For the Love of Local Bands

By Broadside Staff Writer Marian McLaughlin

The Velvet Lounge highlighted the best of local metal acts on last Sunday. This two-story club located on U Street is just right around the corner from the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C.

The first floor is a bar and lounge area, and the stage is upstairs. It generally hosts local bands and traveling, small acts that are on independent record deals.

From time to time, bookers will combine the night with both kinds of musicians. The Velvet Lounge is pretty open to all genres, from metal to folk and acoustic acts.

Within the Lich Gate, a five-piece, metal-rock band from Fairfax, opened up the show at the small venue.

Being local, they had a lot of support from their friends. They combined sludgy and crunchy guitar progressions with speedy riffs and groovy bass lines.

The two guitarists would trade off solos each song, while the drummer and bassist held down a solid rhythm.

Their front man, more of a screamer than a singer, harnessed an incredible amount of energy and spilt it forth into the crowd as he ran about on stage and swirled his dreadlocks about in vicious head bangs.

The show was incredibly important to Within the Lich Gate because they were opening up for the Brooklyn-based band, Dysrhythmia.

The two guitarists of Lich Gate met five years ago at a Dysrhythmia show and always catch the band when they are in town. Dysrhythmia is an endless source of inspiration for them. The band, supported by Relapse Records, has been around for a while and nationally tours a few times a year.

They are very technical and experimental, yet they possess so much raw energy and originality. Each song seems to be plotted out with much thought, almost like a math equation, but when performed live, they seem to just be totally spontaneous.
The band members are professional and have studied music, but confessed that sometimes, they don't even know what they are doing.

Within the Lich Gate is going to be booking more local shows within time, and Dysrhythmia finished up their East Coast tour so that they can now work on their fifth studio album.

More information about each band can be found online at www.myspace.com/dysrhythmiaband and www.myspace.com/withinthelichgate. For more information on The Velvet Lounge and to see the club’s schedule visit www.velvetloungedc.com.