Audio By Carbonatix
Keep Phoenix New Times Free
We’re aiming to raise $10,000 by April 26. Your support ensures New Times can continue watching out for you and our community. No paywall. Always accessible. Daily online and weekly in print.
Burn to Shine is the kind of medium-rare concept you hatch at 4 a.m. with your best friend — except that Brendan Canty actually has resources and connections. Thus, the former bassist for the seemingly defunct Fugazi has created a video artifact in which eight bands play one song each in a condemned Washington, D.C., house, which is then burned to the ground by the local fire squad. Representing the funky D.C.-core bands Fugazi helped inspire are Q and Not U, and Medications, while Canty’s Garland of Hours, and his former bandmate Ian MacKaye’s folksy Evens, point their scene in a more song-based direction. Among the unknowns, French Toast is the revelation, with a synth-driven number that soulfully avoids dance-punk clichés, while kitschy Weird War seems least conscious of being filmed. Between the two solo acts, mod-rocking Ted Leo seems less equipped to take advantage of the setting’s intimacy than Bob Mould, who comes last with a hearty, gorgeous version of Sugar’s “Hoover Dam.” As promised, a conflagration ensues. The accompanying melodramatic piano score is probably meant to evoke profound questions, but serves more as a colorful backdrop to the pertinent question: When is Mould gonna come out with a new album?