MGMT (Photo by Brad Elterman)
Last month, I reviewed a terrific live show by The Wombats at 9:30 Club. The show sold out in a heartbeat, the band were enthused, the audience went nuts—it was a good time.
But I wouldn’t even know who The Wombats were if I hadn’t first heard them at Liberation Dance Party at DC9.
Courtship perform at 9:30 Club on Jan. 8, 2018.
Micah Gordon of Courtship was excited to open The Wombats at 9:30 Club recently, telling the audience that they’ve been a favorite band of his since he was in eighth grade, when he would hide in his basement at home to listen to them.
So it was certainly the fulfillment of a dream for Los Angeles electropop duo Courtship (often stylized as “courtship.”) to perform in the sold-out show on Monday, Jan. 8, the first stop on a North American tour for The Wombats.
Galantis perform at All Things Go Fall Classic on Oct. 6, 2017.
The annual All Things Go Fall Classic music festival successfully expanded to three days last week, launching with an evening of dance music on Friday, Oct. 6, at Union Market’s Dock 5. Headliners The Knocks and Galantis brought their top game to the dock, where revelers danced the night away in the wonderfully warm weather of the night.
Roosevelt performs at U Street Music Hall on Saturday, June 3, 2017.
At U Street Music Hall on Saturday night, a sold-out room cheered when the lights went down and four white-clad musicians stepped onto stage.
The leader of those musicians, Marius Lauber, better known as Roosevelt, took the center of the stage, where he sang and alternated between guitar and synthesizer for the night, treating the crowd to selections from his self-titled debut album, released last year by Greco-Roman.
Roosevelt (Photo by Brian Vu)
Roosevelt, born Marius Lauber, burst out of Germany with his self-titled debut album last year via Greco-Roman. Roosevelt is on a tour of the United States, and he dances into U Street Music Hall this Saturday, June 3.
Betty Who performs at 9:30 Club on Sunday, April 16, 2017.
Confident and carefree, Jessica Anne Newham, better known as Betty Who, sashayed onto stage at 9:30 Club on Sunday for a sold-out performance that showcased her sex appeal and poise.
On her way into DC Saturday, Victoria Hesketh published a humorous tweet describing her guest list for her show at U Street Music Hall that night.
Guest list looking strong for DC tonight. pic.twitter.com/WIhQntIc0g — little boots (@littleboots) July 25, 2015
Victoria is better known as Little Boots, of course, and we applauded her reference to famous DC punk bands. In her musical evolution over three albums to date, Little Boots has gone from a bit of new wave-influenced dance-pop, which took a page from punk inspirations back in the day, to full-blown nu disco. And that journey led her to previous collaborations with UK new wave artists like Gary Numan and Phil Oakey of The Human League.
The synthpop diva has always leaned into house and disco, but she does so full tilt on her new album, Working Girl, which she brought on tour to DC Saturday night. In line with the title of the album, Little Boots has adopted a strategic marketing approach that sees her rocking out in power suits and sporting rather professional if comfortable office wear.
Early in her performance, Little Boots performed her latest single, “No Pressure,” which encapsulates all of the wonderful things about the new album and the new attitude. The song is about the possibility of a change and escaping your expectations, and its accompanying video cleverly stages the message in a workplace environment.
