plenty of dancing and moving about and the crowd was quite involved with the sounds and sights and not spending a whole lot of time chatting. With the instrumentation and the hearkening back to some of the classic krautrock style, this band pulled a cynic like me into their fold, while delighting the modern electronica fans as well. As they are from Berlin, they probably know this history a lot better than I do. With no breaks, they banged out a great 57-minute set.

Quote of the Night: None, as things were so very quiet aside from the music. But stay tuned for a ton of album reviews posted as soon as I finish up.