Home / News / The Capitals’ Rock the Retro concert at 9:30 Club reviewed: Ovi fun, ’90s music trivia, and White Ford Bronco

The Capitals’ Rock the Retro concert at 9:30 Club reviewed: Ovi fun, ’90s music trivia, and White Ford Bronco

By Ian Oland

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November 23, 2022 4:01 pm

The Washington Capitals hosted a concert at one of the best live music venues in the country to celebrate the recent release of their popular Reverse Retro 2.0 jersey. The result was fun and memorable. Olie Kolzig even remarked during the show that his Caps of yore would have never done something this cool. Though there were still some missed opportunities.

The team jam-packed the 9:30 Club with the headlining act White Ford Bronco, a 90s cover band that some consider a DC institution. The crowd was particularly impressive considering tickets (after convenience fees and taxes) ended up being about $35 per person and the event was held on a Monday during Thanksgiving week. Coming into the night, fans were aware of the music and the limited edition t-shirt giveaway, but the Caps’ actual participation in the show remained a mystery beyond the announcement of the players and alumni scheduled to attend.

Current Capitals Alex Ovechkin, Dylan Strome, Darcy Kuemper, and Beck Malenstyn were joined by alumni Peter Bondra, Olie Kolzig, Karl Alzner, Craig Laughlin, Alan May, and Brent Johnson at the event. Nick Jensen also made a brief appearance with his family.

The players met up backstage where they took photos for the Capitals’ social media.

Strome, Ovechkin, and Kuemper also rocked old-school 90s Caps jackets.

Doors for the Rock The Retro concert opened at 7 pm. There was a line to enter that was a block long. When fans were checked by security and allowed inside the venue, there was a table in the back where they could claim a free, limited-edition t-shirt.

The Capitals also had a separate area where people could pick up Screaming Eagle glow sticks, light-up sunglasses, and cardboard cutouts that included an image of Alex Ovechkin and the Screaming Eagle and Capitol Dome logos.

Around 8 pm, Elliot Segal of DC101’s Elliot in the Morning walked out and took the stage. Segal conducted interviews with several of the Capitals players. The format highlighted Segal’s strengths as his enthusiasm, hockey intellect, and confidence prompted several unvarnished and in-depth conversations with players.

Elliot first brought Alex Ovechkin out as fans rained Ovi chants down to the Capitals captain. Ovi faked as if he was going to do a stage dive.

Ovi was asked about his chase of Wayne Gretzky — Gretz has 894 career goals while the Gr8 has 789 — and how he felt recently overtaking Gordie Howe for the most goals ever with the same franchise.

“It was basically the same when I played my 1000th game in one organization and was the first Capital to reach that milestone,” Ovechkin said. “So obviously lots of big names, lots of great players that played. I was lucky, I’m a lucky guy to be in this position.”

Segal observed that the next big milestones for Ovi are goals number 800, 801, and 802.

“It could happen by Christmas. F*&% it could happen [Wednesday] against the Flyers,” Segal said.

“Yeah, sure,” Ovechkin said laughing. “I don’t know! Well, how I said, I’m third now on the list. I never thought when I came to the league that I was going to be in that type of category close to number one seed and number two seed obviously. Because number one and number two is Gretzky and Howe. Only Jagr can get closer.”

Ovi and the crowd laughed.

“I’m lucky. I’m lucky I play with great teammates, great organization. They all support me and all help me a lot.”

The last time Ovi and Elliot were together at a big venue was for Ovechkin’s 21st birthday party at RFD down the street from, in Ovechkin’s words, Verizon Center.

“If I’m not mistaken – first beer you ever had that night,” Segal said.

“Beer, yeah,” Ovechkin said as the crowd laughed. “Different drinks I had before.”

Photo: @casadoresdean/Twitter

Others who were interviewed included Peter Bondra, Dylan Strome, Darcy Kuemper, and Olie Kolzig. Still beloved, Kolzig got cheers nearly as loud as Ovechkin.

Bondra shared his admiration for Ovechkin’s goal-scoring prowess but reveled in the fact that Ovi would never catch one of his franchise records: most shorties. Olie gave a behind-the-scenes story of his Capitals wine commercial that got him in hot water with his wife.

Kuemper revealed during his interview that Kolzig was one of his favorite goaltenders growing up as a kid prompting his Reverse Retro tribute mask – a play on Olie’s Godzilla bucket first made famous during the Caps’ 1998 Stanley Cup Final run.

Once the interviews were done, Segal set up a Name This 90s Song trivia game between the current Capitals players and the Capitals alumni. It ended up being the highlight of the night and also prompted quite a grudge match. Each team had a captain. For the current Caps, Dylan Strome was given the captaincy over Ovechkin, which prompted befuddlement and laughter.

Notably, Karl Alzner wore old-school shades, a Backstreet Boys shirt, and a ’90s Mickey Mouse hat backwards.

Photo: Elizabeth Kong/RMNB

The alumni came out strong, but due to the lack of a coherent buzzer system, Elliot tipped the game in favor of the current players. As Alan May complained, Ovechkin replied back with a series of ridiculous and escalating taunts.

When the current players were able to pull out the W, they did a jumping goal hug. Ovechkin — always the life of the party — then did a mic drop.

The players took a group photo together on stage.

Photo: Ian Oland/RMNB

As the Capitals walked off, Olie Kolzig signed a few autographs for fans and the players returned to the VIP area. Alex Ovechkin walked up to the balcony as White Ford Bronco came out to perform. He was joined upstairs by several other alumni.

At one point, Ovechkin, Kolzig, and May could be observed from the floor laughing as they all put their hands together as the band played.

Photos: Elizabeth Kong/RMNB

Current Capitals players all appeared to leave the show at 9 pm, three songs into the performance, while most of the alumni chose to stay. The team had the day off the next morning. After I waved up to Alan May on the balcony, he came downstairs and spent most of the show kindly interacting with fans, taking pictures, and signing autographs on the floor.

“Oh no, you’re here,” he said to me when he first approached.

White Ford Bronco played about a 90-minute set, including an encore, and covered all of the best songs of the 90s. Metallica’s Enter Sandman, Third Eye Blind’s Semi-Charmed Life, and Alanis Morissette’s You Oughta Know were highlights. Fans were won over quickly, jumping and singing along most of the night like the headliner was a chart-topper.

Fans also waved cardboard cutouts in the crowd.

After the event, several fans spoke to RMNB about how much fun they had and how their expectations were wildly exceeded. The surprising glowstick giveaway (it’s the small things) and the great opening segment hosted by Elliot Segal were mentioned as the positives. White Ford Bronco ended up being an excellent pick for the concert as well. But there was disappointment with how little the players interacted with fans, especially at a paid show, and how early they left.

“It was like there was a bubble between us and them unlike in past events,” one fan noted to me, asking to not have their name shared. “Leaving that early suggested, even if it’s not true, that some of them didn’t really want to be there.”

Another fan suggested Capitals players could have thrown Reverse Retro merch into the crowd or signed more autographs on stage. Players other than May could have come out and interacted with fans, which I was told would have made a big difference to them.

In the end, though, everyone did agree that the Capitals organization took a major gamble by having this show. It was creative and different. And it had the same enthusiasm and promotional detail given to it as past events such as the Capitals Convention and the season-ticket holder celebrations at Six Flags.

Now the hope is there will be more of them in the future.

Below are the awesome photos from RMNB’s Elizabeth Kong.

Photos

Photos: Elizabeth Kong/RMNB

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