standing back up

Sure, it’s been a few months, but you knew a music thing would bring me back.

Last night I saw JD McPherson just down the road from the Round Table at the State Theatre. It was a bit criminal that the house wasn’t packed to overflowing – he’s shortly to play the big room at First Avenue so that’s indicative of where he’s at, popularity-wise, on the Todd music spectrum. He’s difficult to classify because you immediately take the easy route and say he’s a new wave Brian Setzer, but the fact is that he’s more rock n’ roll than rockabilly and I think his draw will be much broader. I have an inkling that he’s the next big Americana-alt-rock artist to hit the big time, most likely within the next year; it doesn’t take long. As an example, Mumford & Sons went from being the most accessible of the string band artists within a small chunk of the musical spectrum to being about the biggest band in the world. JD probably won’t get to that level, but huge exposure is on the immediate horizon. The show was stunning on all levels – crowd, music, atmosphere. Unfortunately, one of the issues with tickets was the State’s mediocre recognition amongst the D.C. area venues – I don’t think they often pull from beyond the greater Falls Church area. JD will be back in a bigger D.C. room at some point early next year. He, and his band, is better live but here’s a quick shot. (P.S. Jimmy Sutton is easily the best and coolest bass player to ever walk the land.)

L. did a number of college visits last week: Mary Washington, U. of Richmond, and UVa. We are also doing Goucher (Baltimore) and the New School (NYC) this weekend. She was also up and at ‘em early on Saturday morning to take her SAT at Yorktown High. I dropped her off at 7:30am and can safely report that I’ve never seen so many slack-eyed teens wandering about on a Saturday morning. Not a single one looked like some hard-charging Tracy Flick. I think half of them still were in their pajamas.

We are set for election blackout tomorrow night: a special pizza and double feature night (Princess Bride and MP and the Holy Grail). We’ll awake Wednesday AM and get on with life.

It’s been a few months, but I’m back in the saddle.