My wife and I are big fans of Dave Hause. We first saw him play as an opener for Social Distortion. That show was full-band electric. We have since seen him in smaller venues with both full band and with a more acoustic setup. Either way, his brother Tim Hause always plays guitar along with him. He has never disappointed us. Many people know Dave Hause as the force behind his earlier band, The Loved Ones. He got his start in punk bands from the Philadelphia area. At this point in time, he has released seven solo records with his eighth on the way soon. On Wednesday, November 20, 2024, we headed north to Vienna, VA for a stripped-down set of music from Dave, Tim and a keyboard player whose name I did not catch.
We left our house in central VA about 2 pm with a few errands to run on the way. We checked into the Hilton Garden Inn sometime before 4:00. We had a drink at the hotel bar soon after, where our barkeep did his best to entertain us. He was from India, and according to him, he’s from the town “where all of the call centers are.” He assured us that if we ever had a broken-down Hewlett Packard computer, and we called for help, we would likely be talking to someone from his neighborhood. I don’t doubt it. Fortunately for us, the hotel had a shuttle to take us to our dinner reservation at Patsy’s American Grill. That place was huge, and fully packed at 6 p.m. on a Wednesday night. Northern VA, and the Tyson’s Corner area in particular, is unreal. I much prefer the slower pace in my small rural town. After dinner, we grabbed an Uber to Jammin’ Java just down the road.
Jammin’ Java is a rather small venue, and one of my favorites. When you buy tickets for a show there, you can pick the exact seat you want, or just go for the standing room. There are a number of communal tables, but there is one singular two-top table that my wife and I love to have to ourselves. We had procured it for this show, so we were set. We were unaware as to whether there would be an opening act, but it turned out to be Tim Hause, as he has one solo record of his own, and another coming soon. He played some well-crafted tunes, alone on stage with an acoustic guitar. He was excellent actually. I couldn’t tell you the title of a single song he played, but trust me, he was good.
TIM HAUSE at Jammin’ Java 11-20-2024 photo by JCE
Tim wrapped up a nice set and then went straight back to the merch table to sell some goods. I took a moment to wander over and tell him how good he was sounding. A short while later, Tim reappeared on stage with a keyboard player, followed soon after by the main attraction. Dave Hause is a charismatic and humorous guy. His stage banter is generally hilarious. Dave, Tim and said keyboard player then launched into a killer set of songs across mostly his more recent records. The set was 18 songs if you trust Setlist.fm. The second song was “Sandy Sheets” from the 2021 Blood Harmony record. That one is a favorite and got me into it. A few songs in, Dave noted the presence of a young girl sitting with her parents close to the stage. He asked her name and age (Fiona, age 6). He told her straight away, “You’re going to learn some good things tonight, and some bad things too probably. You’ll hear some cuss words. But they’re not always bad. Cuss words can be okay used in the right places. Just don’t use them a whole lot or you’ll sound like a dope.”
After that exchange, he played a great song about bullying called “Gary” which is also from Blood Harmony. The Drive It Like It Was Stolen record from 2023 was well represented. The first and last songs of the night came from that record, the title track was in the set, and two other tracks were in the set. My personal favorite two songs of the evening were “The Ditch” and “Dirty F#cker.” The former comes from my favorite Dave Hause record, called Kick. There were two other songs from Kick, but not my favorites from that great record unfortunately. The latter is from Bury Me in Philly. After he raged through that one, he glanced over at the previously mentioned Fiona, and quipped “Oh thank God, Fiona is asleep.”
DAVE HAUSE (center) from the side of the stage at Jammin’ Java photo by JCE
All in all, it was a great show. You know you enjoyed it when you play nothing but Dave Hause for the next three days. I took a great video of “Dirty F#cker” from the show, but I don’t know how to share it here, so check out this one:
(editor’s note; This video was filmed in 2019, during the administration of someone whose name I won’t even type.)
set-list, 11-20-2024
JCE, or John to his friends, was born in the Nation’s Capital and grew up in the VA suburbs of D.C. He is 61 years old, he has a wife of 33 years, and a grown daughter. He leads a bit of a double life, working by day as the chief administrative officer of a VA county, and spending as many nights as possible listening to live rock n roll with his wife at any club that has a decent band within 100 miles or so of their house (and sometimes further).