Be my guide: Local rock music in Washington, D.C.

The second day of my two-week, reader-guided road trip from New York to Los Angeles landed me in the nation’s capital. Reader Dave Mann wrote in to suggest I stop at the Black Cat to see his band, Mittenfields, play a show with two other rock groups.

Having been a student for years at the University of Maryland, just a few miles from Washington, D.C., I didn’t consider sightseeing a priority. I had been living and breathing Washington for years. So live music was the only thing on my agenda for the day.

I was happy to take Mann’s suggestion because I had seen Mittenfields play in Washington before. They’re a tight group with indie rock roots that apparently stem from underground sensations like Modest Mouse and Broken Social Scene. With layered and reverbed guitars accompanied by synthesizer, they produce an up-and-down “wall of sound” rock.

“Because we’ve been playing with all these local bands, I’ve gotten to hear a lot of good music that I didn’t know was being made,” said Mittenfields guitarist Sam Sherwood.  Washington is unlike other big cities, like New York, Los Angeles or Austin, Texas, Sherwood said, because “there’s not really a scene” for musicians to convene at.

Still, the twenty- and thirty-somethings mesh well . The place wasn’t very crowded —not unusual for a Tuesday night in the practically nonexistent Washington music scene.

I missed the two other acts on the bill, Vox Pop and We Were Pirates. However, patrons were buzzing about their sets. Some were also talking about Monday’s Metro train crash that claimed at least nine lives. I elected to take a taxi rather than public transportation to hop from place to place.

Earlier in the night, I met up with my two college roommates and a few other friends at a sports bar on Dupont Circle, called Buffalo Billiards. The place had a nice atmosphere and an excessive number of pool tables.

The late-night music options after the Black Cat show were sparse. Beyonce,  performing an hour away in Baltimore, seems to be following me around. And then there was Ryan Cabrera at the Jammin’ Java in Vienna. They are both awful.

A couple of friends and I ultimately made our way into Adams Morgan, where there was barely a pulse in one of the hottest bar districts in the city. Resolute, we wandered into the fullest hookah bar in the vicinity, a place called Tangier Lounge, where three tables of young people were puffing flavored tobacco inside.

Marc Gimbel, one of my college roommates, took this as an opportunity to exercise the Arabic he had been learning using the late-night infomercial staple, Rosetta Stone. He mumbled something in the language to our waiter. “What did I say?” Gimbel asked.

“The cat is in the house,” the waiter said hesitantly.

Gimbel again said something similar in Arabic. “What did I say?”

“The dog is in the house,” the waiter shouted as if he were performing a cover of the song “Who Let the Dogs Out.”

Gimbel muttered another Arabic phrase.

“The fish is in the house,” the waiter said less enthusiastically before walking to the back room.

We sampled a rose hookah, and Gimbel ordered a Turkish coffee, which he didn’t give a very shining review. When the waiter returned, he spouted off some questions in Arabic. “Understand?” he asked Gimbel.

“No,” Gimbel said despondently. “I can say, ‘The man is eating the sandwich.’ I can only say irrelevant things.”

We went on to make fun of the Middle Eastern music that was playing over the speakers. Gimbel belted out the “ai-ee’s” harmoniously with the Arabic pop singer. When we left, the waiters seemed somehow relieved.

After my taste of Washington rock Tuesday, I’m heading to Cleveland, home of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame today. Let’s hope there’s not another private party at this location like there was Monday in New York.

To provide travel tips, send e-mails to mark.milian@latimes.com, leave comments on this blog or, for those on Twitter, send tweets to @mmilian.” To follow my road trip status live, visit http://twitter.com/mmilian. For the trip schedule and cities, check out my earlier posts.

– Mark Milian, Los Angeles Times staff writer

[Photo: Mittenfields perform at the Black Cat. Credit: Mark Milian / Los Angeles Times]

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 24, 2009 at 10:17 am by Mark Milian and is filed under Arts & Culture, Be My Guide, California, Los Angeles, Summer, Travel Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.