Last month, the Vans Warped Tour came to D.C. for a weekend full of all things punk, with bands spanning the spectrums of space, time and subgenre. While concertgoers could relive past glories during headlining sets by bands the Used and Jimmy Eat World, headbangers exploring the festival could find their next favorite band, as well.
For some, that band might be Hue, a DMV-born act that paints from a palette of metal, post-hardcore, pop-punk and D.C.’s go-go sound. The group was busy during Warped weekend, playing a preshow at the Wharf, and sets on both the main and acoustic stages. The unplugged set — which featured fans requesting songs, singing along and throwing it back — was perhaps the band’s favorite.
Hue bassist and vocalist Alireza Rezghi thinks it might have been the first time go-go has gone acoustic or even rung out from a Warped Tour stage — even if the crowd didn’t know exactly what they were hearing.
“I wish we had a dollar for every time at Warped Tour somebody said, ‘Yo, we love the Latin percussion on your songs,’ because they don’t know,” says drummer Reggie “Arejay” James.
With the band’s stylistic stew, such confusion is not uncommon. The band has been the softest act at the Metal Injection Festival, the hardest-rocking band at the Afropunk Festival, and a sonic outlier at a pure go-go show or R&B open mic. But the band says audiences are reacting positively to its sound, no matter where they play.
“It’s like a Thanksgiving plate,” James says. “Everybody doesn’t eat potato salad, but then some people eat turkey.”
Hue has been serving up something for everyone for just a few years. The band formed in 2023 from the ashes of local act Louder Than Quiet, when Rezghi and guitarist-vocalist Nic Keene enlisted James, who had played drums with Reston, Virginia, rockers RDGLDGRN. The trio soon found it was onto something with its hybrid approach and was quickly co-signed by go-go boosters including Shorty Corleone, Ronald Moten and Big G of the Backyard Band.
“People are accepting us, pushing us forward and are open to the evolution of go-go, while at the same time we’re trying to honor history and the giants before us,” James says.
The bandmates — who have roots in D.C., Prince George’s County and Northern Virginia — have an easy rapport. A discussion of where everyone comes from turns into a riff session on how far Sterling, Virginia, is from D.C. compared with Oxon Hill, Maryland. With these DMV bona fides, it’s clear that Hue cares about go-go, even if its story is diverging from the scene.
“This is very much a natural progression,” Keene says. “In order for the go-go to continue to go, you got to keep going, and this is our way of doing that.”
July 16 at 7 p.m. at Pier Six Pavilion, Baltimore. gogomuseumcafe.com. $30.96-$59.34.
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