English punk pioneers Buzzcocks played Riot Fest in Chicago on Saturday, and frontman Steve Diggle took the opportunity to build a US swing around the date. Buzzcocks land at the relatively intimate Union Stage in DC on Wednesday, Sept. 23 — a great opportunity to catch the legendary outfit.
Garbage at the Anthem: A Cathedral of Noise
Words and Photos by Michael Sprouse/ Odd Rocker Photography
The Anthem was already buzzing before Garbage took the stage Wednesday night, 9/17/2025 on their Happy Endings tour. There’s something about seeing a band with this much history in a venue like The Anthem — you feel the weight of the years, the soundtracks to your younger self, but also the thrill that maybe, just maybe, they’re going to rip the paint off the walls again like it’s 1995. That’s the gamble when you walk into a show like this. Are they still dangerous, still relevant, or is it nostalgia running the show?
After 30 years, I finally got to see the great Pogues again, and they were pretty much the way I remembered them in the early 1990s when I saw them play in Germany — fully energized, playing non-stop Irish music with a twist of folk music and punk reverberation.
The Pogues indeed were sensational in their recent concert at New York City’s Terminal 5. After losing Shane MacGowan in 2023, who was the lead vocalist for The Pogues over the course of many decades, the band are back on tour and sounded sensational in celebration of 40-years of the album Rum Sodomy & the Lash.
If classic rock and roll hits you in the heart, and you still want to catch one of the greatest bands of the era, then you simply should try to catch a 10cc show while they are still touring and have so many original artists left in the group. At the band’s recent show at The Birchmere, 1970s-era members included Graham Gouldman on bass, Rick Finn on lead guitars, and Paul Burgess on drums — alongside Keith Hayman on keyboards and Andy Park on lead vocals.
Dummy’s recent concert at Songbyrd Music House in DC felt like more than a live show — it was a statement. The band delivered a tightly wound performance blending shimmering guitars, motorik rhythms, and ambient textures that burrowed under the skin.
Nalinee Darmong was there to photograph the show!
Wolf Alice and the Band’s Fans: A Love Story
Words by Steph Perkins
Photos by Micaela Cerball
(Editor’s Note: We updated this review with more photos on Sept. 20!)
It’s not unusual to see a packed early show at the 9:30 Club, but the excitement was palpable for Wolf Alice to take the stage for their second sold-out show last weekend. While waiting for the main act, I could hear people around me swapping their hopes for the setlist and others wondering if they were going to hear the same set as the night before.
Bruce Dickinson Brings Fire and Fury to The Fillmore Silver Spring
Words and photos by Michael Sprouse/ Odd Rocker Photography
Bruce Dickinson doesn’t so much walk onto a stage as he materializes. One second, the lights are dim, a hum of anticipation filling the room, and the next you’ve got one of heavy metal’s greatest frontmen striding out like he owns every square inch of air in the building. At The Fillmore Silver Spring, the man who’s spent decades screaming at stadium rafters with Iron Maiden brought his solo tour to a more intimate setting, and the result was something between a theatrical sermon, a hard rock séance, and an old-fashioned, fists-in-the-air metal gig.
“The kids are alright,” I hear myself saying as I stand surrounded by by screaming concert goers recently at the sold-out Finn Wolfhard show at The Atlantis.
There’s something to be said for the recent spate of albums being released that have a ’90s indie rock-inspired feel. And I, for one, am here for it. From artists like Wet Leg and Momma to Slow Pulp there is a revival of sorts in the jangly, distorted rock that draws its inspiration from the Pavements and Guided by Voices of the past.
Apocalyptica recently stormed into Nevermore Hall with the kind of grandeur that makes you forget you’re watching cellists. But then, the Finnish outfit fused classical precision with metal ferocity, summoning towering dynamics from their bows and strings, to cover the tunes of Metallica, and so maybe we should expect the unexpected!
Katherine Gaines went to Nevermore Hall to photograph the show!
Roughly 10 years after the ill-fated tour that led to PUP’s blockbuster record The Dream Is Over, the Toronto punk foursome reunited once again with longtime friend and collaborator Jeff Rosenstock on the A CATACLYSMIC RAPTURE OF FRIENDSHIPNESS Tour. On a quasi-balmy evening, amidst a backdrop of illegal gestapo snatchings and self-fellating authoritarian propaganda, the rabble rousing troubadours descended upon The Anthem in southwest DC, determined to bring diversion and dissent to a community in dire need of it.
