Ryan Bingham performs at 9:30 Club on April 21, 2019. (Photo by Paivi)
Ryan Bingham made his agenda very clear at the 9:30 Club recently. He told the packed venue, “We’re gonna play you some country music.” But, he said, “Not that beach balls in the back of your truck bullshit.”
Willie Nile performs at The Hamilton Live on April 20, 2019. (Photo by Ben Eisendrath/Instagram+Twitter: Insomnigraphic/GrillworksBen)
Willie Nile bridges the chasm that lies between Bob Dylan and The Clash. He ties intelligent, literate lyrics to frenetic melodies and crashing rhythms. Talk to Willie, and the F-bomb may pop out of his craggy face. Willie turns 71 in June, and he’s still active and creative — maybe more than ever. His creativity was on display at The Hamilton Live recently.
Jeff Austin (Photo courtesy Crossover Touring)
Sleepy Creek Presents hosts the Sixth Annual Sleepy Creek SpringDig on May 3-5, 2019, at Sleepy Creek on the Potomac in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, with headliners Jeff Austin Band, Drew Emmitt, and Andy Thorn.
The Secret Sisters (Photo courtesy Red Light Management)
I can’t think of a much better venue for folk music than The Barns at Wolf Trap. When you enter the 18th century structures, which were relocated from upstate New York, you are transported to a place that is much mental as it physical or geographical. And The Secret Sisters are perhaps the most fitting band to play there, as they did recently.
Natalie Prass at the Rock and Roll Hotel on April 19, 2019. (Photo by Matt Ruppert)
Last summer, Natalie Prass released The Future and the Past, a record replete with grooves that somehow fuses all of the old sounds on which my mother raised me — R&B, soul, a touch of funk — and makes it feel modern, current. She took those grooves to a show at the Rock and Roll Hotel recently.
Over the Rhine performs live. (Photo courtesy Blind Ambition Management)
The band Over the Rhine takes its name from one of America’s largest intact urban historic districts. Located in Cincinnati, Ohio, it’s a working-class neighborhood built German immigrants in the mid-19th century. When Karin Bergquist and Linford Dettweiler formed their band in 1989, the makeup of Over-the-Rhine had changed and it had fallen on hard times. All of that came together in their show at City Winery recently.
Hatebreed performs at The Fillmore Silver Spring on April 18, 2019. (Photo by Paivi Salonen)
Metalcore quintent Hatebreed celebrated 25 years of making music at The Fillmore Silver Spring recently. Paivi shot some pictures of the band in action.
Escort performs at U Street Music Hall on April 18, 2019. (Photo by Katherine Gaines)
Escort dropped a new album, City Life, earlier this month, and then the band came to U Street Music Hall to boogie down. Katherine Gaines got some snaps.
Brass Against performs at The Hamilton Live on April 17, 2019. (Photo by Ari Strauss)
Fists were pumping in the air at DC’s The Hamilton Live recently when Brass Against, the NYC-based brass protest band, took the stage and led the rage.
Actors (Photo by Kira Clavell)
From Vancouver, Canada, Actors bring their electrifying, modern take on post-punk and darkwave to Metro Gallery on Tuesday, April 30, in support of their debut full-length LP, It Will Come to You.
