“There are still eighty-seven punks left in DC!” said Dave Hause midway through the Loved Ones’ set at DC9 this past Wednesday; he’d just heard from fans who’d come from out of town -- Baltimore, his hometown of Philly, and as far away as San Diego, among others – to see his temporarily reunited band play the nation’s capital, and was taking attendance from the locals. Then Hause and his four bandmates – this incarnation of the Loved Ones features original bassist Michael “Spider” Cotterman, as well as Build and Burn-era members Dave Walsh and Chris Gonzalez on guitar – ripped into another cut from Keep Your Heart (KYH), the band’s beloved first LP.

The evening had started with a set from Friendship Commanders, a girl-guy punk duo from Nashville. I’d never heard their stuff before, and it was difficult to pick up much in the way of vocals, but they had me and the crowd – which included Dave Walsh, who came to the front midway through their set -- nodding along to their stuff pretty quickly, especially “Animals of Pride,” a clear stand-out. Definitely a band worth checking out; I’ve spent some time on their Bandcamp page in the days since the show, and if they could translate more of the energy that’s in their recorded output to the stage, they’d have a pretty fierce live presence, I think.

A little after nine, the Loved Ones took the stage and opened with two fan favorites from KYH, “Breathe In” and “100K.” Hause was having a blast: he bounced and danced around stage during the opening numbers, at times brandishing a Rafiki-like stick that he variously pointed at the audience or used to bang along to the beat. Later, Hause grabbed a guitar, prompting somebody from the crowd to compare the band’s three-guitar attack to the E Street Band. The band played KYH in its entirety, interspersed with tracks from its initial EP. Maybe I was biased by my excitement at getting to see these guys play for the first time in years but, especially considering their long hiatus, I thought they played a tight set. For me, highlights included “100K” and “The Odds,” probably my favorite Loved Ones tune; an electric version of “Drastic,” an acoustic cut from their first EP; and a main-set closing “Player Hater Anthem” – which Hause dedicated to Chuck Ragan and Cory Branan, playing the Black Cat a few blocks over, a scheduling conflict that was the subject of much pre-show debate. Between songs, Hause bantered with the crowd, detailing his mother’s passing and the recording of KYH, leading the crowd in multiple chants of “Spider! Spider!” in honor of Cotterman, and expressing his gratitude that so many people cared and were excited about the band ten years after the release of its initial LP (and 6 years into its hiatus).

After a quick exit, the band returned for a three-song encore of “Suture Self,” “Candy Cane” and “Jane.” Before embarking on “Jane,” Hause told us to enjoy ourselves, because he didn’t know when they’d be doing this again, but it wouldn’t be anytime soon. The crowd had been energetic all night long, shouting Hause’s every word right back at him, but, taking its cue from this warning, it took the energy up on this last song, as Hause climbed atop a speaker and held onto the rafter while his bandmates bashed through the closing number.

I first saw this band a decade or so ago when they were touring behind their first EP, at Crocodile Rock in Allentown opening for Rise Against, and their music has meant a lot to me over the years. I really enjoyed getting to see them having so much fun cranking out some of those same songs out ten years later. These guys are all involved in other bands or solo careers these days, so we’ll see them on the circuit in the future, but who knows when we’ll see them play as the Loved Ones again – unless those hints they dropped a few months ago about maybe working on some new material turn into something tangible. If they do, this show proved that the 2016 version of the band can rock as hard as its earlier incarnations – in answer to Hause’s question in the chorus of “Player Hater Anthem,” as they filed out into the night, no one was asking for their ten bucks back; the Loved Ones came to play.