Indie pop trio Muna launched a North American tour with a splash at Coachella in April, and the band visited The Anthem in DC for a super sold-out local show on May 13.
Katherine Gaines was there to shoot the show on Muna’s Life’s So Fun Tour!
Music is always evolving, and bluegrass is no exception. By the 1970s, it had been around for a couple of generations. Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, the successors to founder Bill Monroe’s crown, had split up. But the most important development of the decade was the emergence of progressive bluegrass, mirroring the progressive country movement more broadly. Progressive bluegrass pushed the boundaries of the genre in both instrumentation — incorporating electric instruments into what was previously all acoustic — and in its material, as artists adapted rock, blues, and jazz songs.
While some of the artists in progressive bluegrass hailed from the genre’s traditional strongholds in Appalachia and the Upper South, many came from outside those regions. Banjo virtuoso Bela Fleck, for example, grew up in New York City. Dobro master Jerry Douglas, who played The Birchmere with his band on Saturday evening, comes from Warren, a suburb of Youngstown in northeast Ohio.
Thee Sinseers and The Altons — two Latin soul groups — have teamed for the Spark of Soul Tour, which arrives at 9:30 Club on Saturday, June 17!
You can win tickets to see the show with Parklife DC.
Asheville, North Carolina-based Town Mountain finds itself in a moment of transition. As mandolinist Phil Barker said, “We’ve always had such a reverence and respect for those first and second-generation bluegrass bands, and it was that sound that initially inspired all of us to get together.”
“That will always be a part of our sound,” he added, but “we also need to grow as artists, and as individuals — for us, that means bringing in a wider palette of sonic influences.”
Citizen Cope, born Clarence Greenwood, dropped by 9:30 Club in the city he grew up in to perform a selection of favorites and a few unreleased songs on his All The Songs You Want to Hear Tour recently.
Steve Satzberg was there to photograph the show!
The Sisters of Mercy have released three studio albums — First and Last and Always (1985), Floodland (1987), and Vision Thing (1990). Despite not releasing an album in 33 years, the post-punk rockers remain among the most anticipated acts that go on tour, galvanizing their extensive network of admirers into action whenever they announce a series of concerts.
Right now, The Sisters of Mercy are on one such eagerly awaited USA tour, and the band kicked it off at The Fillmore Silver Spring on May 10. Jason Nicholson was there to take some photos of frontman Andrew Eldritch and his 21st century guitarists.
For the first time since 2018, Pixies are on a massive, multi-leg North American tour that heads to DC on June 6 at The Atlantis and June 10 at The Anthem.
Both dates are sold out!
I never get tired of hearing Erika Wennerstrom of the Heartless Bastards sing. A native of Ohio, her voice bears some strong similarities to another Buckeye, Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders: deep and resonant, with a Midwestern non-accent that comes from being raised where the Midlands and Inland North American accents meet.
In a recent show at Union Stage in DC, Erika’s voice was in its always fine form, and the Bastards surrounded it with their mix of garage rock and roots music. I definitely heard a banjo in there at one point, but this wasn’t country — it was rock ‘n’ roll, and pretty heavy rock ‘n’ roll at times.
DMV native Kali Uchis made a DC stop on her sold-out Red Moon In Venus Tour not long ago, and she embraced her “hometown” with a phenomenal show at The Anthem.
Kathy Yaeji Lee, better known as simply Yaeji, released her debut full-length album, With a Hammer, in April via XL Recordings. The Korean-American musician has embarked on a world tour this year, and she stopped by 9:30 Club in DC on May 5.
Micaela Cerball was there to photograph the show!
