Jock Rock

Washington

My decision over what to do last night was made very easy when I found out Dogs Die In Hot Cars were playing just a few blocks from the hostel at the 9:30 Club. It's a great venue, similar in size and layout to the LA2/Mean Fiddler in London. To me the wisdom of booking Dogs Die in places like that over here seems a bit strange as they'd probably only just manage to fill similar venues in Scotland, and struggle to in England. Sure enough, they gave up selling tickets for last night's show and let everyone in free, but there was still a lousy turnout.

The support was Delegate, a competent lot from Richmond, Virginia. It was good to hear some decent playing and singing although they could just have put "The Bends" on and saved everyone the effort. Dogs Die have two songs of genuine top quality and they threw "Godhopping" in second, presumably to try to lift the sparse crowd of hipsters. They at least managed to get a few toes tapping by the time they played the fantastic "I Love You Cause I Have To" which came near the end. I'd not heard it in four months and it still sounds like the best time you ever had. And then it was all over, a good if short (40 minutes, no encore) set enjoyed by far too few.

As the band packed away their stuff themselves (bless 'em) I was lamenting this with a girl from Boston, reviewing the show for the local student rag. We chatted amiably for ten minutes about obscure British indie bands until I mentioned in passing I had a girlfriend. Within a minute she made an excuse and buggered off. Are all American girls like that? Maybe just the stuck up northeastern ones.