Bands Play Hyped-Up Show at Coffee Shop

Story by Broadside Correspondent Ian Crocker

This St. Patty’s Day, while all my friends were out drinking pints of Guinness, I chose to celebrate the patron saint with some different substances: caffeine and punk rock.

After a short trip on the metro, I jumped off the train and made my way over to Murky Coffee, a first rate coffee shop and popular venue for DIY shows in the Clarendon neighborhood of Arlington.

On this particular evening, several bands from the D.C. area and beyond were set to play. These included Ingrid, a two-piece band from the District, Suis la Lune, from Sweden, and Virginia’s very own Fine Lines.

I grabbed myself a soy latte and watched people amass out in front of the building; band members and show-goers alike were hanging out in anticipation, waiting for the show to begin.

After everyone made their way to the Murky upstairs, the bands quickly set up and got to jamming out in front of a crowd that grew over the course of the evening.

The first band to get things started was Suis la Lune, a screamo band from Sweden, who currently on a brief tour of the East Coast.

The four-piece group kicked things off with their signature mathy, stop-and-go stylings complete with intertwining guitars and heartfelt screams courtesy of Henning, the lead singer.

The crowd really got into it when the band broke into one of their most popular songs, “Fingers. Voice. Heart. Shake. Shake. Shake,” from their 2006 album Quiet, Pull the Strings!

Over swirling guitars, the heartfelt vocalist shouted, “I guess it would hurt like knives to say that you are just too shy to tell me that you don't want me around.”

Judging from the crowd of around 50 people who seemed captivated at the least by the band’s passionate delivery, everybody wanted this Scandinavian band around for as long as possible.

The next band up on stage, or in this case a dark corner in front of two large fogged-up windows, was Fine Lines, a melodic hardcore outfit hailing from Virginia.

The four-piece group is comprised of members from Richmond and Northern Virginia and has gained a decent following in the area for their jagged instrumentation and frantic live shows.

Fresh off the craziness of the previous set, the sweaty crowd got right back to dancing when Fine Lines busted into songs from their most recent demo.

Between the in-your-face vocals of lead singer and guitarist Alex Attas, who sounds a lot like a young Wes Eisold of the band American Nightmare, and the frenzied bass work from Ian Mills, there was no doubt that Fine Lines left most people with their ears ringing by the end of the set.

After flying through a mix of old and new songs, the band finished up their set with the familiar favorite “Oh, the Things You Do,” an urgent number whose anti-consumerist lyrics were punctuated by frantic strumming by guitarist Ilya Lavrenov and booming percussion from drummer Cory Chubb.

After the set, the crowd and bands alike exhaled and went outside into the breezy March night to cool off; back inside the final band set up in the dimly lit room amongst excited chatter.

Ingrid, a guitar and drum combo, not to be confused with watered down duos such as the White Stripes, were the final band to play. Instead of radio-friendly pop songs, the duo kicked out the jams akin to the organized chaos of Slint, complete with pulsating distortion from guitarist Joey D and passionate drum work via Ashley A.

Once they clenched their teeth into the performance, they did not really let go, and as the band got into heavy grooves and wild shrieks during their set, heads began to bang in the crowd as the energy of the room reached new heights.

The band finished up on a high note by performing the self-titled track off their album Tryangle, in which they seamlessly transitioned from crunching guitar riffs to a bouncy outro filled with string tapping and rhythmic drumming that really highlighted the chemistry and cohesiveness between the members of the band.

After the music had ceased for the evening, I took a moment to reflect on the onslaught that had just occurred; and as I stared down at Wilson Boulevard, full of drunken revelers, I realized that on a special day like this all you need to have a good time are some righteous jams and a tight-knit community to go along with it.