M. Ward at the Sixth and I Synagogue

Adam, Lily and I checked out M. Ward last night at the Sixth and I Synagogue. Sixth and I, besides being a 10 minute walk from my house, is pretty cool, intimate venue. For those of you not in the know about DC venues, Sixth and I is a historic synagogue built in 1852 and has been hosting various musical and comedy acts since 2005 in an effort to attract more young people.

Despite a poor choice of opener (Vivian Girls are way overhyped), I fell in love with M. Ward in a way that I had not just listening to his albums. M. Ward opened his set with a few acoustic (plus harmonica) numbers, including his cover of Bowie's Let's Dance, before bringing his band on stage.

Because of the size of the venue, you can see everyone's expressions and quirky moves as they play. My favorite was instrumentalist Mike Coykendall, who could not play for more than 2 minutes without making some ridiculous jump or silly face (esp. when singing the vocals that Zooey Deschanel sings on the Hold Time album).

A few of my favorite songs that were played last night.

M. Ward