Out to the Birchmere and Over the Rhine

DC has a lot of great music venues, but one of the things that make The Birchmere in Alexandria, VA so great is the food. The Birchmere is modeled after a Mississippi blues club, and in Mississippi, we don't do anything without a plate of food in front of us. (You're probably seen something about that on Oprah.) When we end up in distant and exotic locales like DC, it gets hard to find decent fried catfish or our mama's red beans and rice. Throw in a cornbread muffin and rocka-bluesy music like Over the Rhine, and you've got yourself a night.

I was supposed to be taking concert photos, but due to a series of unfortunate and convoluted situations that wouldn't even interest my mother (Hi, Mom.), I wasn't able to bring my camera, so I was stuck with a few blurry pics from my iPhone. So here's one, in all its cheesy phone-cam glory, of the entrance to the main dining hall, which, I promise you, was filled with just as many men as women, despite evidence to the contrary. From the songs, to the banter, to the Garrison Keillor-esqe storytelling, the band brought 100% entertainment from start to finish. I could try to describe it in words, from the scorching vocals to the throbbing bass line, but, as you can see, it would start to sound pornographic. Instead I'm going to leave it to the professional. My buddy over at District Noise has done a much better job.