South Korean indie rock band Se So None, featuring lead vocalist and guitarist Hwang So-yoon, performs live at 9:30 Club on Friday, Sept. 5.
The band tours North America on the heels of transforming into a solo project by So-yoon, who dropped an album titled NOW on August 15 via AWAL.
When you’re down and troubled and in need of a helping hand, there’s nothing quite like a James Taylor summer concert to lift your spirits. As the opening chords of “You’ve Got a Friend” — the Carole King–penned classic that Taylor made his own — recently rang out at Wolf Trap, the crowd was instantly transported.
For many, the song rekindled memories of friendships that had shaped their lives. For me, it carried me back to childhood summers at a sleep-away camp in northeastern Pennsylvania, where each August farewell was softened by the promise of seeing friends again — a promise sealed by this very song.
If there’s a smell that can instantly throw you into the middle of a rock show, it’s that faint mix of summer air, spilled beer, and fried food drifting up to the lawn. By the time Joan Jett and the Blackhearts stormed the stage at Merriweather Post Pavilion on Friday, that haze hung low over Columbia, Maryland, like a stubborn ghost that wasn’t ready to leave. The crowd wasn’t ready to leave either. They’d packed themselves into the Pavilion with that buzzing energy that comes from knowing you’re about to see a living piece of rock and roll history still fighting, still snarling, still sounding like a razor through velvet.
Joan Jett doesn’t ease into anything, she kicks doors open — and she certainly kicked them open for Billy Idol as his opening act. The first jagged chords of “Victim of Circumstance” slammed through the speakers, and suddenly Merriweather didn’t feel like a picturesque suburban amphitheater anymore. It felt like a club, sweaty and mean, where the walls are dripping, and every word feels like it might burn a hole through you.
There’s something about cool summer nights at Merriweather Post Pavilion. The lawn packed with blankets and coolers, the pavilion buzzing with beer lines and conversations that stretch over decades of friendship — it’s a Maryland tradition as much as it is a venue. But on Friday, Billy Idol turned Columbia’s iconic amphitheater into his own personal rock-and-roll cathedral.
Robert Earl Keen is an iconoclast, even in the world of music. He never fit into the country establishment in Nashville, instead building a career based out of his home state in Texas. Mixing the flavors of country, folk, and even some rock ‘n’ roll, he’s become a major figure in what’s become known as Americana, as well as the Red Dirt regional music scene in Oklahoma and Texas.
Keen brought an authentic slice of Texas music and charm to his recent appearance at The Birchmere, with excellent songs and great stories that showed off his delightful sense of humor.
Chicago, America’s storied “rock and roll band with horns” delivered a dynamic and polished performance recently at Wolf Trap.
Mark Raker was there to photograph the show.
Sparks, brothers Ron and Russell Mael, recently released a new album, MAD!, via Transgressive Records. The prolific and massively influential musical duo soon embark on an accompany tour, and they perform at the Lincoln Theatre in DC on Tuesday, Sept. 9.
In March, British glam imps The Darkness released Dreams on Toast, their eighth studio album via Canary Dwarf and Cooking Vinyl.
The Darkness soon embark on a North American tour in support of the album, and they perform live at the Lincoln Theatre in DC on Tuesday, Sept. 9.
Wolf Trap’s Filene Center felt like home on the steamy evening of Saturday, August 16, as singer-songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter returned to the beloved venue. It was a perfect setup for a night steeped in nostalgia and fresh musical moments.
Steve Satzberg was there to photograph the evening!
Virgil insisted we were seeing the real deal.
I tried explaining: tribute bands. Musicians who dress like and play the songs of other musicians. He shook his head. “Nonsense. Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and Scorpions in Leesburg on a Friday night!” Once Virgil gets fixated on a frame of reality, arguing with him about it is like debating metaphysics. So off we went, through the posh suburban corridors of Loudoun County, into the cauldron of Leesburg’s Tally Ho Theater for what was ostensibly a genuine heavy metal summit.
