Tonight's Top Stop: Jet Age at the Black Cat

WHAT'S A MAN TO DO when the lights get turned out for his band the Hurricane Lamps? If you're Eric Tischler, you grab one of your old band mates and take flight as the Jet Age. This new band, with singer/guitarist Tischler, former Lamps bassist Greg Bennett and drummer Pete Nuwayser, takes the stage at the Black Cat tonight in support of the band's debut album, "Breathless." (Listen to some of their music here.) The Jet Age, which made its first live appearance last year opening for British indie pop stalwarts the Wedding Present, is a very different band than the Hurricane Lamps, Tischler told Express.

While the Jet Age and the Lamps tread along similar musical boundaries — fuzzed-out indie rock that recalls '90s mainstays such as Superchunk — Tischler is quick to point out the fundamental difference between the two bands: "The Hurricane Lamps wore their songs like straightjackets, and the Jet Age ... the three of us feel very comfortable with taking the song as a launchpad and seeing where we can take the song," he said.

The Lamps were local favorites in the early part of this decade. They released five albums and toured nationally five times, getting positive press from trendsetting publications like Pitchfork. One of the Lamps' earliest incarnations was one of the first bands to play the Black Cat in 1993, when the town was rocking out to like-minded D.C.-based bands such as Velocity Girl and the Lilys. While that movement died down for a bit, it has now seen a return with more power-pop bands arriving on the scene, the Jet Age included.

"I'm very proud of the Hurricane Lamps, but I'm trying to distance myself from [them]," Tischler said. "The Lamps were always good, but I feel like this band is a great live band. I hope that people that dig the Lamps — and people that didn't dig the Lamps — will come out."

» Black Cat, 1811 14th St. NW; with Attack Penguin, 9 p.m., $5; 202-667-7960 (U St.-Cardozo)

» FOR MORE TOP STOPS, including Alan Alda speaking about his new book at the Bethesda Barnes & Noble, click here.

Photo by D. Wade