Fear and Loathing in DC

Me being me, I read fluxblog to find out what is crack-a-lacking in my own backyard. The 150+ comments on this post at DCist discuss Norfolk & Western's fear and loathing in Northwest DC. While they paled in comparison to some of Metro D's brighter nights on the town, the comment section has gotten real interesting. Here's the post in the Local Cut that started it all:

Washington DC proved to be a less pleasant experience for all of us. DC is not the safest city in the world to begin with, and according to my sources, the club we played at was located in a particularly bad area. The guy running sound at the club was hands down the worst soundman any of us have ever worked with. He obviously didn't give a flying fuck about making it sound good and actually alternated between seeming annoyed and laughing at us when we demanded unreasonable things like, oh, turning the microphones on, or turning down the bass. During Corrina's set, Joe looked like he was either going to kill somebody or cry. After the show, as we were loading out our equipment, our van was surrounded by what I can only assume were six or seven gang members complete with bandanas and masks over their faces. They just stood there, staring at us shoving thousands of dollars worth of equipment into the van piece by piece. A couple of them even leaned up against the van, casually smoking cigarettes. Corrina got pissed off and said, 'You guys want some of this shit?' to which one of them replied, 'Fuck yeah, I want some of this shit. I've got thirty years, bitch.' They didn't leave, even after all of the gear had been loaded into the van. I've never been so happy to leave a city in my life.

The icing on the cake? We got paid twelve dollars for the gig.

xo,

Dave

Dave, I know it was DC, and it was dark and they were dressed in gang colors, but you guys roll seven deep and pack a plethora of foreign objects that can be used to your advantage. I mean, look at the size of that - what is that - a trumpet crossed with a tuba? You could really lay a beating down with that. And who's that hiding in the shadows packing an accordian? Damn! Another thing that has me guessing...when Corrina asked "you guys want some of this shit?" was she referring to "twee pop," as in "you want some of this 'twee pop' madness?...muthafucka?"

All jokes aside, the comments at the DCist seem to suggest several things: 1. DC can be scary when you are in a certain place, at a certain time, 2. some people are racist, 3. the sound guy at DC9 is a dick and doesn't like loud music, and 4. Norfolk & Western won't be breaking that ass off on some twee pop madness in DC anytime soon. With the thug on band crimewave currently sweeping the nation/world (most recently Subtle in Barcelona) I completely understand what's running through Norfolk & Western's head when someone's hovering around their van at 2 AM. While I can't personally speak for the quality of the sound guy at DC9, I can say there are times when DC is a little shadier than I want it to be. But, it's a city, and that's the way life is. It's not an excuse, just the truth. I would hate to think that DC is the worst place they've been, but it wouldn't surprise me or upset me. I guess it's too bad that this band sparked this type of reaction. The chance of them coming back anytime soon is pretty much severed and that message board has exposed some sad realities about people in general.