Atomicate Rocks Bethesda

Seeew, I've always been lucky in having lots of rilly cool, rilly talented friends. One of them is Atomicate, who I met whilst singing backup for a local low-cal blues band. She is always in four or five bands at a time, and periodically I get a chance to hear her sing'n'play. This past Sunday I got to see one of the bands she's in, Aubriot, for the first time at Haagen Dasz in Bethesda.

Now, ahem, while it's awesome to have talented friends, er... how to put this? Sometimes, the projects my talented friends are in... I don't enjoy so much. I'm not naming names here or anything, but lets just say when I heard they were playing at Haagen Dasz, I thought perhaps this would be maybe not so good. Location, location, location, after all, and I say this as someone who's seen and participated in her share of converted-warehouse-space-coffee-house-open-mic shenanigans.

I felt a little better when I got to Bethesda. This particular part of it - Woodmont Road near Wisconsin Ave - is quite happening in an urban pedestrian mall kind of way. Lots of pricey chain restaurants, lots of folks moseying around, etc. In other words, the kind of area where one might very well expect to enjoy some quality music along with some quality ice cream.

Let me cut to the chase here - Aubriot is REALLY good. I totally dug it and would definitely hear them again, and At first I thought they were doing covers that I just hadn't heard - but turns out, they write their own stuff. And um, it's rilly rilly good. Like, for real. They play poppy rock (poppyrock!) with a tendency towards the sad'n'wistful. They've got a kick-ass drummer, a bass player with chops, and a lead guitarist who can actually play guitar. There didn't seem to be any ego - everyone was working together for each song. It sounds like such a simple formula, right? But come on, we all know it's a rare combination. Also, and not that I'm shallow, but everyone in the band was pretty darn cute to boot. Holla!

As the band was setting up they got the usual semi-hostile stare-down from the locals walking by. A funny thing happened when they started playing though - people walking by stopped and listened. The most amusing thing to watch was the little kids walking with their folks. They would stop and stare, all 'what is this strange thing?' and then they would smile and stand. Parents would stop and be all, 'c'mon, we gotta go meet Gramma at Jaleo' and the kids'd be all, 'No way! I must stay and rock out!' It was pretty cute.

Unfortunately, this being an outdoor show, it did rain a bit. They played through and no one got electromocuted, so whew! And um, I shan't go into the older lady with herpes who sat down next to me and kept pointing out the sore on her lip to me and then said, 'is that the drummer? That's what I like - drummers.' Uh huh. Staying away from drummers now. Got it.

Other good things - the sound quality was good, like all the levels were matched and not too loud and not too quiet, and I could actually hear the words, which I loved, cuz that's also kind of rare. I will say that the drummer was debating whether to use sticks or those whisk things that are not as loud as sticks, and I'd thought they'd go with whisks cuz it was a small outdoor venue - but then after they'd started playing the Haagen Dasz people had to come out and tell them not to use the sticks. Ha ha, drummers. Also, there was some banter from Atomicate. She told her chemistry joke. I'm not gonna tell you it, because then you won't think it's funny when you go to hear them. Suffice to say if you're following the Large Hadron Collider antics, you'll laugh at Atomicate's joke.

Anyway, my point is, they'll be playing again on November 2nd, and I plan to be there, fo' sho'. Aubriot. Good stuff!