Garage released a new album, Let All That We Imagine Be Light via BMG, in May. The famed alt-rock quartet have hit the road in what frontwoman Shirley Manson is saying is likely their last significant US headlining tour ever!
In DC, Garbage perform at The Anthem on Wednesday, Sept. 17, with openers Starcrawler — an appropriate match!
There’s something about walking into the Lincoln Theater in Washington, DC, on a Sunday night that already feels a little surreal. It’s a room built for a different era, all velvet seats and golden trim, the kind of place you’d expect to host a gospel revival or a jazz orchestra. But on this night, it wasn’t gospel or swing — it was The Darkness, England’s most gloriously unashamed defenders of guitar theatrics, falsetto wails, and rock and roll excess. And believe me, the place shook like the plaster might crack at any moment.
The Waterboys opened their North American Life, Death and Dennis Hopper Tour at the 9:30 Club recently with a set that felt both ceremonial and loose-limbed — Mike Scott’s band dialing up heart, grit, and a storyteller’s sense of lift-off.
Nalinee Darmrong was there to photograph the show!
Zivanai (Zi) Masango and Helen Masvikeni-Masango, on a short Pacific Northwest tour, turned the New Prospect Theatre into a Zimbabwean dance party on a recent night. With help from friends Rujeko and Napolean, and members of Bellingham’s own Ukama, Zi and Helen delivered a sampling of the rich tradition that is Zimbabwean music.
I have seen Oasis in small clubs (The Cat’s Cradle, The Abyss, Hammerjacks), medium-sized venues/theaters (Roseland, Hammerstein Ballroom, Radio City Music Hall), amphitheaters (Merriweather, Meadowbrook), and festivals (Reading, Virgin Fest) — but it took until I finally saw them in proper stadiums, performing to 80,000+ fans at Wembley Stadium in London during their Live 25 tour, for me to truly get my favorite band.
Oasis is football as music. And everyone is cheering for the same team. Every single person in attendance singing along at the top of their lungs to every line of a 23-song, two-hour set is just like being at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Old Trafford, Anfield, or St. James Park. We’re all in it together and we’re all doing the Poznan.
Def Leppard Close Latest USA Tour with a Triumphant Blowout in Virginia Beach
Words and photos by Michael Sprouse/ Odd Rocker Photography
There’s a unique electricity in the air when a band hits the last night of a tour. It’s not the same as opening night, where nerves and fresh energy bubble over. No, the finale has its own flavor — looser, heavier, tinged with nostalgia, and often, a little bittersweet.
Def Leppard recently brought that whole cocktail of emotions to the Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater in Virginia Beach, closing out their US leg with the kind of unapologetic spectacle that proves why they remain one of the last standing giants of arena rock.
Extreme Bring Guitar Firepower and Old-School Swagger to Virginia Beach
Words and Photos by Michael Sprouse/ Odd Rocker Photography
Virginia Beach has this way of making big shows feel like backyard parties. The salt air rolls in from the ocean, the crowd is already half-charged before the first note, and by the time the lights drop, you’re reminded that this seaside town knows how to host a proper rock spectacle. Recently, the Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater shook under the weight of Extreme — still loud, still cocky, and still more fun than a band with that much technical precision has any right to be.
Erykah Badu turned The Fillmore Silver Spring into a late-night séance on August 17, drifting onstage to “Echos” and setting a heady, slow-burn tone for a phone-free crowd sealed in Yondr pouches. With The Alchemist at the decks and The Cannabinoids threading live textures, the room felt equal parts lab and lounge — an invitation to lean in rather than film from afar.
The Tedeschi Trucks Band is a quintessentially American musical institution. A multiracial 12-member ensemble fronted by the husband-and-wife duo of guitar virtuoso Derek Trucks and singer/guitarist Susan Tedeschi, their sound draws on a wide variety of traditions from the cradle of American music in the South to beyond the borders of the United States, embracing elements of Indian and African music.
In their recent performance on a perfect summer night at Wolf Trap, Tedeschi Trucks Band offered the audience a reminder of the beauty and diversity that makes this country great.
Sacred music has been thoroughly intertwined with rock ‘n’ roll since its earliest days. Elvis Presley made gospel albums, there’s plenty of fire and brimstone in Jerry Lee Lewis’s piano boogie, and Little Richard became, for a time, a minister. New Jersey pedal steel virtuoso Robert Randolph, who grew up in the House of God with its Sacred Steel music, admirably continues the tradition of representing for his faith while rocking hard.
Touring behind his first solo album (on his previous records, he shared billing with his Family Band), Preacher Kids, released earlier this year, Randolph and his ace band shook the house and brought the spirit in their recent appearance at The Atlantis.
