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Even though I was sick I still ventured out to the 9:30 Club, one of the premiere clubs in the Washington D.C. area, Monday night and saw the Juliana Theory and Further Seems Forever with a couple thousand cell phone toting teenagers. Lots of really good touring bands come through that club, and tonight was one of those good tours. 

The first band was a chic led band from Boston called Damone; Pop-Rock that brought to mind Joan Jett. The singer, Noelle, was good with the guitar and the vocals. They put out a nice rock show. 

Next Further Seems Forever came out and rocked. To my ear, they seemed to be having sound trouble, though; lead singer Jason Gleason's mic was in and out, muffled, and I couldn't hear him over the music. That was a drag but the set was good, as was the band.

The Juliana Theory is so good. They came on to some sound problems too, however. The bass player had to go through a bunch of cords and set ups before he was ready but while they were getting him set, the rest of the band had already come on and they improvised some ambient/feedback stuff until all things were ready to rock. Their set was a lot of the new stuff, and the new stuff is good. Brett Detar, the front man/ lead singer, cut his hair and plays more guitar than he used to, thereby cutting down his activity and antics on stage. He pretty much had to stay in one area. That was good news and bad news. He's good with the guitar and filled out the sound quite a bit, but he was more fun throwing his hair around and running back and forth around the stage. Their set ended up sounding fine and was the clear best show of the night. I'm a fan.

Most of the text messaging stopped and the teenage heads popped up as the lights came alive and the sounds of the Who's "Baba O'Riley" introduced the night's stars. The headliners were The Ataris, a punk-pop band from California. The singer, Kris Roe, is a left handed guitar player with a blonde "flock of seagulls" hair cut; long in the front and all brushed toward the tip of his nose. Unfortunately the music hit me in the nose too... Although they seem to be the flavor of the week, I'd just shorten that phrase to just "weak." The music was like a MXPX or Good Charlet without the charisma and the talent. I left after about five or so of the three-minute songs before my opinion of the night changed.