The Atlantis recently played host to an increasingly unusual performance. The legendary Robyn Hitchcock graced the stage that night — not as a solo act, but with a full band! It was my first time seeing Robyn play with a full band, so my level of anticipation was pretty high, let me tell you!
Parklife recently caught up with Chris Wood of The Wood Brothers for a brief email interview! Mark Engleson shot some questions over to Chris prior to The Wood Brothers’ performance at 9:30 Club on Thursday, Dec. 4, and he was kind enough to send a speedy reply!
In August, The Wood Brothers released Puff of Smoke (Honey Jar/Thirty Tigers), their highly anticipated ninth album of original music. Bassist and vocalist Chris Wood, along with his brother Oliver (guitars) and percussionist and multi-instrumentalist Jano Rix created the 11 songs of Puff of Smoke as a celebration of “joy in the face of challenges,” delivering lyrical wisdom with the winking subtlety of John Prine and the musical hive mind of a seasoned group with two decades of shared experiences.
Keb’ Mo’ performe live at the Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts in Annapolis on Nov. 21, turning the theater into a cozy blues living room for the night.
Steve Satzberg was there to photograph the show for this Parklife Snapshots photo essay.
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.
