If there were any lingering doubts about Gunna’s standing in the hip-hop hierarchy following a tumultuous period of legal battles, he silenced them emphatically in his recent appearance at The Anthem. Bringing his Wun of Dem Nights Tour to a sold-out show in Washington, DC, the Atlanta rapper delivered a performance that felt less like a standard tour stop and more like a statement of vindication.
Cut Copy came to DC to play — and they weren’t going to let something like being down a member stop them. Although he is present on the band’s current US tour, guitarist Tim Hoey was too ill to perform for their recent date at 9:30 Club, and so frontman Dan Whitford and company soldiered on without him.
The result was a damn good show that breezed by like a chill rave full of friends.
The Faint, the dark-wave dance project founded by brothers Todd Fink (frontman) and Clark Baechle (drums) 30 years ago, continues to impress! The Faint recently returned to 9:30 Club to play three new songs alongside their dance-punk classics in a concert full of irresistible post-punk grooves!
GWAR turned Nevermore Hall into a slaughterhouse of cosmic proportions on Nov. 18, drenching the Baltimore crowd in fake blood, bad jokes and gloriously heavy riffs on the Return of Gor-Gor tour.
Steve Satzberg was there to photograph the show for this Parklife Snapshots photo essay.
Violent Vira Rocks Hard at 9:30 Club
The emerging star already has an extremely dedicated following
Words by Matt Bailey
Photos by James Todd Miller
Violent Vira brought droves of fans to 9:30 Club recently for her stand-out style of hard rock and metal. Her show at the DC venue had been sold out for weeks ahead of time.
As the new documentary Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery on Hulu revisits how Sarah McLachlan’s women-led festival reshaped ’90s music, her recent set at The Anthem brought that legacy home in the most powerful way: live.
And while there was plenty of the material from those long-ago salad days, when I was just a spry young pup and Lilith Fair was touring across the nation, this wasn’t just a nostalgia show: We got plenty of songs from the album McLachlan released earlier this year.
Couch turned the 9:30 Club into a full-body groove session on Nov. 15, delivering a buoyant, tightly arranged set that showcased just how far the Boston-bred collective has come.
Steve Satzberg was there to photograph the show for this Parklife Snapshots photo essay.
Saturday night in DC was a great night of music and protest as Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave legend Tom Morello and his band, along with The Neighborhood Kids — and a special appearance by Max Weinberg from Bruce Springsteen and the East Street Band — played an enormous set at the historic Lincoln Theatre to a sold-out crowd. Morello and band played a fantastic gig of exceptional guitar-driven rock and roll and were very convincing in getting across messages of “anti-fascism,” “anti-Nazism,” and “anti-racism” to the highly enthusiastic crowd.
Someone once asked Colin Hay if he would say pursuing a career as a songwriter was worthwhile.
“Here’s a song that took me 40 minutes to write, and it’s sustained me for 40 years,” Colin told The Birchmere recently when closing the first of two sold-out performances. So, the answer is “yes.”
Colin then played a lovely stripped down version of “Down Under,” originally recorded with the band Men at Work, the outfit that catapulted him to fame.
Under the glow of the disco ball of the 9:30 Club and electric blue lights, The Aces returned to DC recently, transforming the storied venue into a sanctuary of queer joy and unfiltered guitar pop-rock adrenaline.
The Aces, a Utah-born band, played live on their Gold Star Baby Tour as they reaffirmed their place as one of indie-pop’s tightest live acts. They felt delightfully at home with a crowd that greeted them like beloved friends rather than visiting performers.
