26
WEDNESDAY
Thirty years from now, when young, hip, recorded-sound collectors are trawling the metaverse in search of late-’90s/early-noughties postrock, Mono will seem like a killer find. After all, strip it of context and the Tokyo-based quartet’s second and latest full-length, One Step More and You Die, is an impressive study in binary dynamicshalf mellow, half metal. But in the here and now, it’s hard to ignore Mono’s debt to its contemporaries: Even the group’s bio admits that its first album behaves too much like Sonic Youth and Mogwai. Now, toss in some of Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s quasi-orchestral rock and a dollop of Isis’ honey-swift heft and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what the new one sounds like, too. Yet even if Mono has overstudied the genre rules, the band also manages to occasionally outrock its own sleeve-worn influences. Mono plays with Tone and Maserati at 9 p.m. on the Black Cat’s Backstage, 1811 14th St. NW. $8. (202) 667-7960. (Brent Burton)