Concert DuPunk Underground

Featuring special guests Die Nerven from Germany with D.C.’s Heavy Breathing, Homosuperior und Hand Grenade Job.

Punk is going underground in D.C. as the Goethe-Institut Washington and the DC Public Library Foundation present three modern-time punk bands from Germany and the US in D.C.’s iconic Dupont Underground, an exciting and appropriate venue for this amplified occasion!

To celebrate the Goethe-Institut’s exhibition Brilliant Dilletantes and the DC Punk Archive’s third anniversary, this memorable concert showcasing Heavy Breathing (US), Die Nerven (GER), Homosuperior (US), and Hand Grenade Job (US) brings to life the spirit of mid- to late-‘80s subcultures in both Germany and the US.

Content from the Brilliant Dilletantes – Subculture in Germany in the 1980s exhibition and the DC Punk Archive will be projected during the concert, allowing listeners to delve deep into the feel and aesthetics of a subculture that had a huge influence not only on music, but also on fashion, design, art and the forming of political opinions.
  Heavy Breathing (US)
Their guitar riffs are indeed heavy! The trio, consisting of keyboardist Amanda Kleinman, drummer Jeff Schmid and guitarist Erick Jackson (all formerly The Apes), has been around for about 15 years now, blending kraut rock, punk, metal and a hint of disco-feel. Correct, Heavy Breathing does not have a singer – because they simply don’t need one. After making 6 records with three different singers, they put an end to their vocalist-rotation by using found sounds from the internet instead of an old-fashioned human singer. The result is pretty unique! With the canned vocals sounding like a Saturday night radio party, Heavy Breathing combines the raw power of rock music with a rhythmic urgency for an intense performance that’ll make you want to dance.

Die Nerven (Germany)
Our special guest from across the Atlantic, Die Nerven was originally founded as a noisy LoFi duo and is a definite counterweight to the happy-go-lucky indie sound that has dominated the radio rotations and top chart positions for so long. They are a German-speaking Post-Punk/Noise-Rock trio with self-made aesthetics, edgy sound and a penchant for gloom and nihilism. Their second album made massive waves in the feuilleton pages and was “one of the best and most relevant German-speaking albums of this decade,” according to Spiegel Online. They were the first German-speaking band to release with the US label Amphetamine Reptile Records; the highly acclaimed German music magazine Spex hyped the band from their humble beginnings.

Homosuperior (US)
Formed in a dingy basement on New Year’s Eve in Washington, D.C., Homosuperior plays in-your-face, snotty queer punk for the jaded and disaffected queers in the nation’s capitol.

Hand Grenade Job (US)
Hand Grenade Job (HGJ) is a post-Americana band from Washington, DC that formed in 2012. The group is presided over by Beck Levy, often accompanied by other musicians and dancers. HGJ is performance art if the art is persuasion; experimental music if the experiment is survival. Live shows are a collaboration with negative space. In 2017, Hand Grenade Job toured extensively in support of Devotionals, a full-length album out on Sister Polygon Records.

No charge, but a donation of $5-10 for Dupont Underground is encouraged

Tickets
More information on the exhibition:


Celebrating its third anniversary this year, the DC Punk Archive is a project at the DC Public Library to collect, preserve and promote the music, ephemera and culture of DC Punk. With collaboration from a supportive community and enthusiastic volunteers, the archive continually receives donations and has now been able to process, digitize and make available to the public much of its content. Researchers and interested patrons can make an appointment to view items in the archive or listen to a record at the Georgetown Neighborhood Library. In its effort to promote current local musicians, The Punk Archive also hosts live shows throughout the year at various locations.

Follow @GoetheDC and @dcpunkarchive for updates

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