Naked Pictures of Your Mother - Electric Six and Local H at The Black Cat Washington DC...

I finally made my way out to Dave Grohl's bar, The Black Cat, on 14th Street in Washington DC two nights ago. My bandmates had turned me on to a band from Detroit called Electric Six, and they happened to be playing there last night. It also happened to be my birthday (happy birthday to me), so why not have a night on the town? It was a cool little place. I'd definitely go back. We missed the first band (The Golden Dogs, I believe), but walked in as Local H had started their set. I liked "Bound for the Floor" when it was getting airplay back in the mid-90's, so it was very cool to see that live. The rest of the set sounded good too, so I was glad to get a chance to catch most of it. I could definitely see myself getting into more of their music...12 years after they're 15 minutes of fame. I seem to have a knack of doing that. Anyway, they finished up. Now for the fun part... Electric Six comes out, and hilarity ensues. The band has this sound that I can only explain as disco-rock. It's fun, it's easy to dance to, but it legitimately rocks at the same time. So they come out dressed in suits. Singer, Dick Valentine, comes out wearing a red cape. The band rocks out the first song, and I must have blinked because all of a sudden, Valentine is wearing a different cape. They start playing "It's Showtime!" and everytime he sings "It's Showtime," he turns his back to the audience where "SHOWTIME" is spelled out in big, sparkly letters. That pretty much set the tone for the show. After seeing this performance, I think Dick Valentine made his way toward the top of my list of favorite frontmen. He was a ton of fun to watch; definitely a character, with the dance moves to-boot. A couple songs later, the band moved into one of my personal favorite Electric Six songs, "Down at McDonnelzz," followed by "Gay Bar." A few other songs the set included were "The Future is in the Future," "Dance Commander," "Dance Epidemic," "Danger! High Voltage," (sans Jack White), "Future Boys," "I Buy the Drugs," "Improper Dancing," and "She's White." Unfortunately they did not play "Naked Pictures of Your Mother" or "Infected Girls," but seriously, the show was a blast without them. The band finished their set and came back out for an encore, at which point Valentine informed us that Electric Six "did not come there to play 13 songs, they came there to play 17 songs." They proceeded to play 2 new songs - "Formula 409" and "Gay Bar part two," another song I knew at the time but forget now (sorry, I'm a drunk), and closed with "Six Germans in Mexico." Em managed to snap off a few shots before her camera died. You can check out our Flickr photostream for pictures from the show. It was pretty dark at the Black Cat, but they're clear enough.

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