It ain’t often that I know ahead of time that I probably won’t be staying for the headlining band and yet am still willing to make the trip down to DC when I know I should be doing something better. Granted, I’m making the 20 minute metro ride to the Black Cat sound like an odyssey, but what can I say, I’m lazy like that. But these were two opening bands I was very eager to see.

The first band up was THE EXPLOSION. I saw these guys about a year and a half ago for the first time. Back then, all I knew was that they were playing a hardcore show and they had an ex-IN MY EYES member or two. Well, you can imagine my surprise when they played pretty much straight up punk rock. Sure, there was a breakdown or two, but certainly nothing that you could mosh it up to. Anyways, sometime between then and now I had picked up their awesome album “”Flash Flash Flash”" and they have been a band that I’ve been looking forward to seeing again for a long time. And they did not disappoint. They kicked it off with “”True or False”" and continued to play mostly off the aforementioned album, as well as throwing in some stuff off their two EPs. The Explosion were just full of energy from start to finish in spite of the lack of excitement given off by the crowd. I wasn’t sure how everyone else was liking the set, but I was loving it. Their singer Matt managed to keep me entertained during and between songs, whether it was his on stage conversations with God or his impromptu ode to Washington DC (well, ok, that didn’t go over too well).

The only thing that sucked about THE EXPLOSION’s set was when he tried using the bullhorn. Now, I’m not sure exactly what kind of aural experience he was hoping to create by sticking a bullhorn up to a mic, but unless it was creating massive distortion, it failed miserably. They offered to play an unrehearsed cover song without their new drummer really having any idea how to play it, but unfortunately, just before they were about to work their way through it, the sound man informed them there was only time for one more song. Now, the crowd had been mostly quiet up to this point, until they started playing their closer “”No Revolution”" when, out of nowhere, everyone started going crazy. At some point during this anthem poor Matt got dragged from the relative safety of the stage and into the crowd. Now I swear this guy couldn’t have been more than 110 pounds, and if it wasn’t for the tattoos on pretty much every exposed part of his skin and the corona in his hand, I would have sworn he was about 14 years old. Well, regardless, he managed to survive, and even hold on to the mic for a good 3/4 of the song – it was awesome.

While things were being set up for the INTERNATIONAL NOISE CONSPIRACY there was some god awful DJ playing. Now this was something new to the Black Cat and something I hope I never have to endure again. Fortunately he did not say much, cajoling us to cheer on THE EXPLOSION and stick around for the other bands in one of the best Pee Wee Herman impression voices I ever heard, and occasionally plugging some upcoming goth music night or something. I’m not really sure, I tried to block him out as much as possible. Anyways, and it couldn’t come soon enough for me, eventually INC were ready to start. The five members came out looking very business like in matching jeans, buttoned up jean jackets, and black turtlenecks. I’m not really sure how to describe these guys. A bit of punk, a bit of mod, some garage, some blues, some just plain old rock. Whatever it was, the majority of the crowd seemed quite taken with them, myself included. My familiarity with their newest cd Survival Sickness gave me the advantage over most of the crowd who did not seem to be the least bit familiar with this Swedish band. As seems to be the norm in DC, in spite of the huge rounds of applause they were getting after each song, there was not much in the way of boogeying down, or whatever it is you’re supposed to do when bands like this play. Later, I overheard their merch guy bitching about how much the crowd sucked, and I couldn’t really disagree with him. Just like THE EXPLOSION, these guys were full of energy and the singer Dennis did some of the coolest stuff with his body and with the mic that I’d seen since AT THE DRIVE IN. The one thing that really held me back from liking these guys before the show was that they never really seemed to cut loose. I know Dennis is from the REFUSED and the other members have been in various other bands, so it’s not a question of talent. Whatever the case is, they seemed much heavier live, and Dennis let out some of the most primal screams I’ve heard this side of CAVE-IN. However, the INC is not just out to make music to dance to, anyone the least bit familiar with them will tell you it is politics first with these guys. Pretty much all their songs have lyrics about revolution and radical ideas, and without becoming too preachy they encouraged the crowd to find out more about the upcoming demonstrations against the FTAA in Quebec.

ROCKET FROM THE CRPYT was coming up next but since I can never remember how late the metro runs, I cleared out. But that’s ok, I definitely got my money’s worth out of these two bands, and I’d probably be saying that even if I wasn’t on the guest list.