“This is the acoustic show,” Austin-based blues artist Ruthie Foster recently told the audience at The Hamilton Live when she took the stage. Playing solo acoustic can be a challenge: with just one instrument and one’s voice, there’s no hiding any shortcomings.
But Ruthie Foster is a truly impressive vocalist, and she’s more than capable of holding an audience at rapt attention in this setting.
Every album that is ever released will eventually have a 30th and 35th anniversary. Few bands stick around with their original, or close to original lineups to celebrate those anniversaries. Living Colour is one of those unique bands: Their debut, Vivid, was released 35 years ago. And their third album (and first with current bassist, Doug Wimbish) came out 30 years ago.
Living Colour played an amazing, if somewhat short, set at Tally Ho Theater in Leesburg, Virginia, recently. The band is currently on tour celebrating Vivid and Stain’s milestones.
Boy George was dashing, clad as a New Romantic god, in Culture Club’s recent concert performance in the DC metro area. The pop music icon’s dedication to smart fashion persisted despite the soaring temperatures, which sparked a summer squall and lightning storm that delayed the band’s concert.
“Heat is the enemy of fashion,” George declared at the start of his set, although he made it look easy.
Hip-hip and country sweetheart Post Malone came to Jiffy Lube Live in Bristow, Virginia, last week and delivered one of the best performances I’ve seen to date. Not only is his music top-tier, but his full-fledged performance production and dedication to his fans made his show more than unforgettable.
I’ve said it before, but summer doesn’t really feel like summer for me until I see the My Morning Jacket show on the calendar for Merriweather. Jim James, Carl Broemel and co. have played Columbia, MD in 2010-2013, 2015, 2017, and 2021. The 2021 show was my first proper concert post-Covid and it was just as amazing as I hoped it would be.
So imagine my surprise when this year, instead of Merriweather, the band was booked to play an “intimate” show at The Anthem.
Electronic rockbound Le Tigre, led by Gen X posterwoman Kathleen Hanna, reunited and launched a North American tour that began in May. Recently, Le Tigre roared into Baltimore Soundstage for a sold-out show on that reunion tour, delighting fans with a set heavy on their self-titled debut album (1999).
Katherine Gaines was there to photograph the show!
“I just love music. All of it – listening to it, playing. I mean, all of it. Everything about it, really. There’s really nothing about it I don’t like.” – Jerry Garcia
During the pandemic shutdown when live music performances could have completely disappeared, musicians, fans, and venues responded in typically creative fashion: on-line live streams, sidewalk concerts, drive-in shows, and a massive Congressional lobbying effort by National Independent Venue Association (NIVA, #saveourstages) spearheaded by Dayna Frank of First Avenue in Minneapolis. And save our stages they did as the Save Our Stages Act was approved in 2020 to the tune of $15 billion, setting aside funds for independent venues to weather the economic Covid storm.
X have been touring while debuting new music from a future Fat Possum album release. Exene Cervenka, John Doe, Billy Zoom, and DJ Bonebrake have been on road with their good friends, Squirrel Nut Zippers, and they perform at 9:30 Club in DC on Sept. 5.
“It’s not a virtue, to stay in one place.”
River Whyless is slated to play the Kennedy Center’ Millenium Stage on Thursday, August 3, in the band’s return to the DC area.
Acclaimed vocalist and songwriter Joan Osborne is back with Nobody Owns You, out Sept. 8 on Womanly Hips Records and produced by Ben Rice (Valerie June, Norah Jones). You can hear her new songs live at The Hamilton Live on Sunday, Aug. 6.
