Washington D.C. has become one of our many second homes. More specifically, the community around the Black Cat venue has begun to feel like family, always incredibly supportive and welcoming, inviting us to play for their 25th anniversary the previous year. We had been through many times over the past 5 years, be it with Fugazi’s Brendan Canty, screening he and Christoph Green’s Burn to Shine film, or shortly after with Downtown Boys.

This evening was set up to be a special tour highlight. We were getting to share the stage with Hammered Hulls, an all-star band made up of DC music royalty and personal heroes, as well as Light Beams, a band that we had fallen in love with after playing with them in Providence a couple of years prior. We had taken time out during soundchecks leading up to this date to learn The Make-Up’s ‘Born On the Floor’ because we thought it would be a fitting night to perform it for the town where it was born (as well as for Mark, Hammered Hulls guitar player and current drummer for The Make-Up). We had been talking about doing this for years and finally had gotten it together.

Unfortunately, this was the day that the initial claws of the pandemic began to take hold. It was still very early days in the US, before any lockdowns, and people were beginning to get scared. This was the first day that something felt a bit different. When we got to the club, the staff was going through sterilizing everything in sight. Light Beams cancelled. We found out that our unofficial SXSW shows and western tour dates were being put on hiatus. And to this day, this is the last official show that has taken place at The Black Cat.

What was supposed to be a highlight, felt really strange and confusing. While the show itself was tight and the crowd active and dancing, it was initially not released as part of the larger live series because something always felt slightly off. The room is big and boomy because of all of the tickets sold, only half of the people attended. Franklin did not know what to say most of the time between songs. We did not perform an encore. Everyone’s minds were somewhere else that night. Regardless, both bands brought their very best and the cover of Born on The Floor along with most of the rest of the set remain some of the best versions of these songs of the entire tour. We were a well oiled machine at the top of our game, ready to conquer the US and then Europe again, only to have thing completely shut down indefinitely 2 days later.