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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.
Vampire Weekend performs at Merriweather Post Pavilion on Aug 29, 2019 (Photo by David LaMason)
Songs are a funny thing. Some songs you hear and then forget but then you strangely remember them, like in a dream, when you find yourself in situations or places where you may have caught that one riff or that line that reminds you of a place or a person you thought you had forgotten completely. Other songs end up becoming sort of like the soundtrack to your life. I’d have to say that Vampire Weekend over the last 10 years has ended up (willingly or not) creating much of that soundtrack for me.
Morrissey (Photo by Sam Rayner)
Earlier this year, Morrissey dropped California Son, his latest studio album and a collection of cover songs drawn from the artist’s favorites from the ’60s and ’70s. Around the same time, Morrissey drew critical acclaim for a sold-out run of shows on Broadway. Now, he’s touring in support of the new album, and he opens the tour with support from post-punk rockers Interpol at Merriweather Post Pavilion on Thursday, Sept. 5.
Gary Clark Jr. (Photo courtesy Warner Bros. Records)
Genres are BS! The need to categorize was how blues became rhythm & blues and R&B was rebranded into rock ‘n’ roll — clever window dressing for marketers! Gary Clark Jr. would have none of it during a recent show at Merriweather Post Pavilion. The “guitar man” defied categorization as he traveled a continuum of American music that included blues, rock, and soul.
Beck performs at Merriweather Post Pavilion on Aug. 22, 2019. (Photo by Rashad Polk)
In preparation of the release of his upcoming album Hyperspace, Beck stopped by Merriweather on his co-headlining tour with Cage the Elephant.
Cage the Elephant performs at Merriweather Post Pavilion on Aug. 22, 2019. (Photo by Rashad Polk)
The last time Cage the Elephant played the DC area was last fall at the DC Entertainment and Sports Arena. This time around, the six-piece band from Kentucky played Merriweather Post Pavilion at the DC stop of their co-headlining The Night Running Tour with Beck recently.
Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend (Photo by Monika Mogi)
Vampire Weekend released Father of the Bride, the band’s fourth studio album, in May by Columbia Records, and it went straight to #1 on the Billboard 200. Frontman Ezra Koenig and his bandmates took to the road on The Father of the Bride Tour, and they appear at Merriweather Post Pavilion on Thursday, Aug. 29.
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