9:00pm • Tickets at Eventbrite and at the door if available
One of DC’s early and seminal punk/new wave bands, Tru Fax & the Insaniacs, will make a rare appearance at Hank Dietle’s on Saturday, October 19. They will perform songs, old and new, from the band’s brand new CD, “ArtiFax Part 1.”
TFI is best known for the single “Washingtron,” b/w “Mystery Date.” They knew they had it made when Washingtonian Magazine named TFI “worst band” in 1980 (based on the name alone), cementing the band’s status and popularity in the punk/new wave scene. “Washingtron,” which is about a hapless 20-something just out of college who works for her “senatron” on Capitol Hill and sidelines as a “waitron in the lounge of the Hiltron.” Perhaps a greater honor than being named “worst band” by the Washingtonian, The Oxford English Dictionary credits Tru Fax & the Insaniacs for coining the word “waitron.” The band helped close the old 9:30 Club in December, 1995.
TFI’s is: founding members Diana Quinn and David Wells, bassist Julia Kasdorf (a singer-songwriter in her own right) and veteran drummer CB Heinemann. The album and music videos are all dedicated to Tru Fax’s co-founder and drummer for more than three decades, Michael Mariotte. Note: the band is putting music videos up on its brand new YouTube channel, #trufaxinsaniacs.
Come on down, and get ready to dance like it’s 1979!
“Washington DC group Dot Dash, who have come to play as idealized and energized a form of power pop as one could imagine, didn’t grow up in the ’60s; their musical touchstones are in the new wave era: so, more the Jam than the Who, Haircut 100 rather than the Kinks. Their iconic labels are more likely to be Postcard, Rough Trade and Sarah than Immediate, Pye or Deram. While they may have started out in thrall to Wire, from whom they took their name, their progress has been towards crystalline tunefulness.“ – Ira Robbins, Trouser Press
WASHINGTON CITY PAPER: “A peppy adrenaline rush that channels late-’70s mod revival and jangly college rock in equal measure, ‘Flowers’ is the shortest track on new Dot Dash album Earthquakes & Tidal Waves, and like an ideal sock hop song, it radiates ephemeral, youthful glee before it disappears in a flash."
9:30 CLUB: "Dot Dash is from Washington D.C. Their music has been described as garage, power pop, punk, post-punk, indie rock and indie pop. Over the last 5 years Dot Dash has had 5 albums released by Canadian indie label The Beautiful Music."