Guitar virtuoso, composer, and producer William Tyler and his band, The Impossible Truth, recently played to a packed house at DC’s Songbyrd Music House. Their music, wholly instrumental, was some of the most beautiful I’ve heard at a live show in some time, as well as some of the most unique.
Natalie Closner, Allison Closner, and Meegan Closner (the latter two twins) are better known as the band Joseph, a folk trio hailing from Portland, Oregon.
Last year, Joseph released The Sun (their fourth full-length studio album) via ATO Records, and they hit the road in support of the new record. The band performed at Rams Head Live in Baltimore recently, and Steve Satzberg was there to photograph the show!
“I didn’t realize I have so many songs,” Willie Nile told the audience at The Hamilton Live during his recent appearance there. “And some of ’em don’t suck.”
Both statements are very much true: As the tagline on his merch reads, Willie has been making New York rock ‘n’ roll since 1980, when he released his self-titled debut album. And his songs certainly don’t suck: He has earned acclaim from critics and is widely admired by his fellow artists, including Bruce Springsteen, Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, and The Who.
Sold Out Show. Nothing beats these words when you’re seeing one of your favorite bands perform near you. With music playing an integral part of life, seeing those words renews your faith in community and the irreplaceable nature of a live rock show.
Beartooth recently played to a sold-out crowd at Rams Head Live! and broke a couple records while they were there. With openers Sleep Theory, Invent Animate, and The Plot in You, it was an amazing lineup that kept the crowd pumped up with horns in the air all night.
When I first heard the term “mystery friends,” I thought of a young gang of scrappy upstarts solving crimes together a la Scooby Doo. But if you like me live in DC, then you know Mystery Friends are actually a young gang of scrappy upstarts a la The Archies. Mind you, the new wave quintet don’t sound like The Archies unless you reimagine the fictitious group as an ’80s pop band.
I digress. Mystery Friends, a band worthy of your eyes and ears, sold out The Atlantis recently in an album debut party for the band’s second full-length record, Utopia, and they were nothing less than awesome.
Although Juliana Hatfield broke into music during the grunge era, she always had a taste for pop radio of the previous decades, and she has let this show through in her music. She wrote of Mellencamp’s Jack and Diane for “Swan Song” on her 1998 album, Bed. And she recruited The Psychedelic Furs’ Richard Butler in 2008 for “This Lonely Love” on her album How to Walk Away.
Recently, Juliana dedicated entire albums to covers, paying tribute to Olivia Newton-Jone (2018), The Police (2019), and ELO (2023) — all released via American Laundromat Records. But she first covered “Every Breath You Take” by the Police as a bonus track on her year 2000 album, Beautiful Creature.
And so Juliana has a taste for pop classics, and she comes by it earnestly. Over the weekend, she shared her love of those songs and classic radio with a sold-out show at the Millennium Stage at The Kennedy Center during a date on a brief winter tour.
And the celebration continues! Last summer, Living Colour embarked on a tour to simultaneously celebrate the 30th anniversary of their third album Stain and the 35th anniversary of their debut, Vivid. Last week they started touring again to keep the party going, and they stopped at the Tally Ho Theater in Leesburg, Virginia.
On the eve of Torres’s sixth full-length album, What an Enormous Room, Mackenzie Scott and her band hit the stage at The Atlantis in DC. With a set that pulled heavily from the new record, Torres put on a moving set that had me heading straight home afterwards to listen to the few singles that had been released up till that point.
Oliver Tree recently orchestrated a remarkable Alone in a Crowd concert at The Anthem in DC, blending diverse forms of entertainment and performances into a night of captivating musical and comedic experiences.
In his first appearance in the area in several years, Dylan LeBlanc and his band recently played a set at the Songbyrd Music House.
A second-generation musician born in Shreveport, Louisiana, Dylan LeBlanc is the son of James LeBlanc, a session player at the legendary Muscle Shoals Studios. His parents divorced when he was an infant, and he lived with his mother, who cleaned houses, and his two siblings in Blanchard, a small town outside of Shreveport, until the age of nine. When he was 10, he moved to Muscle Shoals with his father, who was pursuing his dream of becoming a country music songwriter.
