Tori Amos (Photo by John Witherspoon)
Trailblazing musician, author, and activist, Tori Amos recently announced a massive North American 2022 tour, and she visits MGM National Harbor on Sunday, May 8, for a date on the Ocean to Ocean Tour.
Jeff Goldblum (Photo courtesy the Strathmore)
With The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra, actor Jeff Goldblum has released two jazz albums — most recently, I Shouldn’t Be Tell You This in 2019.
Jeff Goldblum & The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra now play the Strathmore Music Center on Friday, May 6.
LP (Photo courtesy Tell All Your Friends PR)
There are people who just seem born with innate talents. Some have a way with public speaking or knowing how to fix things, and others, like Laura Pergolizzi — known professionally as LP — feel destined to create music and, as we discussed in an interview, perform.
Parklife’s David LaMason has tracked LP through their career. He’s watched LP visit DC to perform at small clubs like U Street Music Hall and now to command the stage at The Anthem on Friday, May 6.
In this interview, LP chats with David about the challenges of performing in the advent of a pandemic, their new record, Churches, and their writing process.
MØ sings to fans at 9:30 Club on April 17, 2022. (Photo by Katherine Gaines)
Danish singer-songwriter MØ released Motordome, her third studio album, earlier this year, and she hit the road for a USA tour that included a recent stop at 9:30 Club! Katherine Gaines got all of the pix.
Daryl Hall performs at The Theater at MGM National Harbor on April 16, 2022. (Photo by Mickey McCarter)
Daryl Hall finished a rousing performance of his solo hit “Dreamtime.” And from the center of the stage, he looked to his monitors to leap into his second number during his recent DC-area concert performance.
But the monitors were out, and they stayed out a long minute before Daryl took matters into his own hands. He moved slightly to stage left, where a keyboard sat alone, monitors fully functional, and he went off-script for a soulful delivery of “Rich Girl” by Daryl Hall and John Oates.
The bustling Theatre at MGM National Harbor went wild.
Fruit Bats (Photo courtesy Merge Records)
With support from Merge Records, Fruit Bats released two albums in 2021 — The Pet Parade and Siamese Dream! This year, the band followed those albums with a compilation, Sometimes a Cloud Is Just a Cloud: Slow Growers, Sleeper Hits, and Lost Songs (2001–2021).
Fruit Bats now cap that prolific period with a lot of touring, and they turn up at 9:30 Club on Saturday, April 23.
You can win tickets to see Fruit Bats at 9:30 Club with Parklife DC!
Cody Canada & The Departed (Photo courtesy the artist)
The red dirt subgenre of country music is defined more by its geography — Oklahoma and Texas — than by a particular sound. It includes folkier singer-songwriters like Robert Earl Keen and the late Jimmy LaFave, neo-outlaws like Cody Jinks, and bands like Cody Canada & The Departed, who rock as hard as they twang. As the audience could see at City Winery in DC recently, Cody plays loud and lives the hard, rock-n-roll lifestyle.
In a particularly harrowing story Cody recounted at City Winery before playing “Easy,” he recalled how he was robbed in West Memphis, Arkansas. Cody suggested the audience avoid this city, as it is bad news; my only other familiarity with it is from the sad tale of the wrongly-convicted West Memphis Three, the subject of Lucinda Williams’s “West Memphis.”Â
James McMurtry performs at The Birchmere on April 16, 2022. (Photo by Rashad Polk)
Popularity and respect are two entirely different things. Some artists — and I won’t name names here — are well known but may not be highly esteemed. Other artists command less name recognition, but, amongst those who are aware of them they are held in the highest regard.
James McMurtry is an artist who falls in the latter category: He’s far from a household name, but people who know James McMurtry think the world of him. Those people include his peers in the singer-songwriter community, like Jason Isbell, as well as literary figures like the bestselling author Stephen King and rock critics like Robert Christgau.
James has been making records since the ’80s, and his recent set at The Birchmere covered four decades of material.
Andy McCluskey (right) with fellow OMD co-founder Paul Humphreys (Photo courtesy Tell All Your Friends PR)
English new wavers Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, aka OMD, celebrated the 40th anniversary of their self-titled debut album in 2020. Of course, they weren’t able to tour a career retrospective at that time due to pandemic lockdowns. But they are back again now to tour North America in what promises to be a thrilling show.
Celebrating hits across their career, OMD performs at the Lincoln Theatre in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, April 26, the fourth stop on what promises to be a memorable greatest hits tour. Andy McCluskey (vocals, bass), Paul Humphreys (keyboards, vocals), Martin Cooper (keyboards, saxphone, etc.), and Stuart Kershaw (drums) promise a big production — the sort of which they usually only tour in Europe. Also on display naturally will be the band’s rare genius — their combination of thoughtful and intellectual music that also truly inspires you to dance the night away.
Parklife DC’s Mickey McCarter recently chatted with OMD frontman Andy McCluskey about 40 years of OMD, his working relationship with his co-writer Paul, and his personal art collection. Oh, and Andy shared some info about a new album as well!
Cat Power (Photo by Mario Sorrenti)
Years ago, in another lifetime perhaps, I last had the fortune to see Chan Marshall, known by her performing name, Cat Power, in an early career performance at the Black Cat. And even though 25 years have passed since that time, the magic encased in that voice has only grown stronger — as evidenced in Cat Power’s performance at the Lincoln Theatre in DC Friday night.
