Author Archives: Richie Downs

Last Thursday evening the 9:30 Club hosted two of Philadelphia’s finest acts—Kurt Vile and Waxahatchee—in performance for a sold out and eager DC crowd.

Touring to promote his sixth album released in September on Matador, B’lieve I’m Goin Down… features twelve tracks and has already received its fair share of critical acclaim. It’s been said that the album was recorded in ten different recording studios, and the deluxe edition, B’lieve I’m Goin (Deep) Down… will feature six additional tracks.

Live, Kurt Vile’s sound is just what any fan of his music might expect—chock full of dynamics with an extremely resonant guitar tone—and a top-notch performance from Vile and backing band, The Violators, which quite frankly, almost mimics his recordings with only slight variations.

Kurt Vile and the Violators have several tour dates scheduled across the US through October before the band heads to Europe for the rest of the year, then to Australia by January.

Waxahatchee, the indie music project from fellow Philadelphian Katie Crutchfield, is touring to promote the band’s latest release, Ivy Tripp, which arrived in stores in April of 2015 on Merge Records. The band was phenomenal, particularly the vocals from Crutchfield. I’ve listened to all their recordings countless times and although they are wonderfully done, there’s something about her voice in a live setting that really pulls you in.

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Last Thursday night, DC’s sold out U Street Music Hall played to host Wolf Alice and their supporting act, Drenge—both indie rockers from across the pond.

There seems to be something good, in fact something rather brilliant, coming out of the British music scene these days, and Wolf Alice is certainly a part of it. This occurrence could be described as a “scene,” but even more specifically, it could be described far better as a sound.

There’s something to be said about steady, concentrated guitar parts—fuzzy and thick as any guitar tone can get—mixed with intricacy and punctuated with leads to form a dense, wonderful, and yes, catchy sound that has heads bobbing. Notable mentions are some of my favorite new bands over the last few years—Blood Red Shoes and Royal Blood.

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Kicking off their current reunion tour in DC’s venerable 9:30 Club, legendary shoe-gazers, Ride from Oxford, England have returned to form, both stylistically and sonically. With a simple yet prominent banner hanging behind the stage with the band’s bold logo, the scene was set and the crowd was primed to hear what would be a fantastic night of music.

Ride is currently touring to celebrate the 25 anniversary of their debut album, Nowhere which landed in record shops in October of 1990. Then as now, every detail about their sound on stage is absolutely perfect. It’s not just the clear, bright (often British) guitar tone, but the mix of each member’s unique tones coming together to create one superb presence.

Ride has certainly left a major mark on music and culture in their wake. In fact, the band has become almost a thing of legend particularly among musicians—a musicians band, if you will. Most notable is Mark Gardener with his intensely bright guitar tone and signature laid back vocals, complimented by Alan Bell’s shimmering guitar. Behind them is bass player Steve Queralt and one of the best drummers in the genre, Laurence Colbert. Ride’s performance in DC was stellar.

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The first real sign of the coming autumn weather reared its head at Merriweather Post Pavilion on Sunday night for a stellar performance by Death Cab for Cutie and Explosions in the Sky.

While audience members sported hoodies and bundled up in blankets on the lawn, post-rock band and Austinites, Explosions in the Sky warmed them up with what would be a great start to an incredible evening of songs.

When Death Cab took the stage around 9PM , the crowd’s anticipation level was at an all time high. The band opened their set with “No Room in Frame,” a track from their new album, Kintsugi, released in March of this year. Performing in perfect form, Death Cab sounded as razor sharp as I’ve ever heard them live—the band’s signature sound and the crisp vocal tone of Ben Gibbard spot on, minus any degree of variance from their recordings.

Their setlist included: “Photo Booth,” “The Ghost of Beverly Drive,” “Picture in an Exhibition,” “You Are a Tourist,” and “You’ve Haunted Me All My Life.” For their encore they performed “I Will Follow You Into The Dark,” “A Movie Script Ending” and “Trasatlanticism.” Death Cab’s current US tour will feature stops throughout the States before the band heads to Europe in November.

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Celebrating the 25th anniversary of their self titled release, Social Distortion made their way to The Fillmore in Silver Spring, MD and with them a dose of much-needed punk rock in a manner and style that only Social Distortion can deliver.

Performing to a sold out crowd, Mike Ness and his band nailed a spot on, rock solid performance of the most beloved and celebrated album in their catalog. The album marked the band’s third full length studio release and represents a pivotal moment in their career—commercial success and eventually gold status.

Playing the album in order (mostly) from front to back, the performance felt more like a ride down memory lane than it did a mere Social Distortion show. With his characteristic voice, heavy snarls, and his perfect guitar tone, Mike Ness breezed through his set flawlessly hitting all the right vocal accents and performing every lead guitar part with style and precision.

Stage volume almost hit ear-bleeding levels as Ness still seems to be a living example of the sentiment, “the louder it is, the better it sounds,” however watching Ness, Wickersham, and the boys play this album live was indeed a pleasure.

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It’s not every day that we run 2 features back to back on the very same event—but every event simply isn’t the annual Gwar BQ, now is it? You can catch a full recap below this feature—and highlights of the live sets right after the jump. —Ed.

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Delivering an (ahem) epic show, Faith No More, the legendary band from San Francisco, performed Sunday night for an enthusiastic crowd at the DC area’s premier outdoor venue, Merriweather Post Pavilion.

Wrapping up the east coast leg of their tour with supporting act Refused, their stage was adorned with white linen draping the amplifiers and speaker cabinets and what one might consider an obscene abundance of floral arrangements bloomed among their stage setup. The band members themselves took the stage in white linen looking far more spiritual then I had remembered them.

Whatever peaceful vibe the crowd took from the serene stage backdrop was contrasted by the crisp and super-tight melodic metal tones that would pierce the night. FNM today sounds far better live then most bands might ever aspire to—and a totally different animal from their recorded material.

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Friday night the Deftones along with their support act Highly Suspect performed for a sold out Fillmore Silver Spring and hammered the Maryland fans with their unique brand of high energy, no frills metal.

It’s amazing to witness the energy that the crowd feeds upon from the instant the Deftones leap into their set—the entire venue comes to life. It’s refreshing to know this kind of power still lives in their music. Fans of all types of metal music everywhere will be glad to know that there was no shortage of stage diving, crowd surfing, and general chaos with the Deftones in town.

Their set list included: “Diamond Eyes,” “My Own Summer (Shove It),” “Lhabia,” “When Girls Telephone Boys,” “Sextape,” “Swerve City,” “Knife Party,” “Bored,” “Royal,” and many more.

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Alternative rock legends Dinosaur Jr. performed for a sold out crowd on the Black Cat’s main stage last Sunday night and unleashed a full-scale noise assault on their DC fans.

Playing a mix of early and newer material from their enormous catalog, Dinosaur Jr. seems to be able to squeeze the essence of their career into a one hour-long set leaving the audience satisfied, but still wanting more from the Amherst, Massachusetts-based trio. While most of their set derived from You’re Living All Over Me and Where You Been? eras of the band, the trio did sprinkle their set with staples from their celebrated album Bug, and even managed to include their beloved rendition of The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven.”

Having 10 full length studio albums, countless singles, and numerous solo projects under their belts, J Mascis, Lou Barlow, and Murph should now be considered more of an institution rather than a group aging indie artists.

Dinosaur Jr. were pioneers within the alternative rock scenes of the ‘80s and ’90s and introduced the world to a sound that had not been heard prior and influenced a countless number of acts to follow. One of the fundamentals for Dinosaur Jr.’s specific sound is the shear volume of their live show—and that reputation held true Sunday night.

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DC’s Verizon Center hosted Imagine Dragons on Monday, 7/6 who performed for an exhilarated and packed house in the center of downtown Washington.

Imagine Dragons, the hard working band from Las Vegas, always seems to invoke smiles from their audience and when Dan Reynolds and his bandmates took the stage in DC, they did just that. The energy radiated from the band, to the crowd, and back again to generate an undeniable level of happiness in the arena.

On the road supporting their latest LP, Smoke and Mirrors, Imagine Dragons’ DC stop marked the end of the east coast leg of their US tour before they headed west. The band is then off to play shows in Japan, China, Europe, and Australia.

Serving as openers for the evening’s performance was veteran Canadian act, Metric who unleashed a stylish and flawless performance, and a very talented artist named Halsey from New Jersey got the evening started.

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July 4, 2015, RFK Stadium, Washington, DC. Foo Fighters’ 20TH Anniverssary Blowout.

“The shows we’ve been doing lately are our favorite shows that we’ve ever done,” Dave Grohl told the NME last week. “What seemed like a setback at the time has turned into this beautiful blessing in disguise, where this throne and these crutches and these audiences make us play longer and harder than we ever have.”

Seems true to us. Were Grohl to have even been on his back and bedridden for the Foo Fighters’ 20th Anniversary 4th of July blowout at Washington, DC’s RFK Stadium, the audience still would have turned out in droves. To put it simply, 20 years on, Dave and the band are beloved.

July 4, 2015, RFK Stadium, Washington, DC. Foo Fighters’ 20TH Anniverssary Blowout.

And while we’re at it, let’s not forget the beloved line up of performers who proceeded the Foos on the 4th—Trouble Funk, Buddy Guy, Heart, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, LL Cool J, Gary Clark, Jr., RDGLDGRN—all played to a rabid, and for a time there, rain soaked crowd.

While away for our own 4th of July vacation thwarted a more timely response to the hue and cry from DC’s increasingly insignificant alt-weekly, our own Richie Downs braved the crowd and the weather to record the day in photos—from the very beginning to the Foos’ closing fireworks. It’s a narrative we think you’d agree is best revealed here on the faces of the performers—and those in attendance. —Ed.

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British power-duo, Royal Blood invaded the 9:30 Club last Wednesday night to play for a packed house and gave the DC audience a taste of what this musical pair from Brighton has to offer.

The formula has been done before—two band members, a guitarist and a drummer, with one of them (or both) covering vocal duties. With large scale, internationally known acts such as The White Stripes and The Black Keys operating under this model, you would think this setup would fall into the category of “having been done to death”—but the reality is that it’s actually quite the opposite. With less happening on stage and fewer individual players in the overall mix, the listener is forced to hear the personality and musical tone of just the band’s 2 players.

After all, music is sometimes at its best when it’s in its simplest form and often it just takes 2 players to get the music and the sound to where it should be. This is certainly the case with Royal Blood who are raising the bar and elevating the “simple” standard by a measurable volume.

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Before Tame Impala arrived to perform on Saturday night, men in white lab coats made their way through the dim light and haze to frantically dial in effects, turn screws on a couple of machines, and make sure all the wires and plugs were tight. I’ve actually never seen stage-techs dressed like mad scientists before, but perhaps it’s what a band like Tame Impala needs to keep their edge.

When the Australia-based psychedelic-rock band Tame Impala took the stage at Northeast DC’s Echostage, they were treated with a warm welcome from an anxious audience. The fans in the first few rows even held signs bearing the title of their favorite songs. One patron in the very front even brought an impressively drawn sketch of the band’s front-man, Kevin Parker.

Touring to promote their third studio album Currents, set for release in July, Tame Impala unleashed a barrage of songs from the band’s ample repertoire upon their DC audience.

One of the most notable traits of Tame Impala’s live sound is the convergence of old and new tones. While the band is in fact manually driven, the electronics are a huge element to their style. The feel and emotion of their sound as a whole is reminiscent of eras past, with a specific nod to some ‘70s fuzz. This retro sound is carried over to the guitar parts in which some lines sear and cut right through the overall mix. The vocals follow the same method and at times lay perfectly on top of the hooky grooves.

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Last Thursday night at U Street’s Lincoln Theatre, audiences were indulged by an enthralling performance from one of the greatest songwriters of our time, Mr. Noel Gallagher accompanied by his High Flying Birds.

As I arrived at the theater, the first thing I noticed was the massive crowd that literally wrapped around the entire block. The rumor was that some folks had been waiting in line since 8AM and to top things off, it had been raining heavily for most of the day. The poncho-clad crowd, many huddled together sharing tiny umbrellas, looked glum to say the least. As the soaked patrons worked their way into the theater at door time, you could see a glimmer of hope wash across their eyes as they filled the theatre and shook off the remnants of the damp outdoors. The merch line was particularly crowded right from the moment the doors had been opened, perhaps to purchase dry clothes.

With no opening act, the anticipation inside the venue was as noticeable as the rain outside. With a set time of 8:10 PM, by 8:09 the crowd was on its feet. When Noel Gallagher walked onto the stage he smiled to acknowledge the audience, and without a word went right to his instrument. Opening with “Do the Damage,” a B-side from his latest studio effort, Gallagher’s guitar sound was impressive, his tone brilliant—and better even then one could expect to hear live.

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Last Tuesday, the New Orleans-based modern folk heroes, Hurray for the Riff Raff performed at DC’s 9:30 Club and indulged their audience with a genuine taste of real Americana.

To commence Tuesday’s performance, vocalist Alynda Lee Segarra took the stage alone and brought to life “The New SF Blues” minus the accompaniment of her band, delivering the lyrics with a commanding voice and an unassuming, graceful swagger. Segarra then turned to welcome her band to the stage for the next song with a “…here comes the rest of the Riff Raff” and smiled as the audience welcomed her and her full combo to DC.

Hurray for the Riff Raff immediately dove into the night’s second song “Blue Ridge Mountain” from their latest full length release, Small Town Heroes. The band proceeded to fill the room with beautifully orchestrated, yet simplistic tones well into the night. Despite their modest stage set up and use of only essential instruments—guitar, piano, drums, fiddle, and bass—the Riff Raff unquestionably fills the room with a very full sound. I suppose that when you use only the key ingredients to make a soup, that’s exactly what you taste the most. Point being—simple is a really good thing.

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