Steve Lacy brought his North American Oh yeah? Tour to The Anthem on Sunday, Oct. 18, marking his return to Washington following his Give You the World Tour in 2022.
The tour supports his third studio album, Oh yeah?, released in July. Written and produced by Lacy, the album features collaborators including SZA. With no opening act and a sold-out crowd at The Anthem, the evening demonstrated how far Lacy has come since his earliest viral hits.
Mushroomhead and Fear Factory brought the Soul of a New War Machine Tour to Tally Ho Theater in Leesburg on Sunday night, with Nine Treasures opening on their first-ever US tour. I’ll admit I initially thought the pairing of Mushroomhead with Fear Factory was strange.
Then I spent the afternoon revisiting Call the Devil, Mushroomhead’s latest album. The song structures and the singing style (particularly Ms. Jackie’s) reminded me of KMFDM, and I realized they are more industrial than I remembered. It’s hard not to make comparisons with Slipknot given the size of the band, the jumpsuits, and the masks; those comparisons abounded when Mushroomhead released XX in the early aughts. Musically, they are very different artists.
Rising sensation Sienna Spiro is making waves this fall, bringing her My House Tour to a sold-out Lincoln Theatre in DC on Friday, Oct. 16. The 21-year-old British singer is touring in support of her debut album, Visitor, released July 3 on Capitol Records.
I’ve long thought of The Anthem as Washington, DC’s answer to New York’s Radio City Music Hall. Both are grand theaters accommodating roughly 6,000 people, and both lend a sense of occasion to a concert by the right performer. Morrissey certainly rose to the occasion, delivering a rapturous evening of music to another sold-out crowd.
Sixteen years after the release of their debut album Tourist History, Northern Ireland’s Two Door Cinema Club have plenty of reasons to celebrate. The indie rock trio brought their Tourist History 15th Anniversary Tour to The Anthem on Oct. 11, delivering a brisk, danceable set that demonstrated why the album remains such an enduring favorite.
Craft beer may be the main attraction at Snallygaster, but the annual festival also provides an excellent showcase for live music, particularly bands from DC and the surrounding region.
The 14th edition of Snallygaster took over Pennsylvania Avenue NW on Saturday, Oct. 10, bringing hundreds of beers, food vendors, and live entertainment to the heart of the nation’s capital. With the Capitol dome rising over the festival grounds, music filled two stages as thousands of visitors explored the enormous selection of brews.
Among the afternoon’s performers, three bands offered an interesting contrast in musical styles. DC’s Tosser brought alternative rock to the 6th Street Stage, followed by the brassy, genre-defying Black Masala on the Capitol Stage. Richmond’s Keep later returned the focus to the 6th Street Stage with its atmospheric brand of shoegaze.
Tricky has a reputation as a live performer, and it isn’t always a good one. In the 30-plus years since Maxinquaye, there have been plenty of stories about shows that went sideways. I had never seen him before, so I jumped at the chance to see his first North American tour in eight years. I walked into the Lincoln Theatre with an open mind, not entirely sure what I was going to get but also ready for anything.
Aoife O’Donovan brought her solo acoustic tour to The Birchmere on Oct. 12, delivering a mesmerizing evening of folk music, exceptional guitar playing, and warm exchanges with an appreciative audience. Joined by Washington, DC duo The Sweater Set, O’Donovan demonstrated why she remains one of the most compelling performers in contemporary folk and bluegrass.
Painkillers: Brian Fallon’s Heartbreak Medicine
Words by Liz Wyatt
Photos by Steve Satzberg
Deep inside DC’s Black Cat, a music venue founded by former Gray Matter drummer Dante Ferrando and investors including Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl, the front of the stage was filling with bald, bearded, well-heeled, well-mannered, and well-to-do DC men clad in plaid flannel, smelling of leather and nontoxic manly musk. American freedom rests in that manly musk.
The black-and-white checkered floor was dotted with fishnet stockings, Vans sneakers, and T-shirts from the band Brian Fallon fronted before the Painkillers, the Gaslight Anthem.
From her bedroom-pop beginnings to her commanding presence on larger stages, Filipino-British indie-rock artist beabadoobee has continued to evolve as a musician and performer. Her breakout single, “Coffee,” released in 2017, later found a wider audience when it was sampled in Powfu’s hit “Death Bed (Coffee for Your Head),” which reached No. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Her fourth studio album, Pylon, released Sept. 18, marked another milestone, reaching No. 1 on the UK Official Albums Chart and a career-high No. 7 on the Billboard 200, becoming her first top 10 album in the United States. Her Oct. 10 performance at Merriweather Post Pavilion demonstrated how far she has come, transforming her intimate, nostalgic sound into a production suited to a venue of this scale.
