Washed Out + Small Black: 11.Mar.10 – Washington D.C.

Washed Out’s Ernest Greene didn’t need any help to accurately render his sample-heavy songs at DC9 on Thursday night. What he did need help with was stage presence. After all, there are few things less engaging than a dude crouched over a table full of samplers and effects pedals. So Greene wisely kept his solo set short, ceding the stage to his tour mates, the groove-heavy synth-pop act Small Black. After a set’s worth of Small Black songs, Greene jumped back on stage and performed a few more Washed Out numbers with Small Black acting as his backing band. With the benefit of a real rhythm section and the stage show that a full band affords, Greene’s technicolor jams proved difficult to resist. It should speak volumes that by the end of the night, the room had turned into a sweat-soaked dance party, a rare occurrence in a town known better for–in the immortal words of the Dismemberment Plan–“doing the standing still”.

Photos by Mehan Jayasuriya