Abe Partridge and Jack Barksdale recently filled the intimate Rams Head On Stage (capacity ~350) with a vibrant, soul‑stirring Americana performance that held the audience spellbound.
Steve Satzberg was there to photograph the show!
Goo Goo Dolls and Dashboard Confessional recently performed live at the Filene Center at Wolf Trap, and Steve Satzberg was there to photograph the show!
I’m dating myself, but Trompe Le Monde was the first Pixies CD I owned (released the same day as Nevermind!). In many ways, it is my favorite Pixies album. Sure Doolittle is better, but Trompe Le Monde opened up a whole new world for me after listening to it — and it made me want to find other records just like it. And that wasn’t hard, because The Pixies are the bedrock that ’90s college radio and Alternative Nation were built on.
There’s an iconic photograph of a young Troy Andrews — already nicknamed Trombone Shorty by his older neighborhood friends — marching in a New Orleans second line parade with a trombone nearly as tall as he was. The instrument dwarfs his small frame, perfectly capturing both his early musical passion and the vibrant street-music culture of his Tremé neighborhood.
American folk musician David Wilcox recently performed at Rams Head on Stage, and Steve Satzberg was there to photograph the show.
Wilcox held down the fort for what was originally intended to be a double bill with himself and Cheryl Wheeler. However, Wheeler took ill and could not perform. Local musician Lynn Hollyfield traveled to Annapolis to open the show instead.
On the evening of July 23, Nelly kicked off the North American leg of his Where The Party At Tour at Jiffy Lube Live in Bristow, Virginia, treating thousands to a nostalgia-fueled, high‑octane set packed with hits spanning his quarter-century career.
Chris Castillo was there to photograph the show.
When I mentioned to friends that I was going to cover Dinosaur Jr. at The Fillmore Silver Spring, the reactions were all pretty similar. There was a unanimous “F YEAH!” There was also a widespread “make sure you bring hearing protection.” Both responses were valid.
Nearly 50 years after they first came together as art school students in Leeds, England, first-wave British punk The Mekons are still at it, persevering through lineup changes and struggles with, as frontman Jon Langford said, “the capitalist music industry.” Earlier this year, they released their latest album, Horror, a response to our times from the band’s unabashedly leftist perspective, with plenty of their trademark mordant, cynical humor.
In their recent appearance at Union Stage — on their first tour since before the Covid pandemic — The Mekons shared some of these new songs, along with popular favorites from their extensive catalog.
Strutman Lane, the genre-blurring musical collective from the outskirts of DC, headlined a homegrown band showcase at the 9:30 Club on Saturday night, delivering a dazzling set of funk, pop, and soul to a packed house. Sharing the bill were the bluesy, hard-rocking Rock Creek Kings and rising singer-songwriter Brooklyn Kohl, making her debut at the storied venue.
Pelican is a behemoth. The amount of sound that emanates from these four musicians is staggering. And I have been a fan since 2005 and the release of their sophomore album, The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw. It was an amazing introduction to instrumental post rock. When Pelican recently came to DC9, it was to support their latest album, Flickering Resonance.
