Platinum-selling Nashville band Judah & the Lion recently released their fifth full-length album The Process via Cletus the Van Records / Virgin Music, and the alternative folk band came to The Fillmore Silver Spring in support of it!.
Steve Satzberg was there to photograph the band live in concert.
I don’t do too many standing shows; my flat feet, even with supports, don’t hold up too well. But it was worth the pain that lingers there to finally see Billy Bragg at his recent performance in The Atlantis on his Roaring Forty Tour.
Billy didn’t make it easy on my feet, as he certainly gave the audience at the sold-out venue their money’s worth. He started playing about 8:30pm, and he didn’t finish until 11pm, over which time he played songs from across his long career, and offered stories and commentary in his wickedly barbed, dry British sense of humor.
Fontaines DC Remain Unbowed
Words by Mickey McCarter
Photos by David LaMason
Fontaines DC visited 9:30 Club for the first of two sold-out nights to introduce Washington DC to their new album, Romance.
Things didn’t go exactly as planned, however. After five songs, Fontaines guitarist Carlos O’Connell bowed out ill, throwing the setlist into question.
The band exited the stage and returned moments later. Frontman Grian Chatten asked the audience if anyone could play “Boys in the Better Land.
Underrated UK quartet Temples are touring to celebrate the 10th anniversary of their debut album, Sun Structures, and they recently played Union Stage at The Wharf. A collection of fuzzy, upbeat psychedelic-pop, the album went Top 10 in the UK but had a harder time making a dent on these shores. But the band has put in the work, touring the States on numerous occasions, including six previous DC shows since 2013. I saw them at U Street Music Hall in 2020 and thought they were fab.
In an unforgettable return to Washington, DC’s Warner Theatre, Little Feat recently kicked off the first of two shows as part of their Can’t Be Satisfied Tour. The band holds a special place in the historic venue’s history — 35 years ago, in 1989, Little Feat played the final show at the Warner before it underwent a massive renovation. Now, with the theater restored to its original splendor, the band brought their enduring blend of Southern rock, funk, blues, and New Orleans boogie back to the nation’s capital for a night filled with both nostalgia and vibrant new energy.
John Craigie’s humorous stories are as much a part of his shows as the songs themselves. He’s earned comparisons to comedians like the late Mitch Hedberg as much as to other folksingers like John Prine and Ramblin’ Jack Elliot. in his recent appearance at Capital Turnaround — his first appearance in “DC proper,” as he put it, in some time — he treated the audience to his signature songs and stories.
Amy Rigby is all heart. Her songs, which find the magic in the everyday of parenthood, relationships, and the working musician’s life are full of warmth and wit. Rigby’s latest album, this year’s Hang In There With Me, deals with aging and is full of sweetness, which was fully apparent when she took the stage for a recent performance at Jammin’ Java.
Back in 1999, The Magnetic Fields released an ambitious album that was originally going to end up being 100 songs. But, according to interviews, the number was changed to 69 because (depending on the story told), either as a cheeky nod to the number of love or because it’s a number divisible by three.
The resulting release was an exploration of all aspects of love with each song its own concise world. Some songs like “Papa Was a Rodeo” were undeniably Country Western while others like “Love Is Like Jazz” or “The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side” come from opposite ends of the love spectrum.
After the release of his successful album Better Off Alone, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie recently brought his tour to the Pier Six Pavilion in Baltimore. The weather was perfect for live music, and the fans were definitely excited for an unforgettable night! A Boogie’s stage design was top-tier, with high-tech LED displays illuminating the entire venue.
In the first of two performance at MGM National Harbor, Sting was full of banter and reflections, charming a sold-out room in The Theatre with his thoughts on various songs in his setlist.
Speaking of “Fields of Gold,” Sting said he wrote the song as an ode to his house — well, “castle” — in England, a famous manor called Lake House, which is located “two miles south of Stonehenge” and surrounded by beautiful waves of grain.
