There’s something about a beautiful, cool late-summer night at Merriweather that just feels tailor-made for rock and roll. The Black Keys rolled into Columbia, in support of their new album, No Rain, No Flowers like they owned the place, and by the end of the night, you could argue they did.
Silversun Pickups have a sound that is instantly recognizable. They’ve been around for 25 years — and in that time, they have released six full length albums. When they most recently played the 9:30 Club, they created a career-spanning setlist that included hits and fans favorites plus a few deep cuts.
In the time of Doc Martens, dyed black hair, and silver chains enough to choke a den of werewolves bands like KMFDM and Skinny Puppy reigned supreme over suburban malls across America. And while the popularity of the industrial goth aesthetic has waxed and waned over the years, one band that has consistently found a foothold in the angst of each subsequent generation since then has been Nine Inch Nails.
Nine Inch Nails, led by frontman and songwriter Trent Reznor, has been going strong for nearly 40 years. On the heels of the band’s new material as part of the film Tron: Ares, the band announced a massive world tour, The Peel It Back Tour, through the summer with a stop at Baltimore’s CFB Bank Arena. The famed industrial act last graced the streets of Charm City way back in 2008 as part of the Virgin Mobile Fest (though Reznor and company did play The Anthem in DC in 2018). But Nine In Nails more than made up for the lost time on Tuesday night.
James McMurtry on Politics, Language, and His New Album, The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy
Interview by Mark Engleson
James McMurtry is angry. “We’ve got the Gestapo, now,” he tells me, “Only we call it ICE. And they’re disappearing people.” I mention how, when I saw I’m Still Here, the film about the disappearances in Brazil in the 1970s, I turned to my date after the movie and said that was America’s future. I wish I hadn’t been right.
In June, Pulp released their new album, More, their first original record in almost 24 years, via Rough Trade Records. Frontman Jarvis Cocker and company soon embark on their biggest North American tour in decades — a tour that includes a date at The Anthem in DC on Saturday, Sept. 6.
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.
