Bill Kirchen’s career as a guitarist, bandleader, and songwriter has gone through many stages since the ’60s. For a while, he lived in the DMV, playing regularly at the Sunset Grill, so there were plenty of old friends at his sold-out show at Jammin’ Java on Saturday, where he played old-school honky-tonk, cosmic country anthems, and some inspired Dylan covers.
The Mountain Goats: Songs You Want to Hear
Words by Liz Wyatt
Photographs by Steve Satzberg
The Mountain Goats started off their 2026 tour promoting their 24th album Days at The Fillmore in Silver Spring.
The first time I saw Iron & Wine, he played on a split bill with Andrew Bird at Wolf Trap. That night, he played solo, and his set was punctuated with wild, highly entertaining banter and asides (I will never forget the imaged he conjured of “a hot, sweaty Nancy Pelosi”) as he bounced around the stage. When I saw him most recently at the 9:30 Club, he played with a full band. While Sam (Beam, the singer-songwriter who uses the moniker Iron & Wine) still got in some funny moments, this was a more buttoned-down show, but it showed off his songs just as well.
Melody’s Echo Chamber is the musical project of French musician Melody Prochet. Her fourth studio album – Unclouded — was released in December. Its psychedelic dream-like sounds emulate the self titled debut record from 2012, but this time with an uncharted optimism.
Melody’s Echo Chamber made their return to the live music scene in 2023, with notable festival appearances at Austin Psych Fest, Primavera Sound Barcelona, and Corona Capital Festival in Mexico City. The band was scheduled to play the Black Cat in DC back in 2017, but all tour dates were cancelled indefinitely while Prochet recovered from a serious accident. Prochet finally graced Black Cat on May 12 — almost a decade later.
Avatar Turns The National Into a Twisted Metal Carnival in Richmond
Some concerts feel polished. Carefully assembled and predictable in the way big arena productions sometimes become predictable, where every lighting cue lands with corporate precision and every crowd interaction feels timed against a click track somewhere backstage.
Then there’s Avatar.
LAROI Brings A Perfect World to The Anthem
Tommy Richman warmed the room up, then LAROI hit the stage to the loudest chant of the night and ran A Perfect World Tour like a nonstop singalong.
The Kid LAROI brought A Perfect World Tour to The Anthem in Washington, DC, and the loudest moment might have happened before he even said a word. The second he walked out, the crowd chanted his name like they’d been saving their voice for that exact cue. It was immediate, full volume, and it set the tone for the rest of the night. No slow build, no “wait and see.” DC was already locked in.
Well, holy shite. If you’d have been at DC9 the night of May 11, you’d have thought the floor was going to cave in.
The Scratch is a one-of-its-kind band from Dublin that mashes traditional Irish music with heavy-metal, hardcore sounds, and they’ve become a must-see show wherever they may roam.
The rowdy bunch made its way to the USA this month for a cross-country adventure that will keep them on American soil until the end of the month.
Black Label Society at The Fillmore Silver Spring: Riffs, Volume, and the Church of Zakk Wylde
There are some nights where a concert feels less like a show and more like a gathering of lifers. Leather vests. Faded tour shirts that have survived twenty summers and probably a few questionable bars. The smell of beer and amplifier heat hanging in the room before the first note even lands. May 11 at The Fillmore Silver Spring had that feeling early. You could sense it in the lobby chatter. People weren’t there casually. They came for riffs. Big ones. The kind that rattle your ribs a little and make your neck sore the next morning in the best possible way.
And honestly, a Black Label Society crowd is its own species anyway.
Sleaford Mods will break your heart. Nasty, poignant, disconnected, focused, cynical, adorable, poetic, tragic. They brought all these elements and then some to an eager sold-out crowd at The Atlantis on May 10 (Mother’s Day here in the USA) to promote their stunning recent Rough Trade release, The Demise of Planet X. $1 dollar from each ticket goes to War Child UK — a specialist charity for children affected by conflict and war.
There’s a certain kind of early summer rock show that feels stitched directly into the DNA of amphitheaters like Jiffy Lube Live. Cool air hanging over the lawn. Tailgates still winding down while the opening band starts playing.
Beer lines moving slowly because nobody’s really in a hurry yet, even as a light rain makes things a little interesting for a while. You hear snippets of old rock radio staples floating through the parking lot before you even reach the gates.
The night of May 10 had that atmosphere from the jump.
Three generations of hard rock fans packed into Bristow, Virginia, for a lineup that honestly made perfect sense together. Dorothy brought swagger and grit. Stone Temple Pilots carried the weight of pure ‘90s nostalgia without feeling trapped by it. Then Godsmack closed the night with enough pyro, percussion, and crowd-sized choruses to shake the beer cups right out of people’s hands.
