Review: Bandhouse Gigs 20th Anniversary Tribute to DC Legends at Strathmore

Washington, D.C. was never associated with a singular sound as Memphis, Detroit, New Orleans or even Seattle have been.

Instead, it’s had a lot of different strong musical directions, from go-go to straight-edge punk. For a time it was a bluegrass hub, but also a gathering place for folk. You could make a case for D.C. being a capital for notable unsung guitarists, and carve a whole night around one innovator alone, Duke Ellington, as some venues have in this, the 125th anniversary of his birth here.  

Bandhouse Gigs, an outfit that assembles top local musicians to honor a variety of artists from Bob Dylan to the Stones, began its life outdoors at the Strathmore, honoring Nils Lofgren. For a big event Saturday with the full title “Strathmore Presents A BandHouse Gigs 20th Anniversary Tribute to DC Legends,” an attempt was made to honor no less than 24 acts over three and a half hours, involving, by one count, 75 different musicians. 

Owing to its roots, a weird film of Lofgren (currently on tour with the E Street Band and unavailable) showed him gesturing as a track of his voice was heard welcoming people and playing a bit of the 1973 Grin song “Believe.” Then came a couple songs by a revival of that band, Grin Again — involving two of his brothers. So from what must have been a luxurious night honoring one artist in 2004 turned to a jammed one with the impossible task of covering generations of artists from across the DMV.

It was a triumph of planning, if nothing else, getting that many musicians on stage and off minus much down time, and keeping things going smoothly. All that, and getting them introduced by an array of invited presenters who were easily as welcomed as some of the artists, from Bill Wax of WPFW, to former Washington Post critic Richard Harrington to Adele Abrams of WHFS (Jonathan “Weasel” Gilbert, also of that long gone rock station, appeared via video). 

What was different about this gig was that in some cases, the “DC Legend” in question was there to do his own tribute. That was the case with the ever-excellent Bill Kirchen, who infused his hit Commander Cody version of that old 50s novelty “Hot Rod Lincoln” with a whole litany of his own salutes with guitar stylings inspired by (takes deep breath) Johnny Cash, Duane Eddy, Roy Orbison, Johnny Rivers, Marty Robbins, the Ventures, the Stooges, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Elmore James, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf …By then he was organizing the salutes by soundalike name: Link Wray, Alvino Rey, Stevie Ray [Vaughan], and then “the Kings — B.B., Albert, Ben E., boxing promoter Don, tennis star Billie Jean and then The King himself. All this was before he began tackling British rock guitar stylings before returning to the original “Hot Rod Lincoln.” Clearly, the entertaining Kirchen could pull off an entire tribute show single-handed.

Another guitar hero honored was Link Wray, well handled by the able guitarist Anthony Pirog and his band the Messthetics — whose rhythm section, need I remind you, is the one from Fugazi (a band that didn’t make this Legends cut, though Joan Jett and Dave Grohl did — performed by Patty Reese and Sean Chyun respectively). 

Handling the salute to both Danny Gatton and Roy Buchanan was the Dave Chappell Band, whose vibrant presence may have also been enhanced by the fact that this was an established band with plenty of rehearsals and gigs under their belt, compared to other outfits thrown together for the event. 

BandHouse Gigs works with the young artist development program at the Strathmore and there was no better “star is born” moment than when Kaiyla Gross absolutely killed it, doing Roberta Flack’s “Killing Me Softly.” She’d return for the full ensemble finale, taking the Tammi Terrell part to Brandon Combs’ Marvin Gaye on “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.”

Combs had previously done Gaye’s “What’s Going On” in the show’s first half, and as great as it is to hear that live, the connection of Gaye to D.C. is a bit tenuous — he did all his best work in Motown.

Likewise, Duke lit out from the capitol as a young man, and turned out his greatest work elsewhere. Still Daryl Davis (who had done a little dance while conjuring Bo Diddley) was solid on piano on a “Take the A Train” that featured Justine Miller, who both played trumpet and scat sang. 

Nobody attempted an Eva Cassidy salute, so they just played a bit of a video of her singing Sting’s “Fields of Gold” that brought her posthumous renown. The current incarnation of the band originated by the man who helped Cassidy along, Chuck Brown, helped close the show with two songs including the inevitable “Bustin’ Loose.” 

It was cool that the present lineup of The Nighthawks, with original frontman Mark Wenner, were there to salute, who else, the Nighthawks. And that the Seldom Scene was saluted by the bluegrass outfit the Barretones, augmented by original Seldom Scene standup bassist Tom Gray. 

But I wasn’t convinced the Slickee Boys were worth a tribute, even if showy frontman Mark Noone were present. Or that Mary Chapin Carpenter songs should be sung by a man, even though Jon Carroll had been in her band. Carroll would also appear to relive his part in the Starland Vocal Band on their cringe-worthy single hit, “Afternoon Delight.” 

I’m not sure the Patsy Cline or Emmylou Harris salutes captured their subjects adequately and there could have been a stronger moment for Tommy Keene.

But it was nice to have Roy Apollo Allen head up a group of doo-wop singers to salute his old group the Orioles and the Clovers. With early D.C. R&B worthy of an entire 16-CD Bear Family boxed set in 2021, it wouldn’t be a bad idea for an entire BandHouse Gig concert saluting that genre — or any of the others touched upon so briefly on Saturday. 

Photo credit: Roger Catlin 

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