Please forgive the lack of time between seeing Birdmonster recently while in Washington, DC and getting this review up on the blog.  I also ask that you understand that I’m horrible with my camera and managed to not get one decent shot of the bands increddible performance at the Black Cat last Wednesday.  With my apologies out of the way, I would like to make a statement with no apology necessary, and that is that Birdmonster is a great band with amazing potential.

I got to the venue late, I was working on my laptop in the hotel which was still displaying Central time, only to realize that it was in fact an hour later that I really thought.  Luckily, I got there right before they launched into their first tune.  I’m pretty sure that my first exposure to Birdmoster came through Gorilla vs. Bear, but it certainly didn’t hurt that some of my other favorite blogs like Largehearted Boy and Ear Farm had good things to say as well.

While the crowd wasn’t huge for their first performance ever in Washington, that didn’t stop the band from playing like it was a sold out performance by including fans in the mix by allowing them to join the band on the tambourine, always a big gamble, but ended up sounding remarkable.  The majority of the songs were taken from the fabulous No Midnight album as well as some tracks off of the equally fantastic Birdmonster EP.  The opening song of the night was their song “Ice Age,” which is a slow building number that cultivates into a huge climactic ending that had the few people in attendance that may not have been familiar with the bands material to be won over almost immediately.  The one thing I did notice is that the majority of the crowd new the words to almost all of their songs, which I thought was pretty great.  That combinded with a lot of smiling faces and a band that clearly is enjoying what they do presents the perfect combination that equals a near perfect concert experience.

The unique thing that I keep thinking about while listening to their albums and remembering their recent performance is that Birdmonster doesn’t limit themselves to one particular genre or sound.  I hear all sorts of things in their work and I think that’s what makes their band work, and one that I continue to go back to on my ipod.

The band is chronicling their tour on their blog, and make sure to stop by their myspace site for a sampling of their music.  I strongly encourage you to support this band by buying their albums or checking out one of their shows.