DC's biggest blog for concert reviews
MTV Moon Man (Photo courtesy MTV)
Your editor came to truly love music as an MTV Kid, riding the UK new wave acts that fueled the Gen X imagination with their pop hooks and colorful music videos.
The breadth of legacy new wave/ post-punk acts performing around the DC metro area in 2022 is unprecedented.
While Parklife DC won’t cover all of these shows, we are excited that these performers who started in the ’70s and ’80s are enjoying so much demand at present.
Bob Mould’s return to 9:30 Club in September ranked among David LaMason’s Best Shows of 2021. (Photo by David LaMason)
If you would have told me around this time last year that I would have had the opportunity to see concerts again, let alone in indoor venues -– some that I hadn’t stepped foot inside in over a year and half –- I would have thought you were crazy. But not only did I have that opportunity –- in large part to vaccines, mask mandates, and the venues and artists who did everything in their power to make sure it was safe to experience live music again –- but I saw some of the best shows I’ve seen in years!
St. Vincent headlines the All Things Go Music Festival on Oct. 16, 2021. (Photo by Katherine Gaines/ ambienteye.com)
Parklife sent Katherine Gaines to photograph the All Things Go Music Festival at Merriweather Post Pavilion, and she returned with pix of SHAED, Girl in Red, Lauv, and St. Vincent, along with this blog entry about her experience at the festival.
It was a soggy grey day, not much for showing off fun festival attire. The crowd was mostly a sea of raincoats, ponchos and umbrellas. Some folks probably decided not to go, or left when it started raining but everyone who stuck it out wanted to make the most of their long awaited festival.
Haim (Photo courtesy Chuff Media)
All Things Go returns with its marquee music festival, rebranding the All Things Go Fall Classic as the All Things Go Music Festival and upgrading its venue in a big way with a daylong celebration at Merriweather Post Pavilion on Saturday, Oct. 16.
The headliners for this edition of All Things Go’s festival include Haim, St. Vincent, Charli XCX, and Lauv!
Jim James of My Morning Jacket performs at Merriweather Post Pavilion on Sept. 7, 2021. (Photo by Kyle Gustafson)
One of my favorite summer traditions in DC is the seemingly annual My Morning Jacket show at Merriweather. Tuesday’s show with opener Brittany Howard was the band’s 8th show in Columbia since they graduated to amphitheaters in 2010. I’m not going to lie and say that I’ve been to all of those shows, but I’ve seen most of them and the 2011 and 2015 shows still stand out to me. The Circuitual tour show in 2011 might be the best show I’ve seen the band do locally.
Merriweather was a little over half full on Sept. 7, which was actually a wonderful thing. If you wanted to experience the show in a crowd, there were plenty of people around to remind you how that felt, pre-COVID. If you were still a little freaked out by maskless people singing and shouting along to the music, there were plenty of empty spaces to claim and still have a great vantage point for the show.
Just before things started closing down, just before 2020 was the last time I saw Wilco perform at The Anthem and hot on the heels of the release of their last LP, Ode to Joy. Since the nearly two years since I’d seen them last, Jeff Tweedy and the band have kept fans engaged with things like the Instagram show (there has to be a better word for this) “The Tweedy Show,” broadcast from Jeff’s home with his family and sometimes guests like the other members of Wilco — a homemade variety show with Jeff, Sammy, and Spencer Tweedy often singing / guitar playing / drumming to Tweedy and Wilco songs along with some fantastic covers.
And just in the past month, Jeff has even started a weekly substack which is like a personal newsletter / inspirational / confessional, maybe called “Starship Casual” where the songwriter shares musings and even rough bits of new songs (or songs-to-be). Basically, the band has been keeping things fresh and us fans fed, so to speak. So, after the announcement that Wilco would be touring again this summer, I couldn’t wait to see the guys — Jeff, John, Mikael, Nels, Pat, and Glenn — back again in the DC area. This time at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland.
A photo from Beck’s summer concert at Merriweather Post Pavilion ranked among Rashad Polk’s Top 10 Photos of 2019 (but not this photo). (Photo by Rashad Polk)
Editor’s Note: This year, we asked our bloggers to name their Top 10 shows of 2019 or choose their Top 10 photos of the year. We will run them over the course of mid-December as our Best of the Year posts.
Editor (again): The very skillful Rashad Polk picked 10 of his photos as the best of 2019 — take it away, Rashad!
Tyler, the Creator (Photo courtesy We Care a Lot PR)
Tyler Gregory Okonma, better known as Tyler, the Creator, released Igor, his fifth studio album, in May via Columbia Records. He kicks off a North American Tour with a concert at Merriweather Post Pavilion on Saturday, Sept. 21.
Morrissey sings at Merriweather Post Pavilion on Sept. 5, 2019. (Photos by Jason Nicholson; Words by Mickey McCarter)
Steven Patrick Morrissey is an entertainer, and a really good one at that. Morrissey launched a North American Tour recently in support of a new album of covers, titled California Son, at Merriweather Post Pavilion, and he presented a straightforward but rousing show that rewarded fans with rarely performed songs and his glorious baritone.
Paul Banks fronts Interpol at Merriweather Post Pavilion on Sept. 5, 2019. (Photos by Jason Nicholson; Words by Mickey McCarter)
Interpol released a new album last year — Marauder, the band’s sixth studio record — and an EP, A Fine Mess, recently in the spring, but you wouldn’t have known that catching Paul Banks and company in action opening for Morrissey at Merriweather Post Pavilion on Thursday.
The well-dressed post-punks turned back the clock and unleashed a short set of very good Interpol classics that had the exact effect of amping the big crowd up for Moz.