Some sources say that onetime D.C.-based band These United States has played 600 shows in the last four years or so. Other sources have that number pegged at about 700 shows.
And if you ask the band’s lead singer and songwriter, Jesse Elliott, he’ll tell you it’s more like 800 shows.
| Onstage |
| These United States |
| Where: Rock N Roll Hotel, 1353 H St. NE |
| When: Wednesday; 8 p.m. doors, 8:30 show |
| Info: $15; rockandrollhoteldc.com |
“You get to that point where you kind of stop counting,”said Elliott, before his band was set to — you guessed it — play another show.
These United States are at the Rock N Roll Hotel on Wednesday.
“We love playing music live,” Elliott said. “We’ve always looked at playing live as a fun way to stretch creatively.”
Appropriately enough, Elliott spoke just hours after landing in New York City, returning from a jaunt through Europe that included stops in England, Germany and Holland. For many of the shows, These United States opened for Jason Isbell.
“That was really fun too,”Elliott said. “They’re pretty fun guys to set up with in a foreign city and drink good old American bourbon with.”
These United States, which formed in D.C., have been around for 4 1/2 years, with four albums to their name. The most recent full-length effort is last July’s “What Lasts.”
Elliott said the band recorded “here and there in three-week chunks” between shows, but would love to spend a little more time in the studio this summer and for the next album.
“That’s what got us started on this idea of taking more time, because we did take a little more time and we were a little happier in retrospect,”Elliott said of the last album. “We were less critical and more happy with it than any other full album that we’ve done before. On the other hand, getting to that point also made us realize how much we had to go.”
“We’re getting old, maybe, that the easy answer,”Elliott added jokingly. “Old and boring and we sit about and think about things.”
