POPULAR MUSIC

Monday, December 17, 2007

'A Song for Their Service'

Perhaps the Lincoln Theatre wasn't the ideal venue for "A Song for Their Service," a concert to "honor America's military men and women." Or maybe the Friday night event, headlined by country star Mark Wills, was poorly publicized. Whatever the explanation, only about 60 people attended the lackluster show at the 1,250-seat hall. A larger crowd might have amplified the energy level, but it couldn't have boosted the spontaneity of music, which was largely prerecorded.

Eight performers appeared, each delivering but two or three songs. Most them used backing tracks, and the only instruments played live were guitars. The liveliest moments belonged to those musicians who entirely rejected canned music, Wills and Canadian singer-songwriter Melanie Dekker. The former sang one of his two country-chart toppers, the briskly nostalgic "19 Somethin'," but also a tune offered in protest of the "politically correct world" for diluting the religiosity of Christmas.

That sentiment was typical of the evening, which was as strong on evangelical Christianity as patriotic zeal. The repertoire ranged from "America the Beautiful" to "Go Tell It on the Mountain," and Christian-music performer Russ Lee expressed his hope that audience members would never again use the phrase "Happy Holidays."

One of the night's loudest ovations was for Dekker, whose most pertinent number was "Fall In (Wounded Soldier)." She earned her biggest response, however, for the flirtatious "Haven't Even Kissed U Yet," a song that proved life can offer other inspirations besides God and country.

-- Mark Jenkins

Goapele

San Francisco Bay area soul singer Goapele obsessed over the concept of change during her Friday night show at the 9:30 club.

She talked about the impending New Year as being a great time for change and explained that she had cut off her trademark dreadlocks in order to release old energy and help facilitate change. And when she couldn't talk about change anymore, she sang about it.

"Change is relevant!" Goapele told the crowd before launching into "A Change Is Gonna Come," the Sam Cooke song.

Goapele may be embracing transformation in her personal life, but musically she hasn't exactly been metamorphic lately. Goapele hasn't produced a CD since 2005's "Change It All," and, unlike most artists two years beyond their last projects, she didn't make any announcements about upcoming works during her show.

Still, even though the bohemian soul songs were the same, Goapele's voice was at its sweet, airy best. The singer (who appeared with Franklin Bridge, former contenders on "The Next Great American Band") gave just a wisp of a show -- performing only 11 songs -- but sounded crisp throughout. Her singing on "First Love," "4 am" and "Crushed Out" was studio-clear, and she gave an unexpected and incredibly sharp rendition of Blondie's "Heart of Glass."

Goapele ended with her 2003 single "Closer." The crowd's excited reaction to the old favorite, easily the singer's most popular track, contradicted everything she said about the power of renewal; it made change seem overrated.

-- Sarah Godfrey

Lucky Dube Tribute Concert

On Oct. 18, South African reggae star Lucky Dube was carjacked, shot and killed in front of two of his children in a suburb of Johannesburg.

The socially conscious, politically minded Dube was remembered with a tribute concert on Friday at Zanzibar. Sadly, the show didn't live up to the man it was honoring.

While doors opened at 6 p.m., the performances didn't begin until 11. In fact, the show took so long to get going that one of the evening's artists, the talented Jalani Horton of Bambu Station, decided to cut his losses and leave because there was so little communication about what was happening.

By the time Chris Ntaka -- Dube's original guitarist -- took the stage, the evening was a blur for the people who had arrived early. After many hours of danceable reggae and African music being pumped over the sound system, Ntaka and company performed a low-key set of songs featuring guitar, percussion (and, later, sax) and the singers Loide and Anna Mwalagho.

Naturally, the concert featured several Dube tunes such as "Born to Suffer," which features the suddenly prophetic lyrics "Without their father/Children suffering," and "Back to My Roots," which features the suddenly ironic lyrics "I went to the party the other night . . . I was disappointed, yeah."

But while all the artists are gifted, their hour-long set felt like a practice more than a performance.

After an unfathomable one-hour intermission, S.T.O.R.M. Reggae Band took the stage at 1 a.m. Those who stuck around, however, were treated to 40 minutes of high-energy jams from what is arguably this area's best reggae band. It was the sort of smart, punchy performance that honored the indefatigable spirit and music of Lucky Dube.

-- Christopher Porter

Washington Social Club

"Washington Social Christmas" was promoted as an evening of yuletide-themed musical mix-and-match among several of Washington's best bands. But mostly it was a typically frenetic Washington Social Club gig, its generous bill offering lagging hipsters the chance to sample some of the savoriest homegrown white pop of the last couple of years for the low, low price of $15.

Heavy metal three-piece Caverns served as house band during the three-hour-plus show, mixing thunderous arrangements of holiday standards with originals from a tiny corner of the holly-decked stage. Early on, they offered a plaintive emo version of "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer." It was exactly as funny as it sounds, and given the absence of laughter during the first verse, the fact that Caverns played the song in its entirety almost qualifies as punk rock.

The other seasonal selections were better: Jukebox the Ghost absolutely nailed Danny Elfman's "What's This?!" from "The Nightmare Before Christmas." Mick Coogan of the Dance Party sang a few uncertain lines of "The Christmas Song" at the top of an otherwise secular, and superior, set. Laura Burhenn ( of Georgie James) covered the Zombies' "This Will Be Our Year" accompanied by the violin-playing Hsu sisters of Exit Clov. Later, Burhenn's golden pipes blended beautifully with those of WSC frontman Martin Royle on the Pogues' "Fairytale of New York," not merely the greatest Christmas song of the last 20 years, but the one with the most sing-along-ready chorus. But -- humbug! -- nobody joined in.

WSC's climactic 70-minute headlining performance opened with the Ramones' "Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight)" and only gathered steam. By the time the Club got to its encore of "Modern Trance," the invited stage-invasion had turned the band into a sweaty, jolly millipede. Christmas in Federal City has seldom looked -- or sounded -- better.

-- Chris Klimek