Frog at Black Cat

Go To This Because We Asked So Nicely – A Concert Preview

By Angie Esmail

Cover of Count Bateman by Frog.

If you have spent any time scouring the deeper corners of Bandcamp or indie Reddit over the past decade, there is a good chance you’ve witnessed the cult phenomenon that is Frog. This Saturday, Oct. 3, they will be taking the stage at the Black Cat in Washington, D.C., with Woods opening the show.

Frog is led by Daniel Bateman, alongside his younger brother Steve Bateman on drums and longtime collaborator Thomas White on bass. Originally formed in Queens in 2012, Frog has spent the last decade making wonderful music somewhere between indie rock, folk, Americana and alt-country. Their music is difficult to pin down, and it takes you on a genuine emotional rollercoaster. One moment, a song leads me down a weird feeling of melancholy, and the next second, an extreme high and heightened emotions of life; “420!!!” on the GROG album specifically.

Frog has also been on a remarkably productive run lately. After returning from a four-year hiatus with GROG in 2023, the band has released three albums in just over two years, most recently Frog for Sale in April 2026. The album draws heavily from older songwriting traditions, with Bateman listing his influences from Paul McCartney and Buddy Holly to Mozart, Charlie Parker, Prince, Lil Wayne, and Nas. That list explains Frog in one sentence. Their songs have a loose, slightly strange quality, but underneath all of it is a real, unironic affection for songwriting. The lyrics are strangely poetic and clearly come from a place of genius, my favorite being, “Heard your bracelets jing-a-jing, the sound of your voice hanging when you knew that it was me,” from “Borned King” on Count Bateman.

Bateman grew up in New Rochelle and has described his suburban childhood as a major influence on his music; there is a constant sense throughout Frog’s work that ordinary, everyday life is something worth writing about. He has also joked that much of making Frog is simply trying to make his brother Steve laugh. In a Reddit Ask Me Anything thread, when asked why he keeps making music, Bateman gave a pretty simple answer– he does it because it is fun, and he gets to make music with his brother. Frog feels like a group of people who genuinely like making songs together, becoming something so warm and homemade, you can’t help but feel the loveliness and passion that bleed into every song and lyric. Seeing Frog in a small D.C. venue like the Black Cat is super exciting. Come and feel this for yourselves!

The 5 W’s (and a few H’s)

Who: Frog, with Woods

What: Indie rock/folk/Americana

Where: Black Cat, 1811 14th St. NW, Washington, D.C

When: Saturday, October 3, doors at 8 p.m.

Why: For warm, funny, sweet indie rock that is best experienced in a room full of people. Hug, laugh, and dance! Bring the weirdness with you.

How you might know them: Bandcamp scrolling and Count Bateman‘s iconic album cover of Daniel Bateman as a teen.

How to go: Tickets are $30.90 on Etix.