[Concert] Suckers @ DC9 (9/27)

Summer is gone and with it the outdoor party. And with that goes the certain joy of a drunken, late-night sing-along. With my friends this typically amounts to little more than a cacophonous mix of clumsy guitars, mumbled vocals, banging beer bottles and the cries of sleepless dissenters. However, there are those singular moments where everything magically coalesces into something wonderful, to our ears at least. The intoxicated joy of a night well spent channeled into one brief moment of musical fucking genius! If you were able to capture the energy of that moment and stretch it out over an hour-long set, it would be a lot like a Suckers show.

Suckers are most often compared to Yeasayer, I think almost entirely because they both love to sing choruses or even full verses in unison (and because Anand Wilder produced their EP). Harmonies be damned, just a bunch of guys belting it out together. I've seen both bands live now, and maybe it was just the intimate setting of this club, but I think Suckers have their predecessors beat in this regard. The moment around the 1:00 mark of "Afterthoughts & TV", the show opener, when all four of the guys jump in on top of a thumping drumkick, might be the best live introduction to a band I have ever had.

Their raucous, ramshackle energy is so immediately appealing it is impossible not to be won over. I have played the hell out of Suckers EP and was expecting relatively good things from the onset, but brought along a friend who was brand new to them. Even for her, the appeal was instant. The multiple sound issues, breaking equipment and a somewhat lackluster turnout only added to the appeal. A great party sing-along is never pretty, put who gives a damn when it is this much fun.

mp3:Suckers - Afterthoughts & TV