Dorian Electra performs at 9:30 Club on Feb. 4, 2022. (Photo by Katherine Gaines / ambienteye.com)
Dorian Electra hit 9:30 Club recently in a late show to celebrate music from their expanded second album release, and Katherine Gaines got all of the pictures!
Mother Mother perform at 9:30 Club on Feb. 4, 2022. (Photo by Marc Shea)
Like a lot of people, it’s been awhile since I’ve seen a live show. I was more than ready to get my rear end to a concert. It didn’t even really matter what it was. So, to that end, Mother Mother was not a band I was familiar with at all. But I knew a few people who were going to the show, so I figured I would go with them. It had been several months since I had been to a concert and I thought it would be fun.
I checked out some of their music ahead of time and enjoyed it. But none of that prepared me for Mother Mother live at 9:30 Club recently.
Anaïs Mitchell (Photo by Jay Sansone)
Anaïs Mitchell, the esteemed singer-songwriter whose Broadway smash Hadestown won eight Tony Awards, including Best Musical, is joined by Bonny Light Horseman, a folk supergroup trio comprised of Anaïs, Eric D. Johnson, and Josh Kaufman for a show at Strathmore Music Center on Friday, Feb. 11!
Dale Bozzio (Photo courtesy Lappen Enterprises)
From 1980-86, you couldn’t find a more thrilling American band than Missing Persons. The quintet was fronted by Dale Bozzio, who met her principal bandmates when they all worked for Frank Zappa. After Missing Persons broke up, Dale signed to Prince’s Paisley Park label. Eventually, she formed a touring band to perform the Missing Persons catalog. Missing Persons next performs for a number of dates this spring, including sets at the spectacular new wave/post-punk festival Cruel World in Los Angeles on May 14 and 15.
Recently, Dale published a book through Cleopatra Records, which has been her recording home for the past several years. In the book — “Life Is So Strange: Missing Persons, Frank Zappa, Prince, and Beyond” — Dale shares her life experiences from recording with Zappa to forming Missing Persons to touring still. Parklife DC’s Mickey McCarter recently interviewed Dale about her relationships with Zappa, Prince, and her former Missing Persons bandmates, as well as what comes next for her.
Tedeschi Trucks Band performs the second of six shows in their 2022 residency at the Warner Theatre in DC, Feb. 4, 2022. (Photo by Ari Strauss)
Tedeschi Trucks Band, affectionately known to its fans as simply, “TTB,” is back in DC for its annual residency at Warner Theatre, with six concert dates. The 2022 tour dates are the band’s first at the historic DC venue since the days immediately preceding the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. This lucky correspondent was able to attend and cover the second of six performances.
The Ward on Drugs performs at The Anthem on Feb. 2, 2022. (Photo by Ben Eisendrath for IMP)
From the late ’70s into the ’80s, two of the most vibrant strands of American popular music were heartland rock and the American underground. These two traditions were very distinct, and there was no overlap. The former, the more mainstream of the two, was the domain of rock gods like Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty, as well as acts like Bruce Hornsby. These artists and bands often employed keys and the saxophone, although they were primarily guitar-driven.
The American Underground evolved from the fast, aggressive, stripped-down attack of punk into the no-wave sound of bands like Sonic Youth and the shoegaze of My Bloody Valentine. Distortion was a key feature of their sound, and they tended to eschew large arrangements, often sticking to guitar, bass, and drums.
Formed in Philadelphia in the early ‘oughts by Adam Granduciel and Kurt Vile, The War on Drugs combines these two disparate traditions, with a heavily guitar-based sound that uses lots of distortion.
It’s been way too long since I’ve seen Courtney Barnett, and at the 9:30 Club Wednesday night I was reminded of what I’d been missing since she performed in DC back in the summer of 2018. Since that time, she’s released a new album, Things Take Time, Take Time last year to critical praise. And rightly so. It’s full of gems like the earworm, “Rae Street” that leads off the record to “Write a List of Things to Look Forward To” which makes for the perfect vehicle for long drives with no particular place in mind.
Still Woozy performs at 9:30 Club on Jan. 31, 2022. (Photo by Katie Child)
I’ve always found that indie-pop artists throw the most memorable shows. My theory unquestionably remained true during Still Woozy’s recent gig at DC’s 9:30 Club. With just over five million Spotify monthly listeners, Still Woozy has definitely established himself in his genre. With movement-inducing hits “Goodie Bag” and “Hush,” it was no surprise that his audience brought all the life and energy to the floor of the club.
Neil Young performs in Baltimore on April 28, 2011. (Photo by Mark Caicedo)
Neil Young, Contrarian
Neil Young has long been a contrarian. His restless relationship with Buffalo Springfield’s other members and management led to repeated band break-ups in the late 1960s. His partnership with Crosby Stills Nash and Young (CSNY) has been an on and off again affair for decades. During the 1974 “reunion” tour Neil traveled from gig to gig on his own bus, eschewing his band mates’ company. The ill-fated 1976 Stills-Young tour ended after only a few dates when Neil left the tour sending a telegram to Stephen Stills that read, “Funny how some things that start spontaneously end that way. Eat a peach, Neil.” If one peruses Neil Young’s Wikipedia page, his tendency to jump abruptly from one project to the next becomes abundantly obvious. Even his newsletter, published on the Neil Young Archives website (neilyoungarchives.com), is named The NYA Times-Contrarian.
Marina (Photo courtesy Atlantic Records)
In 2021, indie pop diva Marina released Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land, her fifth studio album, via Neo Gold/ Atlantic Records. This month, Marina undertakes a global tour that brings her to The Anthem in DC on Thursday, Feb. 24.
The Anthem has issued a low-ticket alert for this show!
