If you’ve read any of my reviews for Parklife DC, you may remember that I am a huge advocate for opening acts. These guys are working hard, putting on great shows to impress audiences who usually have no idea who they are. For the Eidola/Nerv/Astronoid show at Baltimore Soundstage last week, I did it the other way around.
After a year’s hiatus, 98 Rock’s Spring Thing returned with a lineup of heavy hitters at Baltimore’s CFG Bank Arena on March 13. While Friday the 13th might have ill-fated connotations for the masses, I Prevail, Sleep Theory, The Funeral Portrait, and headliners Three Days Grace put on a show that any audience would be lucky to experience.
Lights are currently conducting her 2026 Come Get Your Girl world tour supporting her sixth album release — A6 — and she made a recent stop at the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC!
Annapolis Songbird Collective: No Ordinary Performers
Words by Liz Wyatt
Photos by Steve Satzberg
The Annapolis Songbird Collective gathered on International Woman’s Day at Cult Classic on Kent Island. The day’s performers were Carly Winter, Madisun Bailey, Meg Murray, and Laura Brino, still fresh from their summer tour together as Friends and Folklore.
In addition to being one of the most celebrated blues artists of her generation, Ottawa, Ontario native Sue Foley is a scholar. On Wednesday evening, she brought dazzling guitar chops and a fun dose of music history in her One Guitar Woman: A Tribute to the Female Pioneers of Guitar show at The Hamilton Live.
The crowd at The Atlantis wasted little time turning the room into a jumping, high-energy scene on the night of March 9.
Los Angeles garage-rock band Alexsucks transformed the intimate DC venue into a basement punk party. By the time the band hit their stride, fans were jumping shoulder to shoulder, fully enjoying the moment and sending ripples through the floor.
Twenty years ago, Cat Power released The Greatest. Despite its title, it’s not an album of her biggest hits. Rather, the title track tells the story of a boy who aspires to become a boxer; the title is almost certainly a nod to the nickname of legendary fighter Muhammad Ali. Made in Memphis with legendary soul musicians like Mabon “Teenie” Hodges, Leroy “Flick” Hodges, and Dave Smith, it was Power at her most accessible, and it brought her to new audiences, achieving her highest chart performance at the time. Critically well-received, it won the Shortlist Music Prize, and was named the 6th best album of that year in Rolling Stone.
In her recent appearance at the 9:30 Club, Cat celebrated the record’s anniversary, performing the album in full, along with a handful of other songs, including some terrific covers.
The Boys 4 Life Tour Turns Capital One Arena Into a Time Capsule
B2K and Bow Wow headlined a hits-only night in DC, with every age range in the building and a crowd that stayed loud the entire way through.
The Millennium Tour Presents: The Boys 4 Life Tour recently pulled up to Capital One Arena in Washington, DC, and it felt like the city collectively agreed to go back in time for a few hours. It was packed, it was loud before the lights even went down, and the crowd mix was exactly what you want for a tour like this. Teens with parents, grown fans reliving middle school, couples on date night, groups dressed like the era on purpose. Everybody was there.
In 1986, REM released Lifes Rich Pageant, the band’s fourth studio album, striking a harder note than their previous releases. The band came forward with ambition to make a radio-friendly album and to plant their flag in the ground.
But as friends have told me in conversations leading up to a recent salute to the album by Michael Shannon and Jason Narducy at 9:30 Club (more about them in a moment), it was an important album to them because they saw frontman Michael Stipe gain new confidence and emerge as a more outspoken person.
Louisiana came calling at The Barns at Wolf Trap Saturday, and it was met with the warmest of receptions. New Orleans rockers The Iguanas and guitar virtuoso Sonny Landreth did the traditions that make up the musical gumbo of the Land of Dreams proud in a brilliant show.
