Charly Bliss live at the 9:30 Club review: All sunny pop and grungy punk

From the moment Charly Bliss frontwoman Eva Hendricks sprinted on stage Thursday night, the crowd at Washington DC’s 9:30 Club was ready for action. Over the next 75 minutes, Hendricks and the rest of her band delivered. The Brooklyn-based quartet are touring in support of their third and best album Forever. This was the first show of the tour – 22 dates that will see them horseshoeing the USA from east to west and back again over the next month.

Hendricks came on in style. Dressed all in white in frilly tutu and thigh high stockings to match, she served as manic cheerleader throughout the set, leaping, high-stepping, and on one occasion collapsing to the floor in an effort to keep things at the highest energy level possible. Beyond the theatrics, she delivered massive vocals in service of a lot of exceptional new songs that combine sunshine pop and grungy punk in an irresistible blend.

Opening with “Tragic,” the first track from Forever, Charly Bliss performed 10 of the 12 songs from the new album. They had performed about half of them on tour last year in advance of the release, but “Tragic” was new. This was also the first live performance of "I Don’t Know Anything,” How Do You Do It,” and “First Last Kiss,” which closed out the main set.  “How Do You It,” which Hendricks admitted began as a typically sad breakup song, turned into a triumphant, joyful comment on moving on.

Charly Bliss wonderfully delivers sunshine pop and grungy punk

That wasn’t the only joyful moment. She may say this to all the clubs, but Hendricks told the crowd that the 9:30 was her favorite venue in the world. She recalled opening for Veruca Salt a decade ago and repeatedly expressed her amazement that they were now headlining the famed DC spot.

That joy extended to doing manic jumping jacks during “Capacity,” the song from their second album, Young Enough, that helped launch them to a larger audience back in 2019. Or when she picked up something tossed on stage after “I’m Not Dead,” and happily proclaimed “I just got a tampon!”

“I’m Not Dead” is a perfect example of the way Charly Bliss has evolved as a songwriting unit (all of their songs are credited to the entire band, with occasional help from others). “My boyfriend’s dad is over seventy-five – His life’s more fun and more fulfilling than mine – If I’m a rock star I’m not doing it right…” has all the wit and awareness of a band that has been at it a long time, but still maintains its youthful vitality.

The five years between Young Enough and Forever were not easy on anyone and many bands went by the wayside. The fact that Charly Bliss has been able to return triumphantly inspired the new song “Waiting for You,” which Hendricks called “a love song for her bandmates.”

The new album might be slightly sweeter-sounding than the early work that tilted a bit toward punk. That was evident when they went back in time with the hard-driving “Percolator,” the first cut off their first album, or with the propulsive drone of “Young Enough.” But the new songs are fully capable of banging, like the most likely hit from the new album, the anthemic “Calling You Out.”

But Forever offers better range than they have ever produced. Before playing the best ballad from the new album, “Nineteen,” Hendricks admitted that upon writing it, she worried “Oh f**k, how are we ever going to top that?”

As dominant a presence as she in the center of the stage, Charly Bliss is more than Hendricks. Guitarist Spencer Fox creates a gorgeous soundscape that can roam from sweetness on a love song like “In Your Bed” to the exuberance pop rock of “Hard to Believe.” Dan Shure on bass and Eva’s brother Sam Hendricks on drums never let the pace lag. They also pick up the banter when Eva is fighting to keep her guitar in tune, which happened several times during the set on Thursday.

Sam did double duty at the show, also playing drums for opener Raffaella, the Minnesota singer/songwriter who recently dropped the second of her twin debut EPs, Live, Raff, Love (Acts I & II). She peppered a series of smart pop songs with an endearing brand of sarcasm – introducing the seemingly dreamy pop of “Man of My Dreams” with the description “just a bunch of lies over and over again.”

When talking up the merch table, she described herself as "a tee shirt company that plays music.” Or prefacing her song “Blonde” with “you change your hair color and you think it will change your life and it kind of does. But then it stops.” Isaac Dell’s guitarist, the only other instrument on stage with Hendricks’ drums, provided excellent support.

Charly Bliss played just one cover during their set. Their final encore was a rousing take on Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone.” Eva Hendricks exhorted the crowd to sing along, and the crowd happily complied.

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