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Purity Ring (Photo courtesy Grandstand Media)
Purity Ring released a new EP, graves, on June 3, marking the first official release via the band’s own label The Fellowship.
The Canadian electronic duo has been on tour and soon visit 9:30 Club for two dates. The first date is sold out but you can still grab tickets for the second show at 9:30 Club on Thursday, June 30!
When Mandy Moore took to the stage this week for her show at 9:30 Club she faced a daunting task. After an 11-year hiatus between releasing albums (and 15 years between tours), Moore was due for a DC area performance back in 2020 to promote her new Silver Landings album. As the world shut down and the tour was forced into postponement, Mandy Moore hunkered down to write and record yet another new album, In Real Life.
Generally when a band comes back to town touring behind the same album, it’s because they’re playing a bigger venue after winning over more fans. CHVRCHES did things a bit different earlier this week, with a very sold-out three night run at the 9:30 Club for the latter part of their Screen Violence tour. It was the band’s first appearance at the club since way back in 2014.
Guided by Voices (Photo by Trevor Naud)
The prolific Guided by Voices release two albums this year, and they perform at 9:30 Club on Saturday, June 18!
You can win a pair of tickets to see Guided by Voices at 9:30 Club with Parklife DC!
They Might Be Giants (Photo by Sam Graff)
They Might Be Giants released the dazzling album and coffee table art book project, BOOK, last Fall. And now they are finally hitting the road for an oft-delayed tour, rescheduled due to pandemic lockdowns.
Many dates on the tour are sold out, including three DC dates — at 9:30 Club on Thursday, June 9, and at the Lincoln Theatre on Friday, June 10, and Saturday, June 11. For those of us attending, these are sure to be shows to remember!
Sofi Tukker perform at 9:30 Club on May 21, 2022. (Photo by Katherine Gaines / AmbientEye.com)
Earlier this month, Sofi Tukker’s sophomore album, WET TENNIS, debuted at No. 1 on Chartbeat’s Current Electronic Albums chart and No. 12 on the Dance/Electronic Billboard 200 chart. The duo dropped by 9:30 Club in a celebratory tour, and Katherine Gaines shot them in action.
Doug Martsch leads Built To Spill in a performance at 9:30 Club on May 12, 2022. (Photo by Casey Vock)
The terms “vehicle” or “project” are used occasionally in discussions about bands with a focal instrumentalist or songwriter, and in many cases, these would seem like appropriate descriptions for some of today’s most adored groups with morphing identities.
But the question of how much exploration has been done or how much ground has been covered might be best reserved for the more veteran outfit still striving to outdo itself with each studio album.
In a recent anticipated stop at 9:30 Club, Built To Spill demonstrated that it is indeed actualizing the goal its founder — vocalist and electric guitarist Doug Martsch — set for it 30 years ago: to become an inventive, absorbing indie rock outfit with a rotating cast of members that could help perpetuate evolving substance and sound.
Anaïs Mitchell (Photo by Jay Sansone)
Tony- and Grammy-award-winning singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell released her first solo album in over a decade — Anaïs Mitchell (in January through BMG Rights Management) — and she is bringing these songs to life on a headlining US tour! Anaïs brings her musical company to 9:30 Club on Tuesday, May 24.
You can win tickets to see Anaïs at 9:30 Club with Parklife DC.
Lucius performs at 9:30 Club on May 9, 2022. (Photo by Shedrick Pelt)
Exuberant songstresses Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig of the band Lucius brought harmony, grace, and a whollata pazazz to the stage not too long ago at the 9:30 Club Dedicated fans of all ages showed up in droves to support their favorite act.
Gogol Bordello performs at 9:30 Club on May 7, 2022. (Photo by Ben Eisendrath/ Instagram: @insomnigraphic)
This is not your babushka’s polka.
In normal times, when you’re about to catch an infamously party-centric, rambunctious act of the likes of Gogol Bordello, your headspace is filled with thoughts of dancing, drinking, and living life to the fullest. You’re not necessarily worried about the geopolitical machinations that insidiously weave its way into the fabric of everyday existence; indeed, performance art is often a means of escape from those quotidien worries.
But, as we are all too well aware, these are not normal times. Strolling up to the venerable 9:30 Club on a cold, wet night in May, I was surreptitiously conscious of the significance of this concert.