Stick in the Eye: The Points Rock So Hard It Hurts

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ON SEPT. 10, got hit in the mouth with a drumstick during Monotonix's opening set for the Silver Jews.

In any other 12-month span that would probably count as my wildest rock memory. But despite the Israeli madmen's best efforts to scar me for life, they still cannot compete with the chaos of The Points show I attended at The Red & The Black last October.

Between an intoxicated crowd, massive equipment failures and an openly antagonistic relationship between the bands and the soundman, things got out of control. For instance, when I started bleeding at the Black Cat, I took a seat and iced my lip. But The Points fan with the open head wound kept slam dancing, pausing only to periodically vomit on the floor.

There really is no contest.

But after a year of nearly nonstop touring, the D.C.-based band is evolving.

Longtime keyboard player Rebecca Dye recently left The Points. As drummer Travis Jackson recounts it, the departure was amicable. "She became torn between work and pleasure. She worked and toured hard and we can't dis her."

In Dye's absence The Points have added keyboardist Chad Middleton (of VCR) and Danny Darko (ex-Murder Skit Corpses) on bass. Jackson reports that the new lineup "sounds a lot fuller. Darko is a DSPM [down strokes per minute] master and has already toured the U.S. with The Points. Chad toggles and bends between lows and highs adding a new wave of analog to the sound."

After a handful of September shows — including a CD release party on Sept. 23 at the Black Cat — the new Points lineup will head out for a full U.S. tour in November in support of the CD, which follows a handful of 7-inches, EPs and homemade CD-Rs that the band hawked — sometimes quite aggressively — at its shows.

For those unfamiliar with the The Points' sound, it is loud, fast and raucous, with few songs lasting much longer than two minutes. Although that sounds like a dictionary definition of punk, The Points have sometimes been classified as a garage band.

Not surprisingly, Jackson prefers to discard subgenre labels altogether.

"We never wanted to be a part of the whole 'garage revival' thing that was happening," he said. "We love that sound, and we are influenced by some bands of that time. It's just so much easier to say 'rock 'n' roll.' It feels good to say it. 'Rock 'n' roll.'"

He adds an additional disqualifier for garage-rock status: "We don't own [matching] suits."

In fact, The Points frequently perform in matching homemade pentagram T-shirts.

Rock 'n' roll indeed.

Those curious about The Points shouldn't be deterred from seeing the band by the bloody, vomiting fan from last October. These days, Jackson's explosive beer-spitting is probably the only fluid audiences will encounter. As far as he knows that job is still his alone, saying of his new bandmates, "I'm not sure if they spit beer. I know they drink a lot of it though. A lot."

» Black Cat, 1811 14th St. NW; with Black Time and Static Static, Tue., Sept. 23, 9 p.m., $8; 800-551-7328. (U St.-Cardozo)

Written by Express contributor Meg Zamula
Photo by Anthony Smallwood

BONUS: EXPRESS 5 LEAST FAVORITE VENUES

Apparently last October's show was memorable even by the band's standards. Here, in perhaps the most concise Express 5 in the history of the format, are The Points' least favorite venues:

1. The Red & The Black
2. The Red & The Black
3. The Red & The Black
4. The Red & The Black
5. The Red & The Black