Queen + Adam Lambert recently brought their highly acclaimed production, now expanded and updated, back to where it first began. After a four-year long hiatus, Sir Brian May, Roger Taylor, and their exceptional frontman Adam Lambert relaunched their Rhapsody Tour with a show at CFG Bank Arena in Baltimore on Oct. 4.
Steve Satzberg was there to photograph the show!
One of the most common criticisms of bluegrass is that it all sounds the same. I’ve even made that complaint myself at times. But watching Town Mountain and The Lil’ Smokies recently perform at The Birchmere, you weren’t seeing two bands that sounded much alike. Each has a distinct personality and sound.
GRAMMY-winning international popstar and acclaimed songwriter Kim Petras electrified her audience last week to officially kick off her Feed The Beast World Tour. That tour lands at The Anthem in DC on Thursday, Oct. 12.
Some artists — if they’re so dedicated — might craft not just a lasting sound, but a distinct character that fans can celebrate and even infuse into their own way of living.
Futurebirds is a band that has undoubtedly honed its music and its identity with remarkable style and vitality. A winsome, lovable pack of musicians and friends from Athens, Georgia, the indie rock outfit formed back in 2008, and it has built a significant following and carved out its own space as one of the most exhilarating acts out there blending country, rock, and psychedelia.
A room of bright-eyed and giddy onlookers enjoyed an evening with this rambunctious, fun-loving song machine early this week at The Atlantis in Washington DC, a long overdue return to the nation’s capital for a group that in its day has played now-shuddered locales like Rock and Roll Hotel.
Marshall Crenshaw has a well-deserved reputation as a master musical craftsman, and his skills were on full display recently at The Birchmere. During his set, he shared two of his newer songs, co-written with Dan Bern, that deal with the apocalypse. But even when he’s singing about something so dire, the songs are catchy and you can’t help but enjoy it. Doom and hellfire have no sounded so good and so fun.
During his appearance at The Birchmere, Crenshaw was celebrating his 40th anniversary “in show business,” and it’s been a varied, wide-ranging career. He actually released his first, self-titled album 41 years ago, and had been involved in musical theater before that. A native of Detroit, after graduating high school in 1971, he played in a local band. In 1978, he moved to New York, where he became an understudy for the role of John Lennon in Beatlemania. That’s not the only acting he’s done: after years of being compared to the late Buddy Holly, he portrayed him in La Bamba, the biopic about Richie Valens, who died in the same plane crash that took Holly’s life.
In August, Slowdive released their highly anticipated new album, everything is alive, via Dead Oceans. The shoegaze legends hit the road for a North American tour, and they appeared at 9:30 Club recently with openers Drab Majesty.
Nalinee Darmrong was there to shoot the show.
It’s difficult to find a followership more addicted to its favorite music than the growing network of bluegrass fans.
And artists, too, seem to acknowledge that this form — evolved out of old-time string music and first popularized by Bill Monroe — is indeed a fever-inducing obsession that only seems to fester more and more with each passing day.
Some of the most prestigious pickers and pluckers, while masters of various styles, just can’t get enough — they love the sound, feel, and spirit of bluegrass, and they relish in the act of playing and sharing in it with others.
There’s no deeper mystery behind Mighty Poplar, a recently formed bluegrass outfit boasting some of the most beloved players in all the land: Chris Eldridge and Noam Pikelny (Punch Brothers), Andrew Marlin (Watchhouse), Greg Garrison (Leftover Salmon), and Alex Hargreaves (Billy Strings).
It’s not every day a couple of rock & roll legends play their hometown. That was the case as Hot Tuna recently appeared at the Warner Theatre on what will be their final electric tour. At the core of Hot Tuna, throughout its numerous lineup changes over more than 50 years, is the partnership of guitarist Jorma Kaukonen and bassist Jack Casady, both of whom grew up in DC.
You may not know Hot Tuna, which has achieved a cult following on the jam band circuit, but, you’ve almost certainly heard Kaukonen and Casady’s work with the psychedelic band Jefferson Airplane, which emerged from the vibrant San Francisco music scene in the mid-to-late ’60s. As members of that band, they were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
A secluded approach to writing and recording music can yield something authentic and all to its own — it’s a commonly known practice for bands or solo artists to depart to the mountains, the random boondocks or maybe even paradise, determined to create or polish new material.
But with lead vocalist and songwriter Jeremy Earl, based near the Catskills and Shawangunks, and his longtime bandmate Jarvis Taveniere living on the West Coast, the familial posse known as Woods has found a way to not only thrive but become a gold standard for what can be achieved by independent musicians, as seen recently at Comet Ping Pong.
Formed in Brooklyn way back in 2004, Woods just recently released Perennial, its 12th studio album and a clandestine work of art representing its progression into one of the most visionary and alluring outfits making music today.
Listening to Hozier’s music on a streaming platform like Spotify or Apple Music can be transformative. But hearing him in person is a whole new level of amazing.
Before watching Hozier perform, I knew I was a fan; but after seeing him live, the admiration I have for his songwriting skills and vocals has been bolstered. All the way from Bray, Ireland, Hozier recently joined us at The Anthem on the eighth stop of the USA leg of his tour, Unreal Unearth. He spent the summer performing throughout Europe and will be touring the United States until early November.
