The Bravery with Living Things and the Dustys
Where: 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW
When: 7 p.m. Sunday
Info: $25; 930.com
For most bands, passing through town and playing the 9:30 Club is just another gig. For New York-based the Bravery, which performs at the legendary venue on Sunday, there’s a little more pressure. It’s a homecoming.
Multiple members of the band have ties to the Washington, D.C. area. Lead singer Sam Endicott lived in Southwest as well as Bethesda before heading to college in 1996; bassist Mike Hindert grew up in Falls Church and attended Georgetown University; and guitarist Michael Zakarin also attended Georgetown.
“Yeah, when we play 9:30, family and friends come out,” said Endicott during a phone interview from California, where the band was putting the finals touches on its new album, “Stir the Blood.” “It’s the only time I get nervous. If you do something (wrong), you hear about it forever.”
The Bravery is touring in support of “Stir the Blood,” which is set to be released November 10. This is the group’s third full-length effort, and is produced by John Hill, who has worked with Santogold and M.I.A.
“We wanted to make it sound like it was underwater,” said Endicott, relaying a dream that keyboardist John Conway had of the band recording in an aquarium. “It sounds kind of dreamy.”
Endicott, who writes all of the band’s songs and is the group’s driving force, was happy with what Hill brought to the process.
“He’s just really a tremendous talent,” said Endicott. “He does things sonically I’ve never heard before.”
“Stir the Blood” is the Bravery’s follow up to 2007’s “The Sun and the Moon.” The band, which includes drummer Anthony Burulcich, gained popularity after the 2005 release of its self-titled debut, including the hit “An Honest Mistake.”
“The fist one, everything is a party,” said Endicott, 35, about the band’s discography. “The second one was all over the place. This one is more like the first one.”
“We put pressure on ourselves,” Endicott continued. “I work on the songs forever. We’re very aware of not repeating ourselves.”
When not working with the Bravery, Endicott keeps busy, including dabbling in film, as well as co-writing the Shakira single “She Wolf.”
“I don’t sleep a lot,” Endicott said. “When the juices are flowing, it’s not just about one medium. They’re all related.”
