Thievery Corporation Welcomes New Year at DC’s Newest Venue, The Anthem
Article and photographs by Kurt Wimmer
Washington D.C.’s newest concert venue, The Anthem, celebrated New Year’s Eve with a triple bill headlined by local heroes Thievery Corporation. Seth Hurwitz, owner of The Anthem, told the crowd just before midnight that he had two goals in opening the Anthem. One was to have collaborator Dave Grohl bring the Foo Fighters to launch the venue. “Check,” Hurwitz said. The second was to bring Thievery Corporation for New Year’s Eve. Thievery, a project of D.C. natives Eric Hilton and Rob Garza, traditionally has a three-night stand in December at one of Hurwitz’s other venues, the legendary 9:30 Club. That run was consolidated in the much-larger Anthem before a crowd of several thousand fans who rocked out with the band until 2:00 AM on New Year’s Day.
Thievery Corporation is not a typical band and is difficult to label — its styles include reggae, dub, acid jazz, electronica, hip hop and Brazilian, and its shows can include 12-15 performers at any given time. Like its home town of DC, Thievery is international in interest and scope. Its lyrics are in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese (when the band dips into its substantial bossa nova catalogue). Its rappers are from Jamaica (Racquel Jones), the Virgin Islands (Christopher “Puma” Smith), Boston (Jeffrey Haynes, a/k/a Mr. Lif) and North Carolina (Rootz and Zeebo Steele, a/k/a See-I). Its singers are from Argentina (Natalia Clavier), and France (LouLou Ghelichkhani).
The core members, consistently on stage, include founders Rob Garza (synth and guitar) and Eric Hilton (synch and production), Ash Vyas (bass), Rob Myers (guitar and sitar), Congo Sanchez (drums), and Frank Orral, also founder of Poi Dog Pondering (percussion). Its politics are progressive, opposing war and oppressive trade deals and supporting human rights. It is, most likely, the only popular group to have a hit song about the International Monetary Fund (“Vampires”). All in all, this was the perfect way for a multicultural crowd to welcome 2018.
