Sing Sing Sing

Monday night I returned to one of my old-time favorites in DC: the 9:30 Club. The 9:30 Club is a live-music venue where I have seen the likes of Garbage, Blur, Moby, Fat Boy Slim, Thievery Corporation, Gotan Project, and others during my five years of living in DC. I found out last week that Travis were playing there on Monday and given that that's where I had seen them last live in concert (after their album 12 Memories came out), decided it would be a good thing to see them there again. Also even before leaving DC last year, I hadn't been to the 9:30 Club in a looong time, so it was indeed a welcome opportunity. The concert was amazing! I had enjoyed their last live appearance, but if I have to rate it on a scale of 1-10, that was a 7, while this one was definitely a 10! The guys just seemed a lot more full of life, Fran (the vocalist) was making conversation with the crowd the whole time, and they played all of my favorite songs! :) Some of the amusements of the night included the band coming out to the music of Rocky wearing boxing robes, making their way through the crowd from the back to the stage; Fran shouting out to the guy backstage to hand out water to the crowd because "it is bloody hot here", and Andy (the guitarist) climbing up the speakers to the second-story balcony to "rock out" on his guitar from up high. Oh, and they ended the encore with an awesome cover of AC/DC's Back in Black. Fran really pulled the voice off--pretty impressive! I haven't felt that positive and full of energy after a concert in a while. So, if Travis are playing in a city near you, go check them out. Or, you can also listen to songs from their new album, The Boy With No Name, at myspace or to a recording of the 9:30 show at NPR's Web site (not the highest quality sound, but still).