Category Archives: TVD Washington, DC

Stephen Merritt’s challenge to himself, at the end of the last century, was to write 100 love songs. He had been inspired by hearing a piano bar revue of Stephen Sondheim’s works—and by 114 Songs by Charles Ives, the composer born 150 years ago this weekend, as it happens.

He only got to 69 Love Songs. But that was fine, or maybe better, as it fit his droll style. The epic songscape is marking its 25th anniversary this year, sparking a series of two-night concerts in which it’s played in order, 35 songs the first night and 34, the second with no additions or changes possible. The whole project is something of a math problem, after all, with some of the songs of the first night’s set Thursday at the Lincoln Theatre, (“Roses” specifically) originally clocking in at only 27 seconds, and three others were written at just under a minute.

Reacting to a single yelled request, the ever-deadpan Merritt advised that those who requested songs that were not next one on the list would be fed to alligators; and those who needlessly requested songs that would be next would cause them to just skip the song altogether. So it was a bit of a recital of the assembled seven-piece Magnetic Fields, all of whom were pretty much sitting down, like the audience. Unlike the very fanciful playhouse stage setting and colorful costuming the last time the band played the venue, for the 50 Song Memoir in 2017, this was a very plain presentation, bordering on drab.

Merritt sat at right, in an ELO T-shirt, barely playing any instruments (except for key triangle at one point and a moo-cow toy elsewhere). The main event, as always, was his deep baritone, which seems to have gotten even deeper over the years. As it was, he tilted his head and stretched his neck as if to empty out the furthest reaches of every low note.

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When one covers a gig, the evening begins at a venue’s box office, where the ticket and photo pass are picked up and any other important information is relayed. Wednesday night at the Fillmore Silver Spring, when I arrived to cover Till Lindemann on his current headlining tour, this additional information came in the form of signage posted at the box office, and the doors to the venue. It said, “Please be advised that this performance will involve exposure to certain foods containing the following ingredients, and potential allergens…” and listed the usual roundup, including shellfish. It was a reminder of what I already knew to be true—this show would be a visceral and wholly bonkers experience.

While Till Lindemann is most well-known as the front man for legendary German industrial metal band Rammstein, over the last decade or so, he’s also taken on solo work. In 2013, he paired up with Swedish multi-instrumentalist Peter Tägtgren to form Lindemann; when Tägtgren departed, Lindemann became a solo project. His latest solo album is Zunge, released last year.

I’m a Rammstein fan, so I looked forward to seeing this enigmatic frontman in the confines of a club, as opposed to the football stadiums where I caught the band a few times on their last US tour. I’ll get straight to the point. In 2024, humanity, with endless access to media and images from all dark corners of the planet, can be a tough crowd to shock. At the same time, we (ok some of us) work to make sure our fellow human beings feel comfortable and safe on the ride we all share through space. Till Lindemann defenestrates the idea of comfort, doing his best to provoke and shock his audience. He’s great at it. The music is good too.

At 9PM on the nose, Lindemann took the stage in a red uniform that was one part military, one part Berlin bondage club. Accompanied by his backing band—guitarists Jes Paige and Emily Ruvidich, bassist Danny Lohner, keyboardist Constance Day, and drummer Joe Letz—Lindemann launched into “Zunge,” from the latest album.

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Pearl Jam returned to the DMV area last Thursday, their first show in the area in 11 years, and, given the crowd response, the band definitely received a hero’s welcome. Even frontman Eddie Vedder commented on it. “…we don’t get here as often as we’d like, and now feeling your energy right off the bat, we are seeing the errors of our ways,” commenting that they were scheduled to play Baltimore when the pandemic hit in 2020, and then CFG Arena in 2022 when the tour was rescheduled but the arena was being renovated. At times, the crowd sang louder than Vedder with its multiple heartfelt sing alongs, so much so that after the enthusiastic chorus and “uh huhs” at the end of “Even Flow” halfway through the set, Vedder just shook his head as if to say, “Wow.”

Playing an arena show can sometimes feel formulaic because an arena doesn’t lend itself to develop the same sort of bond a band may have with the audience in a club. Pearl Jam made the show at CFG Arena feel intimate though, and Vedder and guitarist Mike McCready had a lot to do with that. McCready seemed to love engaging with the pit audience, getting them to pogo, often venturing close to the lip of the stage, and interacting with those in the first few levels of seating. He even let the audience “play” his guitar at the end of the main set when wrapping up “Porch.”

Vedder isn’t swinging from stage scaffolding into the crowd like he used to, but he still has the ability to interact with an arena audience in a way that feels spontaneous, and authentic. He sat on the lip of the stage at times, commented about various signs he saw in the audience, and waded into the crowd a bit to give fist bumps at the encore-ending “Yellow Ledbetter.”

He stopped the show during the huge hit “Alive” to comfort someone who was being taken from the pit to receive medical attention. “…You spent a long time on your feet! You made it all the way almost to the end of the show. In Philly, someone went down much earlier,” he joked. He even led a Freddie Mercury-at-Live-Aid style call and thundering response with the audience at the end of “Daughter” before segueing into Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in The Wall, Pt. 2.”

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Thursday night the Fillmore Silver Spring transformed into a cathedral of power metal. Germany’s Powerwolf made a stop on their North American tour in the Washington, DC suburb, the band’s first ever show at the Fillmore. The faithful gathered for metal worship.

The night got started a whole 20 minutes earlier than expected. I was still going through security when the openers, Canadian power metal outfit Unleash the Archers, took the stage at 7:40PM. We scrambled to get to the photo pit but made it in time. Always get to the venue early!

Founded in 2007 in British Columbia, Unleash the Archers have gone through some personnel changes over the years. The current lineup is comprised of cofounders Brittney Hayes (vocals) and Scott Buchanan (drums), along with Grant Truesdell (guitar), Andrew Kingsley (guitar), and Nick Miller (bass). The band’s latest album is Phantoma, released in May.

Unleash the Archers performed for an entire 50 minutes, which is unusual for an opening band at a club show. Nonetheless, the crowd was into it. Many of the fans at the Fillmore had never seen or heard of the band until Thursday night (Hayes asked the crowd!); they responded with their wholehearted support. Indeed, what I found striking about the entire show was the amiable vibe bouncing back and forth between the bands and the crowd.

So the fans at the Fillmore might not have been entirely familiar wish Unleash the Archers, but that didn’t stop them from chanting “HO-LY SHIT! HO-LY SHIT!” several times through the set. The band responded with smiles and a lot of animation. They looked like they were having a wonderful time on stage while they ripped through songs like “Abyss,” “Gods in Decay,” and “The Matriarch.” Unleash the Archers wrapped up their successful set with a cover of Stan Rogers’ anthemic “Northwest Passage.” Everyone sang along.

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Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band made a triumphant return to Washington, DC Saturday night, performing at Nationals Park to a massive, elated crowd. This was one of several postponed dates originally scheduled for 2023 but put off so Springsteen could attend to health issues. DC was glad to have him back.

Nats Park was crammed to capacity with fans, and it was an amazing night. Having a few drinks and yell-singing “Thunder Road” with 40,000 or so strangers was just the experience I needed. Hell, from the looks of it, it’s what we all needed.

Bruce Springsteen & the E Street band need no opening act. For one thing, they have a back catalog to die for and there is just too much to get to, and it seems like they really could play all night if allowed. Besides that, who would dare open for Springsteen?

It was showtime at about 7:40PM. Bruce and the gang took the stage one by one to massive cheers, with the stadium erupting when the Boss himself appeared. The set kicked off with “Seeds,” a song Springsteen has played live a billion times, even though it’s never had an official release.

From there it was three full hours—29 songs—of rock and roll glory. With a discography like Springsteen’s, three hours of material is merely the tip of the iceberg. There’s lots of room to mix up a setlist while keeping enough of the hits in there to keep everyone happy.

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The still-touring The Rubinoos tend to close their main set with their anthem “Rock and Roll is Dead.” Like a lot of the work they’ve been doing for more than a half century, it could be taken with a wink and a grain of salt. After all, when they used it to close their Sunday gig at the rockin’ Hank Dietle’s Tavern in Rockville, they’d been disproving it the whole time.

Formed by Berkeley high schoolers at the dawn of the ’70s, they began their own love with rock ’n’ roll by leaning into its roots, practicing doo-wop street corner harmonies that’d serve them throughout their career. At Dietle’s, a cool dive amid dismal office towers across from a shuttered mall, they began their early evening show and closed their encore displaying this a cappella prowess with a couple of songs from the 1950s, starting with Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers’ “I’m Not a Juvenile Delinquent” and ending their encore with the Chordettes’ “Mr. Sandman.”

Their love for the arcane cover song has served them well over the years, scoring them a minor hit with Tommy James & the Shondells’ once-controversial “I Think We’re Alone Now.” On stage, basking in the retirement age rocker energy of the room, they began its loping baseline with a long story about the time they played it on American Bandstand.

They bring a vibrant authenticity to songs not often played live in small bars—or played so well—from the Electric Prunes “I Had Too much to Dream (Last Night)” to the Stingrays’ surf instrumental, “Stingray” to their stab at the Byrds’ experimental “Eight Miles High” in the encore.

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Washington, DC’s Anthem hosted a night of swaggering rock and roll, when The Struts blew through town last Thursday, a stop on the band’s Pretty Vicious tour. The night got started with an explosive and raucous set by rocker Barns Courtney. From the very moment he and his equally glam band took the stage, it was delightful chaos—and hard to know where to look!

Courtney hails from England and has released two albums—2017’s The Attractions of Youth and 2019’s 404—along with a few EPs. His next album is Supernatural and is slated for release in September. The 45-minute set pulled from his entire catalog, leaning on both his earliest work (songs like “Fire,” Glitter & Gold,” and “Kicks”) and most recent (“Supernatural,” “Young in America,” and “National Treasure”).

Courtney is a man who can’t be contained—he was at times engaging with the audience or letting the microphone dangle from his mouth while he grinned at the crowd. Stopping to dance with the guitarist, a man who has the looks of ’70s Jimmy Page and endowed with the back bending abilities of KK Downing circa 1982. It was hard to look away. Courtney’s ability to command both stage and audience is impressive. The crowd ate it all up and responded to Courtney as if he were the headliner.

It seems Courtney has a family connection to Washington, DC—he has a brother who (as of last fall, at least) attends Georgetown University. Hopefully DC will be treated to another show by Barns Courtney soon.

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PHOTO: MIKAI KARL | Where it’s at, Beck famously declared nearly three decades ago, was two turntables and a microphone. But in his long and inventive career, he’s dabbled in a number of musical genres, and for his current summer tour he’s backed by much more than that DJ setup to perform in front of his own band and full 80-piece orchestras.

It’s a rich and rare opportunity to hear him do justice to a couple of his best received albums this century, the contemplative and orchestral 2014 Morning Phase and its thematic predecessor Sea Change from a dozen years earlier. The sweeping swells of strings that accompanied his ballads of heartbreak and isolation were finally being given the full backing they deserved.

Saturday night at Wolf Trap, the full National Symphony Orchestra set the tone with the brief instrumental “Cycle” before Beck strolled on with an acoustic guitar to begin “Morning” just as he did on the 2014 album. Wearing a dark suit over an unbuttoned white shirt, the ever-youthful Beck bounded around the stage when he didn’t stand stock-still at the microphone. His supple voice was well-mixed over the waves of music supporting him, intoning the deepened lyric turns from a guy once known only for his slacker stance.

In all, he played nearly a dozen songs from Morning Phase and Sea Change. The orchestral undertow didn’t just work for songs from those two melancholy albums, though. He had dabbled with the sounds on many of his other albums, if only through samples, so was eager to bring them to the stage for in some cases, the first time. That was the case with “Missing,” from his 2005 Guero, and the ballad “We Live Again” from 1998’s Mutations. But even “Tropicalia” from that 1998 album got a sprightly reading—and much needed change of pace, from the NSO. “We’ll bring the tragedy back in a little bit,” Beck deadpanned.

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When the summer tour of Daryl Hall and Elvis Costello was announced, I first thought Declan MacManus was opting to fill the slot of Hall’s former partner. After all, he’s performed in many guises over the years, from his famous stage name to The Imposter to Napoleon Dynamite (before the movie of the same name). So why not John Oates?

There was some precedent for such a partnership. Hall sang and co-starred in the video for Costello’s “The Only Flame in Town” an alarming 40 years ago. But no, here they were only sharing dates on a summer tour, co-headlining in the sense they both presented their own full sets that otherwise had no other intersection with the other.

It might have seemed an odd pairing; the hit-making popular appeal of Hall & Oates catalog has little to do with Costello’s more esoteric but critically appraised songbook. Yet fans of each artist may have been surprised by how many songs they may knew by heart from the other.

Hall in recent years has built on his musical legacy by building Daryl’s House, a pleasing musical web series turned brick and mortar club in Pawling, N.Y. Inviting other artists to join him in more than 90 episodes, he’s built a solid band that stood out in the tour’s final stop Thursday at Wolf Trap in Vienna, VA.

With his poofy mane now completely white, Hall himself, at 77, may have been exhibiting the effect of two months of touring, but for a guy who built his career on a soulful falsetto, his upper register was shot. Sometimes he’d skip the lyrics with the highest notes, as on “Sara Smile”; other times he’d let the audience take it. Most times, though, he tried to go for it, as if it could still possibly happen, reaching with a kind of growl that seemed painful at times. And mostly, it didn’t work. It was a rough night to be sure.

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It was a nostalgic night of punk, reggae, and silliness as The Aquabats stopped at the Fillmore Silver Spring Monday night on their latest tour, Finally! The Album Tour.

Left Alone got the Monday night festivities started with an enjoyable 30-minute set. A California-based punk rock band, it formed back in 1996 by lead vocalist and guitarist Elvis Cortez. In 2024, the rest of the lineup includes Pablo Fiasco, Jimmy Jam, and Ben Shaw. The ska-influenced punk went over well with the Silver Spring crowd; it was a cool set that even included some Spanish-language songs. Left Alone’s latest release was 2021’s Checkers & Plaid, released on the label Cortez formed, Smelvis Records.

Also from California, The Aggrolites took the baton from Left Alone to get the Monday night crowd hyped and they were successful. The Aggrolites (Roger Rivas, Alex McKenzie, Jesse Wagner, Jeff Roffredo, and Ricky Chacon), formed in 2002 and are purveyors of what they call “Dirty Reggae”—a fusion of soul, ska, reggae, and punk.

The crowd was filled with fans who sang along and danced. Instead of a mosh pit, the show had a dance pit. Late in the set, frontman Wagner picked out some kids from the audience to join the band on stage for a fun rendition of “Banana Song,” a song from the children’s show Yo Gabba Gabba! The kids danced and sang on stage while inflatable bananas got tossed around the crowd.

While ska/reggae/punk is generally not my “thing,” both Left Alone and The Aggrolites were great. The sets were enjoyable, and both bands got the crowd engaged and dancing. There were quite a few kids present; the resulting vibe was that of a light, fun, family-friendly party.

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Pride month went out with a “Stampede” in Washington, DC Sunday as country singer Orville Peck made a stop at The Anthem on his current tour. Goldie Boutilier and The War and Treaty round out the bill on the Stampede tour.

Goldie Boutilier kicked off the night, taking the Anthem stage before a still-gathering crowd on a very hot DC night. Boutilier hails from Nova Scotia and began singing as a child. Her first performance was at age five in her hometown of Reserve Mines; she sang with The Men of the Deeps Choir—North America’s only coal miners’ choir. Her family’s junkyard business was used as rehearsal space.

Boutilier’s music is notable for her themes of romance and glamour and she’s also a successful model, having appeared in campaigns for the likes of John Galliano and H&M. Sunday night, her 30-minute set included songs pulled from across her collection of EPs and LPs. While she may be labeled as “alt-country,” the sound generated by Boutilier and her all-female backing band has a distinctly rock edge. Boutilier’s latest EP is “Emerald Year,” released in 2023.

The night swung from alt-country to soul with The War and Treaty. The War and Treaty are a husband-and-wife duo—singer-songwriters Michael Trotter Jr. and Tanya Trotter. Their first album was 2018’s Healing Tide—the lead single from that album was acclaimed by Rolling Stone as a “joyfully relentless title track, reminiscent of classic Ike and Tina Turner rock-infused soul.”

The pair hit some significant milestones in 2023, as The War and Treaty became the first black duo nominated for Duo of the Year by the Country Music Association. If that weren’t enough, they were the first black duo nominated for Duo of the Year by the Academy of Country Music. They have received two Grammy nominations, including Best New Artist.

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The intimate, subterranean confines of Washington, DC’s Union Stage played host to night of heavy music Sunday, as Baroness made a stop on the band’s current tour. Ruby the Hatchet and Filth is Eternal played supporting roles for a handful of dates and rounded out the night of heavy music in DC.

Filth is Eternal kicked off the night, treating the still-assembling crowd to a quick, 30-minute set jammed with hardcore punk sounds. The Seattle-based band, led by dynamic vocalist Lis D’Angelo, hosted, as the band puts it, “their own brand of communal” exorcism at Union Stage. Unlike many hardcore bands who kick their way angrily through sets, Filth is Eternal brought a sense of joy and community to the stage. The band’s latest album is Find Out, released in 2023.

I was excited to see Ruby The Hatchet on the bill—I hadn’t seen them since they supported German doom metal band Kadavar at Baltimore’s Metro Gallery right before the COVID pandemic started in 2019. I enjoyed them then and was sure they’d be great at Union Stage. I was right.

The psych rock quintet, led by siren Jillian Taylor, has been around for over a dozen years. Emerging from New Jersey basements, Ruby the Hatchet (Taylor, Johnny Scarps, Lake Muir, Owen Stewart, and Sean Hur), relocated to Philadelphia and released their first EP in 2011. The band’s latest album is Fear is a Cruel Master, released in 2022. At Union Stage, the crowd got hit with RtH’s guitar- and organ-driven, 1970s influenced sounds. Coupled with Taylor’s charisma and smooth vocals, the result is sweet rock and roll honey. The entire set was fabulous, but I loved the cover of Quarterflash’s 1981 classic, “Harden My Heart.”

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It’s a satisfying, full circle moment when Robert Plant and Allison Krauss close their summer set with “When the Levee Breaks.” Not just because of the continuing truth of the 80-year-old meteorological prognostication in an era when flooding is on the rise.

As in the first of two shows at Wolf Trap in Vienna, VA, the two are bringing a palpable yet atmospheric feel of the 1929 blues song that Plant and his band had rocked up so much to end their bestselling Led Zeppelin IV that they freely added their own names to the songwriting credit of originator Memphis Minnie.

Like much of the rest of the set on a sizzling summer night, the two were bringing their thoughtful, expansive interpretations closer to the original nuggets of American music that so inspired them both. Still, the sold out crowd would give standing ovations only when they covered Zep songs, however differently arranged, which happened a couple of other times too.

Plant, at 75, with signature curls now a wild silvery mane, was steady on vocals, returning at times to the mercurial oscillations of his past band and his unexpected ad libs and yelps. No longer stalking the stage bare-chested like a rock god, he more often gestured like a courtly gentleman, particularly in deference to his collaborator Krauss, 52, who in her high necked blouse and jeans appeared like a Wild West schoolmarm.

Raised in bluegrass but with an affection for rock ’n’ roll, she harmonizes surprisingly well with Plant. And like that other seemingly odd recording duo, Norah Jones and Billy Joe Armstrong, they have found their North Star in the Everly Brothers—whose songs, it turns out, were heard as often as anything from Led Zep, with “The Price of Love” early in the set and two tuneful ditties, “Stick with Me Baby” and “Gone Gone Gone” to cap the encore.

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This was fabulous. It was a night of firsts at Baltimore Soundstage, as Battle Beast made a stop in Charm City Saturday night, the penultimate date on their first North American headlining tour. Supporting Battle Beast was newcomers Blackbriar, touring North America for the first time ever.

I should have known this was going to be a special night when I queued up with everyone else right after doors opened at 7PM; the line to get into Baltimore Soundstage still snaked around the block. It was so long that I was a little nervous about making it inside in time to photograph Blackbriar. My fears were assuaged as security moved us through swiftly. Once inside at 7:58PM, I was told by security that Blackbriar would not be taking the stage until 8:15pm, as the meet and greet ran late. Relief!

Blackbriar took the stage and hit the crowd with gorgeous symphonic metal. The Netherlands-based band is promoting their latest album, 2023’s A Dark Euphony. This is an album that one reviewer praised as being “generation and genre-defining,” which is massive considering it is only the band’s second full length album (the first being 2021’s The Cause of Shipwreck). The songs explore gothic themes; sung by mesmerizing lead singer Zora Cock, they took on a magical quality.

The darkness of the songs was in direct contrast to the big smiles onstage, as the rest of the band (René Boxem, Bart Winters, Robin Koezen, Ruben Wijga, and Siebe Sol Sijpkens) all appeared to be absolutely stoked to be playing for the Baltimore crowd, which returned the love. Unusual for an opener, Blackbriar played for nearly an hour, even returning to the stage for an encore!

The Baltimore date of Battle Beast’s Circus of Doom Over North America tour was the first time I had ever covered or seen the Finnish power metal band (Juuso Soinio, Pyry Vikki, Eero Sipilä, Janne Björkroth, Noora Louhimo, Joona Björkroth). I will tell you right now, it will not be my last.

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Two years after Judas Priest last played the Washington, DC area, the OG metal giants returned to the MGM National Harbor Sunday night, one of the last stops on the current leg of the Invincible Shield tour. Like on the 50 Metal Years tour in 2021, Judas Priest brings Swedish power metal band Sabaton along for the ride.

The theater at the MGM National Harbor is part of the larger hotel/casino complex. As Sunday afternoon progressed, the place filled with fans—the line to get through security snaked through the atrium. Priest sold the joint out, so it took forever to get everyone through.

At 8PM, Sabaton (Joakim Brodén, Par Sunström, Chris Rorland, Hannes Van Dahl, and Thobbe Englund) took the stage to serve up their brand of historic power metal. For the unfamiliar, Sabaton is a Swedish band known for their war history-themed music. This started way back in 2005, with the release of Primo Victoria, the album to first take on historic themes. In the nearly twenty years since, the band has taken on broad topics like World War 1, World War II, and even Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. Sabaton manages to pack a twelve song setlist into their opening slot, which is made up of crowd pleasers from across their discography

Despite the warmongering imagery, including gas masks, lots of camo, and a drum riser disguised as a tank, Sabaton comes across as just a happy, jovial bunch interested in cool stories about history. Brodén peppers his performance with lighthearted jokes while the rest of the guys engage with the audience, smiling broadly all the way. It’s very entertaining and the music is creative.

I’ve seen Sabaton perform many times with Judas Priest over the last few years; the National Harbor show was my fourth time on this tour alone. Something that stands out to me is just how strong a fanbase Sabaton has. It’s not unusual to show up at a Judas Priest gig and see many Sabaton t-shirts and even people dressed up in costume. Priest has done a great job here finding a band with crossover appeal for tours and is sticking with what works for them.

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