Monday, September 12, 2011

Hopscotch 2011 Day 3: The Caribbean at Tir Na Nog, Shit Horse at Slim's & Unknown Mortal Orchestra at Five Star

All photos by Kevin Norris
While The Flaming Lips played in City Plaza, D.C.-based The Caribbean took the stage to play to an empty Tir na Nog.

The venue was shockingly empty – two people stood in the stage area of the bar – but the band was gracious and professional and handled the situation as best as they could.

It was obvious their hearts weren’t into their performance, but one can’t blame them. It would be unfair to judge The Caribbean based on this performance.

Over at Slim’s I had expected to see The Men, but significant PA issues pushed back their schedule by 30 minutes.

Instead, I saw local punks Shit Horse who solved the amplification issues by blasting everything through the vocal monitors. It was a great “The show must go on!” moment.

Two other moments stand out: Danny Mason’s odd (improvised?) 9/11 tribute poem and, of course, the singing of the Shit Horse anthem (“Shit Horse are gonna ride!”) while a topless woman in a horse mask with a plastic assault rifle works her way through the crowd.

Sound issues also plagued Unknown Mortal Orchestra at Five Star. The band couldn’t get into a groove while the issues persisted and neither could the audience.

Eventually, the band and the sound guy gave up on trying to make the band’s special microphone work, replaced it with regular one and the band was finally able to let loose and get the crowd dancing.

While their music fit well with the vibe at Five Star, the shaky start was too much for Unknown Mortal Orchestra to overcome and the set was lackluster overall.

Unknown Mortal Orchestra


4 comments:

Bmiller Raleigh said...

Gotta disagree with the review of UMO. Once that mic was fixed, they put on a great show. I was in the front and all of us were dancing and having a great time. Maybe the back wasn't feeling as into it, but we were having a blast and thought the musicianship was fantastic. Also, none of them got bitchy about the feedback issues, very impressive.

Ryan said...

I agree with the above, UMO blew me away. Can't wait to see them again.

colemip said...

I'm sure UMO has had better sounding shows, but their set was a blast and I agree that the crowd seemed to really enjoy it (myself included).

Anonymous said...

Not a big crowd, true, but an enthusiastic one, and our heart was most definitely in our performance. I assure you. -Dave, The Caribbean