All Photos: Sarah Gormley
Last Friday at 9:30 Club, DC’s own rock royalty U.S. Royalty hit the stage in their first headlining show there. Charismatic frontman John Thornley was the picture of androgynous excess in faux fur, sequins, and reptile cowboy boots. With this and his usual wild gyrations, Thornley was reminiscent of a rock star from another era as he launched into “Hollywood Hollows” and then “Fool to Love (Like I Do)” from their debut full length Mirrors, released last January.
Later, as they played “the first song we ever wrote,” the summer anthem “Every Summer” from the Midsommar EP, I was reminded of one of the first times I saw this band, when they opened for The Almighty Defenders (King Khan, BBQ, and members of the Black Lips) a few years ago at Maxwell’s in Hoboken. It was the Sunday after CMJ, so it was not surprising that the crowd showed up late, exhausted from a week-long overindulgence of late night shows.
While the venue was packed for the headliner, U.S. Royalty opened to perhaps four people. It didn’t matter, as I distinctly remember that Thornley was a pink-shirted (and back then, he had a beard) whirling phenom, jumping off the stage and surprising the couple of us standing up front and not at the bar.
Some things don’t change; U.S. Royalty always brings a high energy performance, whether playing to four people at Maxwell’s, to an early, expectant crowd at this year’s Sweetlife Festival at Merriweather Post Pavilion, or to a 9:30 Club filled with their biggest fans last Friday. Also, although they are all a bit more glam than they used to be, with bassist Jacob Michael rocking some feathers in his resplendent curls, they’ve all always loved those cowboy boots.
Since that Hoboken performance, the band has matured and progressed along the path to mainstream success. The original four-piece, which, along with Thornley and Michael, includes drummer Luke Adams and guitarist Paul Thornley, John’s brother, was joined by a keyboardist and a percussionist, allowing for a fuller sound.
However, there were a few glitches in this department throughout the night, as at one point, there was a strange, crescendo-ing, dubby interlude, and then later, John Thornley was forced to grab first Jacob Michael’s mic when his own malfunctioned, and then his brother Paul’s mic when Jacob’s stopped working. Unfazed, this was all handled with the ease of pro.
During crowd favorite (and my own personal favorite) “Monte Carlo,” local hip hop artist Phil Adé jumped on stage for a cameo, as U.S. Royalty is sampled on “Monte Carlo Dreams” off his A Different World mixtape. When Thornley throws the ring of white roses from his cowboy hat into the audience, I expect women to start throwing undergarments back at him, as they squeal “oh my god, I love this song!”
“Give Up the Ghost” features the Thornley brothers wailing on guitar (Paul), tambourine, and harmonica (John). This kind of folky, americana rock is more prevalent in 2011’s Mirrors than it was in the more pop-friendly Midsommar EP, perhaps the influence of the year and a half or so that U.S. Royalty spent touring cross country between these releases.
The Stevie Nicks cover “Wild Heart” has been a staple at their most recent shows, and upon hearing it again, I despair that it has not been released as a 7″ single. John Thornley asks us to “sing along if you know the words,” and we do.
In fact, I cannot resist commenting whenever this usually staid city participates at shows, and this is no exception. The audience danced, clapped, and sang throughout the performance, and they all threw their hands up in the air (without even being asked) during the “we got so excited that we already started playing the encore” final song, “Equestrian.” Thornley thanks them for their devotion, “a year and half ago this would have been in Mt. Pleasant,” and hundreds of people sing along with him, “I come down from the mountain.”
I knew that the openers, Charlottesville, VA’s Birdlips and DC’s True Womanhood, would be good lead-ins to USR, but I was pleasantly surprised nonetheless, as I had never seen either band live. Birdlips did evoke Charlottesville and rolling hills for me, despite that their new album Mystic Bloodbath had been recorded in Destin, FL. The multi-instrumentalist duo’s sound was lush, much richer than two people should be able to produce on their own, plus Andrew Bird-like whistling?! Oh c’mon, you’ve got to get behind that.
The trio of True Womanhood showcases raw, synthy nerd rock, including “MINAJAH” and a remixed cover of Pictureplane’s “Dark Rift.” The nerd aesthetic was reinforced with a joke about being on facebook, gchat, twitter, and turntable.fm via the onstage laptop during the performance.
Overall, this show was a celebration of summer excess, a celebration of local rock, and a celebration of the success of DC-band-makes-good U.S. Royalty. Seeing them up on stage at the club, I had the sense that I was finally seeing them as I should be, not with a handful of people at venue in the NYC suburbs, not for a crowd of kids waiting for Girl Talk or The Strokes at Sweetlife Festival, but surrounded by their own adoring fans in their hometown.
The energy was palpable that night, as it bounced back and forth between the audience and the band. Who can inspire a normally somber DC audience to throw away all pretense and just enjoy themselves in the moment? As written on Luke Adams’ drums, U.S. Bloody Royalty, that’s who.
