Back in mid-November, I decided to go to a Cloud Cult concert and ended up bringing some of my friends from the area with me. It was a blast! But equally as awesome as the concert was the meal beforehand.

Brittany, one of my friends from church, used to work at a place called Bar Pilar in downtown DC. It doesn’t look like much on the outside, but the food is incredible. Incredible as in, I-didn’t-know-this-kind-of-food-actually-existed incredible. Wow! It’s a good thing Brittany was there to guide us through all the choices on the menu (we ended up ordering most everything and sharing it) and explain what everything was. I’d highly recommend it if you’re in the area.

After the amazing meal, we headed down to the Black Cat Club, which is conveniently on the same block as Bar Pilar. I was mainly wanting to see Cloud Cult, but I was somewhat familiar with one of the opening bands, Exit Clov. Exit Clov didn’t disappoint, but the first opening band, Mason Proper was even better! I’m surprised they’re still playing as just an opening band. They played through the entirety of their latest album, Olly Oxen Free, and put on a really good show. I liked it so much, I bought it the next day. Good album.

And of course, Cloud Cult was awesome. They had a bass player who also played the trombone and glockenspiel, a violinist, and a cellist as well as a drummer and Craig Minowa, the lead singer, on lead guitar. The violinist and cellist blended together perfectly and made by far the best live strings performance I’ve heard at a rock concert. Not only was their sound spot-on, but they were even able to convey a depth of sweeping emotion that is really hard to accomplish in a live rock set. So, it was already a superb show (with an almost Polyphonic Spree feel), but they had more than just music!

During the entire show, there were two artists creating some pretty cool paintings behind the band. They even provided a dramatic start to the show: as the band exploded into the first note of the first song (Brain Gateway), the artists attacked their canvases with paint. Music and paint were flying everywhere! After the show, they auctioned off the paintings.

Great music, amazing food, and awesome friends. What more could you want?

Paintings from the show