Review & photos by Jake Masters
If you’re a local to Washington, DC or the metro area, chances are you’ve heard of Fort Reno. If you haven’t, you’re really missing out. This summer, from June to August, there’s a free concert on every Monday and Thursday night at Fort Reno Park in Northwest DC. In the past years, such acts as Fugazi and The Dismemberment Plan, DC natives, have graced the stage.
The opening band at this show was Partyline, a three-piece girl band. Well, make that woman band because all three looked to be in their 30’s. They played simple three-chord punk-y stuff and every song had a line with “partyline” or at least one of the member’s names in it. That was a little annoying. The singer and guitarist each wore a bathing suit and the singer showed the audience her granny panties underneath her suit on more than one occasion. Intentionally or not, this got a few complaints and a lot of laughs from people in the crowd. This really seemed to be their first show.
Now onto the main attraction: Q and Not U, a local band with a steadily growing following. A groupie of Partyline had thrown a bunch of beach balls into the crowd during their set and people were bouncing them around all over the place. A few even landed on the stage and almost knocked a mic over. Q and Not U’s lead singer batted them back into the audience absent-mindedly. When the band came on-stage, they quickly addressed the issue: “We’re going to treat this like a high school graduation. We’re your principal. You don’t want to hit your principal, right?” This got a lot of laughs from the crowd.
The first song of their set was pretty slow, but after that the pace picked up. This was my first time seeing or hearing Q’, so I didn’t really know what to expect. To describe the sound, I’d have to say they sound a bit like The Talking Heads mixed with Fugazi, but that description really doesn’t do justice at all.
After a few songs, I realized how talented the band members are and how diverse their sound is. The lead singer (or equivalent; the band really has two singers) besides guitar and bass, played shakers, wood blocks, midi keyboard, and even a little toy that you had to blow into as you played. Very interesting. The other singer played guitar, bass, keyboard, and a drum machine, while the drummer just played his kit, but that was more than enough. The energy throughout the songs was frenetic and tangible. It really felt like you could just grab it out of the air, like one of the lightning bugs that were buzzing around everywhere.
Q and Not U played for a good hour and a half with about 15 songs. The band seems to be very liberal, or at least anti-Bush, as they said that next summer when they play Fort Reno for their seventh time it will be without rain and hopefully under a new president.
Seeing this show definitely made me a new fan of Q and Not U. If you’re ever in NW DC during the summer months, make it a point to see a show at Fort Reno. It’s free. It also runs on a volunteer basis, so buy a t-shirt too, so they can pay the bills and keep the music going for many years to come.