For many, New Year’s Eve is a time to look forward, but for Kate Bartoldus, it’s a time to look back. With pin-up girl looks and a jazzy retro sound, the singer from the band Lady Luck and the Suicide Kings says the best way to ring in the New Year is the way it was done more than 70 years ago—dancing to a swing band.
“It’s been a really rough year the world over,” she said. “To send out the terror of 2015, I’d just like to create wonderful things in the world. To me, there’s no better way to start 2016 than to be happy, dancing to great music.”
Based in New York, Lady Luck and the Suicide Kings is a swing band, but with a modern twist. The band is just as likely to play swing-era classics as to play jazzed-up versions of hits by groups like Blondie and The Violent Femmes. The band will play a New Year’s Eve show at Glen Echo Park’s 1930s-era Art Deco-style Spanish Ballroom, a fitting venue for an act inspired by jazz greats such as Louis Jordan and Billie Holiday. The performance is presented by Gottaswing, an organization that offers dance lessons and dance parties across the Washington, D.C., area. There will be a beginner swing lesson from 8 to 9 p.m.
Lady Luck and the Suicide Kings grew out of the swing revival of the late 1990s that was sparked in large part by a Gap commercial featuring cutting-edge visual effects and dancers in Gap khakis jitterbugging to Louis Prima’s song “Jump, Jive an’ Wail.” Bartoldus, 37, who grew up listening to the popular music of the 1930s and ’40s on her grandparents’ Victrola, always loved the sound and style of the era. When she decided to form her band nearly a decade ago, she knew it would be based on the music she loved.
“I started almost 10 years ago as a musical theater actress,” she said, “but I didn’t have enough creative influence. I really wanted the choice to do weird songs or really classic songs if I wanted to.”
She found six musicians who were willing to play with her—even though she had no experience leading a band—and put together a book of her favorite songs.
“There weren’t any rules,” she said. “We didn’t have to do the American songbook.”
That mix of old and new is part of what keeps the band relevant, Bartoldus said. But it’s also the experience of seeing and hearing live musicians on stage, and feeling the energy of the band and the dancers that is appealing at a time when so many interactions occur via electronic technology.
“For me and the dancers, there’s a strong need to connect to each other,” she said. “You’re literally going up to someone, taking them into your arms and communicating with each other. It’s a wonderful thing. It’s romantic, sweet.”
Lady Luck and the Suicide Kings perform at 8 p.m. Dec. 31 at the Spanish Ballroom at Glen Echo Park, $25, http://www.gottaswing.com/dances/
Rapper Wale kicks off the New Year at The Fillmore in Silver Spring
Local-kid-turned-rap-star Wale continues his five-year tradition of kicking off the new year with a concert at The Fillmore in Silver Spring. The Seinfeld buddy and Quince Orchard High School graduate will perform along with local hip hop artists Chaz French, Fat Trel, and others.
9 p.m. Jan. 1, The Fillmore Silver Spring, $39.50, www.fillmoresilverspring.com
Brian Davis's multimedia art on display at VisArts
Everyday objects, such as chairs and lamps, take on eerie new impressions in artist Brian Davis's exhibition Uncoupled at the Gibbs Street Gallery at VisArts in Rockville. The solo exhibition by the Woodbridge, Virginia, resident includes sculpture, photography, video and interactive installation. Perceptions shift as viewers interact with the art and see images both split and doubled.
Noon to 4 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays, noon to 8 p.m. Fridays, through Jan. 12, free, https://www.visartsatrockville.org/more/exhibitions/
