Black Kids live up to their hype in D.C.

September 26, 2008, at the Black Cat

By Gina Vivinetto
Published: September 28th, 2008 | 12:30pm

As a former Floridian, I have been watching with pride Black Kids’ crazy ascent for the last year or so. The Jacksonville band was every breathless music blogger’s discovery after playing a stellar set at last year’s CMJ conference and upon releasing Wizard of Ahhhs (self released), their acclaimed ’80s-influenced EP. But the fickle music press turned on the Kids as fame’s fast-track ride took on a life of its own. The Kids moved to England under the tutelage of an ex-member of Suede. Next came an uneven full-length album, Partie Traumatic (Almost Gold/Columbia), which received harsher reviews than it deserved. (Pitchfork famously reviewed it with a picture of pugs.) Reports of the band’s terrible live shows abounded. Were the American bloggers who “discovered” the Kids feeling betrayed?

When the Kids arrived at Washington D.C.’s Black Cat for a sold-out show, I was there to find out if the band was hype or hoax. But before the Kids started their own dance party, two more young bands poised for stardom — the Virgins and the Magic Wands — took the stage.

The Virgins, fresh off of being heard on Gossip Girl and a show during Paris Fashion Week, brought a dollop of New York–hipster cool. Members of the band wore skintight blue jeans with rolled-up cuffs and played herky-jerky tunes that showcased lead singer Donald Cumming’s vocal dexterity. Cumming sounds alternately like Jonathan Richman and Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy because he identifies the nuances in a song and adjusts his delivery to suit them. Bassist Nick Zarin-Ackerman is the band’s secret weapon. He might have a sticker of a Wings-era Paul McCartney on his instrument, but his style is far funkier.

The Magic Wands, a married guy-girl duo from Nashville, told the crowd it was their first time playing Washington. Taking cues from bands like the Kills and the Raveonettes, the Wands, who played along to prerecorded beats, showed us the South’s version of garage-y, danceable blues-punk sounds that were as fun as everyone else’s. Singer Dexy Valentine, originally from Los Angeles, entranced the crowd with her coolly, detached vocals about teenage lust and love. The band was a SXSW sensation this year and seems as ready as the rest to take on the world.

And Black Kids? Y’all, they were good. OK, not all the songs are as great as “I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You,” but then, how could they be? That song is a bona fide hit — witty, danceable, and super catchy. Frontman Reggie Youngblood, with his wild, untamed Afro, may sound like the Cure’s Robert Smith, but he was all swiveling hips and Prince-esque twirls and shuffles as he held his guitar one-handed high into the air and boogied down. Despite the moves, Reggie was all “aw shucks” modesty and broke into a grin several times while surveying the gigantic crowd and thanking everyone profusely for coming to see the band.

His sister Ali Youngblood turned her head left to right as she played her keyboard, looking like she, too, could have been a member of the Revolution 20 years ago. Dawn Watley, Ali’s partner in keys, shimmied as well. The two sounded wired and sassy on their now-patented call-and-response vocals with Reggie. Every time the girls did one of their schoolyard-sounding chants — or the popular “1-2-3-4” count on “I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend,” the crowd screamed right with them, hands in the air for emphasis. Bassist Owen Holmes, rocking a Rickenbacker, added funk to songs like “I’ve Underestimated My Charm (Again)” and “Hurricane Jane,” and the band’s set, just 13 songs including encores, breezed by.