Tulip Frenzy

If our memory is correct, the first time we saw the Pixies, it was 1990 and they played at the old 930 Club in D.C., with their opening act being this pretty good Seattle band called… what was it?  Oh, yeah.  Nirvana.

(We are sure it was 930, unsure whether Nirvana opened for them or some other band we saw there right about that time.  The Fall?  Wire?)

The old 930 Club was a great place to see a punk band — dank, intimate, the audience of, oh, 400 wrapped around the smallish stage.  The original 930 Club — it moved to its present, ideal location circa 1992 — had a unique odor to it, which lingered in the clothes, such that even in winter, when we would come home from a show, Mrs. Tulip Frenzy usually insisted we leave our clothes on the porch and shower before coming to bed — and still we reeked of that potent cocktail: disinfectant, beer suds, cigarettes.  That stench was the smell of… rock’n’roll.

We indulge in this nostalgia because yesterday, the Pixies announced the dates of their North American tour, which sees them playing at Strathmore in Bethesda.  If the old 930 Club was a ’76 Alfa with a rusted door and a sputtering engine, sexy but cool, the Strathmore is a Coupe de Ville, a luxury boat you’d be embarrassed to be seen in.  It is a luxurious concert hall with ushers even stuffier than the seating.  It is, perhaps, the least rock’n’roll building in America, and we say that having never been to Branson, MO, but imagining just how awful it may be, or how bad it would be to see, say, the Clash play Vegas.

Some time ago, the Who played “Tommy” in opera houses, and there was a certain charm to such a mash-up.  This ain’t that.  This is sad.

This entry was posted on October 9, 2013 at 11:45 am and is filed under Music with tags The Pixies, The Strathmore. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.