Stopped by Wonderland with Justin tonight. Great show. Marcus Ricci opened for Andrew Callard. I took a few pictures of both acts, but for some reason only a couple from the Callard set came out. And as you can see, they’re barely recognizable. I *really* wish people would Shut The Fuck Up while bands are playing. The crowd was so loud during the first act that Justin and I had to stand in front of the speakers just to hear anything, but it was worth the resulting loss of hearing. We only caught the last 3 songs of Ricci’s set but it was pretty damn good… kind of Costello. Although it sucked we only caught his last couple songs, I was fortunate to get a free CD. Will definitely check it out. (click that link up top and check out some of his stuff on myspace – ‘This Modern Age’ was freaking amazing live.)

Andrew Callard was good as well. Started off sounding derivative of Elton John – when Elton John was good. – but soon found his own voice. The first song was catchy, but Justin and I both realized that the amount a group sounds like a Christian Band is directly proportional to the number of times they sing the lyric ‘I got that feeling’ and use the pronoun ‘he’ in a song.

The guitarist sitting in was fun to watch too. As far as I could tell his name was John Lin, or Lind, or Linn, or something. It was obvious that the material was new to him, he was playing along while staring into a notebook on a music stand in front of him, but he was having fun up there. I gathered he’s another local DC musician but I was unable to find any information on him… or for Callard for that matter. That’s a shame because they both deserve more exposure! I wanted to say hello to the guitarist after the show, but he was preoccupied with his friends that showed up and I didn’t want to just stand there like a doof until he was free so I left.