The bass was loud, and the DJs played dance-worthy beats, but the crowd was packed in towards the front by the stage, completely “Rapture-ready” for the sold-out show at U Street Music Hall.
Some hail In the Grace of Your Love as The Rapture’s “revival,” but no revival is stronger than the post-punk revival inspired by the band in 2000. Often compared to Gang of Four with vocals that tinge on the gothic wailing of The Cure, The Rapture packed U Hall on a Sunday night.
As they opened with “Sail Away,” the first track on 2011’s In the Grace of You’re Love, I admit a slight tremor of fear overtook me as I prepared myself for a set heavy on tracks from this album. Nevertheless, Luke Jenner’s Robert Smith-tinted vocals rocketed the audience along a well-crafted set of gems mined from each album the Rapture has released since the early 2000s.
By this point, I’d moved to the very back of the room, as I was literally being crushed by this obnoxious girl in front of me. She was almost having a seizure of joy and would have flattened me like a pancake if I’d let her. Unfortunately for me, I was not being lifted up by the grace of any love for her whatsoever.
Suddenly Jenner asks for less lights on stage, and the mood gets all intimate. The boys are jazzed to be in DC, considering a couple members are originally from here, and there is no doubt in anyone’s mind that we are jazzed to have them. The crowd is ecstatic as “Get Myself Into It” erupts, and all hands and arms are in the air.
(I might have thrown my hands in the air, only to bring my pen down like a vampire stake into the back of some chick’s arm. I’m really sorry about that btw, my bad. I was a bit frightened for my life when she turned around to give me a death stare, but the Rapture were enough distraction to ward off any evil.)
Cowbell-crazy and dance-centric, they played a few songs off of Echoes including “Echoes,” “I Need Your Love,” “House of Jealous Lovers” (of course), and “Olio,” which if I remember correctly lead right into “In the Grace of Your Love,” but I could be remembering it that way because I wanted to hear that song right then and there. To be totally honest, this review is a hazy recollection because I was dancing too hard to jot down very good notes. The Rapture just has that all-encompassing effect. As their name implies, we were all lifted up, a collective of dancing converts to their “Resurrection.”
