MGM National Harbor

My Favorite Artist: Duran Duran

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Duran Duran performs at The Fillmore New Orleans on Feb. 19, 2019. (Photo by Mickey McCarter)

Editor’s Note: Parklife DC asked its contributors to write essays about their favorite bands. These essays appear in an occasional series, My Favorite Artist, and provide our readers with insights into our bloggers, their motivations, and their approach to covering concerts.

To my ear, music is at its best when it motivates and inspires. Popular music provides a forum for catharsis, surely, but I am most excited when I hear something that stirs my soul, lifts my head, and moves my feet.

Cue Duran Duran.

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Best of the Year: Top 10 Concerts of 2019 by Mickey

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Berlin_Anthem-18_DSC00015-Edit Mickey McCarter was *thrilled* to see the classic lineup of Berlin reunite. (Photo by Jason Nicholson)

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.

Many of our bloggers work as one-man bands. They travel to a show, shoot it, and write it up. But as Parklife DC editor, I frequently work in collaboration with others. And so I have the opportunity to travel to shows I might otherwise not see in support of bloggers who are there to shoot (usually) or write (occasionally) about the program.

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Best of the Year: Top 10 Moments of 2019 by Will

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Paak_1 The above pic of Anderson .Paak was Will Colbert’s “top shot” of 2019. (Photo by Will Colbert)

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.

Thinking ahead often begins by looking back. It’s a humbling exercise to reflect on the ups and downs from a year reaching its end. The decisions we made, the consequences, and how we can do things better next time.

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Live Review: ZZ Top @ MGM National Harbor — 10/25/19

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ZZ Top performs at MGM National Harbor on Oct. 25, 2019. (Photo by Jules McNamara)

ZZ top is one of the world’s most iconic rock bands. With their Texas-style goatees, sunglasses, hats, and black attire, the 2004 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees are instantly recognizable. But they’re also iconic in the sense that this is a truly great band. They may call themselves “Beer Drinkers and Hellraisers,” but, beneath the image, this a tight group of incredibly talented musicians.

And ZZ Top’s appearance on their 50th Anniversary Tour at MGM National Harbor recently showcased that, after all these years, they’re still the best at the dirty Texas blues-rock.

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Live Review: Aerosmith @ MGM National Harbor — 8/8/19

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ZWLM1155 Aerosmith performs at MGM National Harbor on Aug. 8, 2019. (Photos by Zack Whitford)

It’s fair to expect that anyone who has been working in the same job for nearly 50 years may have lost a step. The muscles aren’t as reactive, the passion for the job may have waned; father time is undefeated, and old age just catches up to everyone. Or maybe not.

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Live Review: Air Supply @ MGM National Harbor — 6/21/19

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Air Supply @ MGM National Harbor, 6/21/2019
Air Supply performs at MGM National Harbor on June 21, 2019. (Photos by Paivi Salonen; Words by Mickey McCarter)

It’s a tried-and-true formula: One man writes the songs, and one man sings them. But when those two men are Air Supply, the rock duo who took the global charts by storm in the early 1980s, the individual strengths become a powerful whole. Full of grace and gratitude, Air Supply played some of those hits at the Theater at MGM National Harbor recently.

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Live Review: Jethro Tull @ MGM National Harbor — 3/11/19

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Jethro Tull

Ian Anderson (center) celebrates 50 years of Jethro Tull at MGM National Harbor on March 11, 2019. (Photo by Chester Simpson)

I first saw Jethro Tull on the Aqualung Tour at Civic Center in Roanoke, Virginia, on April 18, 1971. I most recently saw Ian Anderson and company at MGM National Harbor when they visited to celebrate 50 years of the band.

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Interview: Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull (@ MGM National Harbor, 3/11/19)

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Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull (Photo by Travis Latam)

Famed progressive rock band Jethro Tull released This Was, their first studio album, in 1968, and founder Ian Anderson last year began a series of concerts to commemorate the band’s 50th anniversary. The Jethro Tull 50th Anniversary show arrives at MGM National Harbor on Monday, March 11. We’re looking forward to hearing early favorites like “Aqualung,” “Thick as a Brick,” and “A Song for Jeffrey,” among others.

Parklife DC had the distinct honor of chatting with Ian about what to expect during the Jethro Tull show, how his personal experiences with the flute have evolved, and what it’s like to be a witness to key historical events and even a catalyst for cultural change.

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