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Cigarettes After Sex performs at 9:30 Club on Oct. 25, 2019. (Photo by Paivi Salonen)
Ambient quartet Cigarettes After Sex recently performed at 9:30 Club on the very day the band released Cry, their second studio album. Paivi Salonen was there to take photos of all of the slow jams.
Luna brings Penthouse to the 9:30 Club on Oct. 5, 2019. (Photo by David LaMason)
Luna have been making great music for nearly 30 years, but for some reason even after being on major labels, having had songs featured on major movie soundtracks, and the critical praise of not only their peers but of big name music publications (Rolling Stone famously named them “the best band you’ve never heard”), Luna isn’t a household name, though it should be!
In fact, one of their best albums, Penthouse, which celebrates its 25th anniversary next year, was named one of the best 100 albums of the 1990s by Rolling Stone recently. And it’s that same album that was performed in full (plus some, but I’ll get into that in a moment) at the 9:30 Club recently.
David Schelzel fronts The Ocean Blue at Union Stage on Oct. 4, 2019. (Photo by Mickey McCarter)
Here’s how I like to imagine it happened: Teenaged David Schelzel stood on an overlook above Hershey Park in Pennsylvania and pondered the decade that was coming to a close. “I’m going to take the very best of the ’80s and synthesize it into one band,” he said, reaching deep into England, where the very best new wave and psychedelia had emerged, and scooping all of those sounds into one impossibly sweet band.
And so was born The Ocean Blue, which published its first self-titled album in 1989, and captured the zeitgeist of cool alternative music in one quartet (or so we say!). Quite active in recent years, The Ocean Blue again reminded us just how cool they are in a sold-out show at Union Stage last week.
Luna (Photo courtesy Ticketfly)
In 1995, indie rockers Luna released Penthouse, the band’s third studio album, and immediately upended the soundtrack to the ’90s. To celebrate the seminal album, Luna is playing it in its entirety on tour, including a show at 9:30 Club on Saturday, Oct. 5.
LPX performs at The Anthem on Sept. 18, 2019. (Photos by Katherine Gaines/ ambienteye.com; Words by Mickey McCarter)
Effervescent Lizzy Plapinger, better known as LPX, danced and beamed her way through an invigorating opening act recently to warm up The Anthem for her pal Marina, and she thoroughly wowed the gathering crowd.
Ride (Photo courtesy Ticketfly)
English shoegazers Ride released This Is Not a Safe Place, the band’s sixth studio album, in August via Wichita Recordings and Play It Again Sam. The quartet return to 9:30 Club for a show on Sunday, Sept. 22.
Low wows a sold-out show at the Metro Gallery on Sept. 11, 2019. (Photo by David LaMason)
It may seem strange talking about a band that hails from Duluth, Minnesota, but there’s a feeling I get when I see them perform that makes it feel like they’re from here — Baltimore, that is. Possibly the first time I saw them was right across the street from the Metro Gallery, where they performed to a sold-out crowd Wednesday night.
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