Grace Potter performs at The Anthem on Jan. 25, 2020. (Photo by David LaMason)
Appearing for the first time in DC in four years, Grace Potter’s date at The Anthem on Saturday went off more smoothly than the last time she was here.
Peter Murphy performs at Le Poisson Rouge on Jan. 24, 2020. (Photo by Mickey McCarter)
In 1972, David Bowie appeared on the British program Top of the Pops to perform “Starman” from The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. The national broadcast was a sensation, leaving a deep impression upon a generation of young creatives.
Those young creatives surely included musician Peter Murphy, who had the rare opportunity to showcase his talents with Bowie in a performance by his band Bauhaus in Bowie’s movie The Hunger in 1983.
Last week, Peter finished a career-retrospective residency at Le Poisson Rouge in Manhattan with two nights dedicated entirely to David Bowie’s music, in a way completing a very satisfying circle nearly four years after Bowie’s passing.
The Devil Makes Three performs at Rams Head Live on Jan. 23, 2020. (Photo by Casey Vock)
Moonshine corn whiskey was on special at Ram’s Head Live recently, and if you studied some of the specimens strolling down the foyer toward the box office as the evening kicked off, you’d have thought that to be an appropriate drink of choice for the occasion. It was clear these folks would want a grown-up’s beverage to coax into action whatever thoughts were festering inside their heads, about to bust loose like some old rusty dam.
Since the band formed in Santa Cruz in 2002, The Devil Makes Three has distilled its own seductive, raw blend of gloomy ragtime, bluegrass and punk-spiked, string-woven rhythms. The music can physically and mentally hook you, and the band uses it as an altar for delivering prophetic, tongue-in-cheek stories of spiritual demise with playfully macabre messages about the perils of life and all its temptations.
Three area musicians united as Sweethearts of Americana at Pearl Street Warehouse on Jan. 23, 2020. (Photo by Mark Caicedo)
The term “Americana” conjures an earthy, roots type of music. Unfortunately, many find that label too uniform, limiting, and quite frankly, meaningless. That’s how overused the term has become.
If anything, this first show of the “Sweethearts of Americana” three-stop tour, demonstrated the diversity of the genre. Mink’s Miracle Medicine, Lauren Calve, and Karen Jonas recently each brought a distinctive flair and unique musical approach to Pearl Street Warehouse that defied Americana’s catch-all meaning.
Metronomy (Photo courtesy Orienteer)
English new wavers Metronomy dropped Metronomy Forever, the band’s sixth studio album, last year via Because Music. Much to our joy, the quintet have included DC on their current North American Tour with a stop at 9:30 Club on Friday, Jan. 31.
The band skipped us last time, so be sure to catch Joseph Mount and company twice as hard this time!
The Glorious Sons perform at 9:30 Club on Jan. 24, 2020. (Photo by Paivi Salonen)
Not long ago, The Glorious Sons, the groundbreaking Canadian rockers, rolled through 9:30 Club to open The Struts for a very wild show! On Friday, The Glorious Sons made a triumphant return to 9:30 Club as the headliner, and Paivi Salonen got all of the pix.
Heilung performs at The Fillmore Silver Spring on Jan. 22, 2020. (Photo by Katherine Gaines / ambienteye.com)
Pictures can show you what an event looked like. Recordings can tell you what it sounded like. But nothing short of being there can express how it felt.
That was especially the case when European neofolk trio Heilung performed at The Fillmore Silver Spring recently.
Richard Thompson (center) participates in A Winding Road: A Ramble with Richard Thompson on May 11, 2019, in Montclair, New Jersey. (Photo by Neil Grabowsky)
“So,” I asked after sitting down at The Birchmere recently, “how long have you been in the cult?”
Without asking what I meant, one of the men sitting across the table from me responded, “I was getting Richard and Linda Thompson import records from England in the 70s.”
“I came to it later,” said the other.
G. Love (Photo by Sarah Ewalt)
G. Love released The Juice, his latest studio album, on Jan. 17 via Philadelphonic/Thirty Tigers. G. Love & Special Sauce performs at The Hamilton Live on Thursday, Jan. 30.
Temples perform at U Street Music Hall on Jan. 20, 2020. (Photo by Kyle Gustafson)
Sometimes when it’s cold as hell out, the best thing to do is pack into a small crowded room and watch a killer rock show. That’s exactly what I did on Monday, catching a brilliant show from Temples at U Street Music Hall.
