The Fuss performs at 9:30 Club on Dec. 28, 2019. (Photo by Mickey McCarter)
The Fuss already had the party started by the time the reggae band hit “Red Hot Trainwreck” from their latest album at 9:30 Club recently. But the swinging call-and-response tune took their set to another level when the octet opened The Pietasters for the DC ska legend’s annual holiday season hometown show.
The Pietasters perform at 9:30 Club on Dec. 28, 2019. (Photo by Mickey McCarter)
Should ever you feel down during the holidays, get yourself to The Pietasters’ annual holiday show at 9:30 Club. Any Pietasters show is a boisterous, singalong good time, but the hometown holiday edition always seems to have a little bit more meaning.
2019 went skanking out the door as frontman Stephen Jackson, with the good looks of Jon Hamm and showmanship that recalled the halcyon days of the Rat Pack, led his merry ska collective through an hour of well-regarded favorites as the last band in a four-band bill at 9:30 Club recently.
Wale (Photo courtesy Warner Records)
After a series of sold-out shows on his 2019 Everything Is Fine fall headlining tour and attracting rave reviews, Wale returns home to DC with his 2020 Wow… That’s Crazy Tour, named for his new album of the same name. Wale performs at The Fillmore Silver Spring on Wednesday, Jan. 1 — New Year’s Day!
The Thievery Corporation performs at DC’s 9:30 Club, Dec. 21, 2019. (Photo by Ari Strauss)
Thievery Corporation recently concluded its 10-week Babylon Falling Tour with a weekend pair of hometown shows at DC’s 9:30 Club on Dec. 21 and 22. The tour, which began Oct. 10 at the Bowery Ballroom in NYC, hearkens back to the 2002 album The Richest Man in Babylon and its 2004 reworking, Babylon Rewound.
Top: Austin Getz of Turnover; Botton: Emma Proulx of Men I Trust (Photos by Brenda Reyes)
DC was the final stop for Virginia Beach natives Turnover and Canadian indie band Men I Trust. It was a slightly emotional moment for both bands to finish an amazing run in the United States.
David Wax Museum (Photo courtesy Missing Piece Group)
David Wax Museum released Line of Light, the band’s seventh studio album, in August via Nine Mile Records. David Wax and Suz Slezak begin a winter tour this week, and they arrive at Union Stage on Sunday, Dec. 29.
Rosanne Cash placed as one of Mark Engleson’s top shows of the year. Read on to see who else made the cut. (Photo by David LaMason)
Editor’s Note: This year, we asked our bloggers to name their Top 10 shows of 2019 or choose their Top 10 photos of the year. We will run them over the course of mid-December as our Best of the Year posts.
Editor (again): After much consideration, the prolific Mark Engleson chose his top 10 shows for 2019.
Health performs at 9:30 Club on Dec. 18, 2019. (Photos by Paivi Salonen; Words by Mickey McCarter)
When you see Los Angeles noise rockers HEALTH, you are both lifted up and smashed down. First, you hear the soaring, light vocals of frontman Jake Duzsik, who elevates your spirit, and then you see the massive, crushing synths of John Famiglietti, who beats you down in the very best way with a flip of his hair.
Drummer BJ Miller added melodic crashes that would alternatively knock you over or dissolve into ether, and thus HEALTH rumbled through a very good show at 9:30 Club recently.
Alexis Marshall fronts Daughters at 9:30 Club on Dec. 18, 2019. (Photos by Paivi Salonen; Words by Mickey McCarter)
Opening with “The Reason They Hate Me” from a new album at 9:30 Club recently, Daughters’ frontman Alexis Marshall slowly began to reveal why he occasionally draws comparisons to Nick Cave. The slim singer swayed to the front of the stage in a suit to conjure energy from an audience ready to dance.
Although the vocals of that opening number were rather growling in a way sympathetic to hardcore, Alexis quickly became much more measured and select with his words and pacing by the time of “City Song,” the third number in the set.
The Bouncing Souls (Photo by Danny Clinch)
“We live our life in our own way, never really listened to what they say.”
The Bouncing Souls electrified the large crowd at The Fillmore Silver Spring on a recent, blustery night as they swung through the DMV on the tail end of the band’s 30th anniversary tour.
