Lower Dens In Concert

Enlarge Shantel Mitchell/for NPR

The Lower Dens perform live at The Black Cat in Washington, D.C. on March 11.

Shantel Mitchell/for NPR

The Lower Dens perform live at The Black Cat in Washington, D.C. on March 11.

Wye Oak In Concert

Baltimore has produced some of the most sonically adventurous and original bands of the past decade, including the manic electronic artist Dan Deacon, the noise-rock group Ponytail and the experimental sound artists in Animal Collective. A pair of moody and grippingly emotional bands from the city's scene, Wye Oak and Lower Dens, came together at Washington, D.C.'s Black Cat for a night of live music, webcast on NPR Music. The Lower Dens' set is available on this page and you can hear and download Wye Oak's headlining set here.

Lower Dens opened the show in support of the band's alluring 2010 debut, Twin Hand Movement. The album, which wound up on many best-of-the-year lists, drenches the simple beats and angular guitars of '80s new wave in a warm wash of beautiful noise and droning atmospherics. The group is fronted by Jana Hunter, a shy singer with a soulful but haunting voice, who released several critically adored solo records before forming Lower Dens in 2009.