Category Archives: TVD Washington, DC

It’s gratifying to have any Elvis Costello concert come around after two years of pandemic postponements. But the one that finally took the stage at Wolf Trap in Virginia last week had the added advantage of being opened by Nick Lowe, his longtime colleague, producer, and influencer.

It was a version of “Surrender to the Rhythm” originated by Lowe’s old band Brinsley Schwarz that was playing as Costello appeared on stage. Costello’s version came on his latest recording, marking 50 years since he and a friend recording under the name Rusty tried to release a record of such covers they did at the time.

Costello told a story about approaching Lowe back then as fans and hopefuls and being shooed off. Eventually Lowe would produce six Costello albums, play bass on a dozen of his songs, and otherwise cross paths through the years.

It was Lowe’s ringing “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace Love and Understanding?” that was the climax of the rewarding show with the two trading its memorable, ever-timely verses. Lowe had come back on stage (in a third dashing outfit) to duet on “Indoor Fireworks,” a Costello song that Lowe had released a year before its author did on The King of America. Frankly their harmonies weren’t great, but it was almost touching to see the two together on stage making an effort.

Costello’s headlining set was a freewheeling one for the huge crowd (who looked to be averaging the singer’s age, which turns 68 this week). As such, they wanted to hear songs that ignited his aggressively creative career. They were rewarded with the frequent concert-starter “Accidents will Happen” (likely because of its irresistible opening line, “I just don’t know where to begin”). But also “Green Shirt” and, before long, “Mystery Dance.” In between, he’d fit in songs from this century that few seemed very familiar with, such as “Hetty O’Hara’s Confidential” and “Either Side of the Same Town.”

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Last Thursday night, I was in the pit of the Fillmore Silver Spring, focusing on photographing Hatebreed, when I was startled by a firm nudge to my ribs, inching me closer to the stage. It was a member of the Fillmore’s security staff making his way to a crowd surfer who was swiftly approaching the barrier. In a flash I had to recalibrate my actions in the photo pit to dodge security, the half dozen other photographers sharing the space, and fans coming at my head, all while getting my shots.

It was 6:50pm and the roof was already coming off the joint five minutes into the support act’s set. The tone was locked in for the rest of night as Anthrax and Black Label Society’s coheadlining tour made a stop in the Washington, DC area and were received with headbanging enthusiasm by thrash and heavy metal fans of all ages.

While the night got started early, the venue was already full when Hatebreed (Jamey Jasta, Wayne Lozinak, Frank Novinec, Chris Beattie, and Matt Byrne) took the stage for a loud and aggressively fun set. It was a fuss free, no-frills production but that didn’t matter—the Connecticut metalcore vets delivered. After I left the pit, I retreated to a far upper corner of the venue. From there I could watch the fans on the packed floor. Hatebreed had the crowd fist pumping and headbanging in sync. The setlist drew from across the band’s career; it speaks to the strength of a tour’s lineup that the support act has a career that spans 25 years.

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I love telling the story about how I discovered The Budos Band, because it was, for me, like finding a unicorn. A special event that only happened by chance. In 2011, I was in Milwaukee for a conference and stepped out one evening for a stroll. My feet led me to a park across from the Milwaukee School of Engineering. My instincts served me well; The Budos Band just happened to be there, playing a free show. Captured by the band’s funky, Afro-soul sounds, I fell hard and remain a Budos disciple to this day, attempting to convert the uninitiated any chance I get.

Over the last year, these lords from Staten Island (Jared Tankel, Thomas Brenneck, John Carbonella Jr., Mike Deller, Daniel Foder, Andrew Greene, Rob Lombardo, Brian Profilio, Dame Rodriguez) have played a few dates here and there; much to my frustration, I was unable to attend shows in Seattle and Chicago in the fall and spring. So I was thrilled when the summer tour was announced—the band’s longest in four years—and joined many others for a Budos party at the 9:30 Club Wednesday night.

The band crowded the stage which had been fully stocked with beer (beer that was generously shared with the audience), and launched into “Old Engine Oil,” from their 2019 album, simply titled V. It was a good thing the photo pit set up by the 9:30 Club was narrow that night, otherwise it would have been impossible not to use it as a personal dance floor.

The great thing about a Budos Band show is they could pick songs out of a hat and the setlist would still be great—their catalog is just that good. However, they were careful to choose tunes from across the band’s history, from 2005’s Up From the South, to 2020’s Long in the Tooth. As usual, I was happy to hear “Chicago Falcon” and “Black Venom,” two songs I can honestly say I listen to daily.

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The Fillmore in Silver Spring, Maryland had the privilege of hosting a stop on Faroese vocalist and musician Eivør’s very first North American tour Saturday, bringing a night of Nordic music to the Washington, DC area.

First, a little context for the unfamiliar. The Faroe Islands are a tiny archipelago located halfway between Norway and Iceland and is a part of the Kingdom of Denmark. Known for its isolation and subpolar climate, it’s from this environment that musician and vocalist Eivør Pálsdóttir, who performs professionally simply as Eivør, comes to us. Raised in the village of Syðrugøta (population <500), she performed on television for the first time at age 13 and has since dabbled in jazz, classical, folk, chamber pop, and electronic music, releasing her first album Eivør Pálsdóttir, in 2000.

In the last decade, Eivør has also contributed to the soundtrack of BBC’s The Last Kingdom, her voice has made an appearance in a video game (God of War), and she received the 2021 Nordic Council Music Prize. Eivør’s latest album is Segl (2020). Unlike most of her catalog, her latest release is mostly sung in English.

It was a seated show Saturday night, unusual for the Fillmore, but chairs were filled with fans who not only knew the music but could also sing along in Faroese. I arrived unfamiliar with Eivør’s work and was in the minority that night. There was a woman in full face makeup who never bothered to take her seat, she simply danced in the back of the room all night. Others shouted words of support and threw horns. Eivør seemed genuinely humbled by the support of the crowd, saying she only expected “maybe about 10 people” to show up.

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I’ll confess to being unfamiliar with Warpaint prior to last Tuesday, when I had the pleasure of photographing the LA dream/ psychedelic pop quartet at Washington, DC’s Capital Turnaround. I’m more into rock and metal and usually prefer loud, shredding guitars to dreamy harmonies. So, while I headed into the venue not entirely sure what to expect, I headed home a new fan.

Warpaint faithful gathered early to get good seats in the general admission venue and to catch techno duo Belief. Belief is a collaboration between Warpaint drummer Stella Mozgawa and producer Bryan Charles Holon. For roughly 20 minutes they played their thumping techno music shrouded in darkness, against a backdrop of rapidly changing graphics projected onto a screen. It got the crowd moving in their seats and many fans leapt to their feet and cheered the duo as they took their bows.

Soon the quartet of casually dressed, cool, LA women (drummer Mozgawa, guitarists Emily Kokal and Theresa Wayman, and bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg) took the stage, launching into “Stars,” from the 2012 album Exquisite Corpse. The band’s latest album, Radiate Like This, was released in the spring; six of the ten tracks on that album were in the set. The audience ate it up. There were many notable moments, including the stunning “Melting,” when the group gathered at the front of the stage to sing together while only Kokal strummed a guitar and, appropriate for DC, a cover of Fugazi’s “I’m So Tired.”

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Veteran rockers The Cult made a stop on its “We Own the Night” tour at The Anthem in Washington, DC, bringing along Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Zola Jesus to play to the mostly Generation X crowd.

Kicking off the night was Nika Roza Danilova, who goes by the stage name Zola Jesus. Her latest album Arkhon, was released just last month; the album explores heavy themes brought about by the current state of the world. In a 30-minute set, Zola Jesus introduced the still-assembling Anthem crowd to this music, appropriately wrapped in an industrial and goth sound and bathed solely in red light (the latter making for a frustrating photographic shoot, especially from the soundboard). There are elements of classical music in her songs as well as underscored by the presence of a violinist in her backing band.

After a quick turnover, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club took the stage. The setlist spanned most of B.R.M.C.’s albums, but leaned mostly on songs from earlier LPs, like “Spread Your Love” and “Red Eyes and Tears” from the band’s first album, B.R.M.C (2001), and lasted an entire hour, rather unusual for a support act. While well-performed, the band’s vibe was also distinctly mellow, somewhat flying in the face of their garage rock sound. Nevertheless, including B.R.M.C on the “We Own the Night” tour was a good choice. The band’s catalog complements that of The Cult, and provides aural lubrication for the crowd, prepping them for the headliner.

It was 10:20PM when The Cult finally took the stage. In 2022, The Cult consists of two original members, Ian Astbury (vocals) and Billy Duffy (guitar), as well as John Tempesta (drums), Charlie Jones (bass), and Mike Mangan (keyboards). They launched into a setlist of fan favorites, which included all the songs you’d hope for, “Sun King,” “Edie (Ciao Baby),” and of course, “Fire Woman” and “She Sells Sanctuary.”

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Nicole Atkins is the kind of performer who is not only bursting with song ideas, she could also go any number of directions in her musical approach, from folk and pop to soul and rock with a little jazz thrown in as well. During the pandemic, she released a jazzy version of her previous Italian Ice as a way to serve fans and keep her career alive when the pandemic prevented touring.

There was a grand piano on the stage at The Hamilton in Washington, DC, where she concluded her latest tour last weekend, but its cover stayed on it; Atkins preferred to rock out the songs’ original versions with her four-piece band, augmented by the occasional backing vocals of Levi, who also served as opening act.

The tiny and mightily-voiced Atkins brings Lea Michele to mind, and if that singer ever tires of her recently announced gig fronting Broadway’s revival of Funny Girl, this versatile vocalist has the spunk and pipes to fulfill it. As if to remind us, she made sure to mention at the end of one of her songs, “AM Gold,” that it had a Barbra Streisand reference in its refrain, “People needin’ people.” But that’s about as close to pop she got in a set that otherwise moved to harder rock and at one point, dance (“Fire up that disco ball if you can,” she called out before “Domino”).

The Jersey girl opened with a tune named after her hometown there, “Neptune City,” but by the end of the show was was taunting onetime neighbor Southside Johnny, whom she called a grump and is apparently in a competition for creating the better “I Don’t Wanna Go Home” anthem. As such, she capped her “In the Splinters” by calling out, “Eat it, Southside Johnny!”

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PHOTO: LIZ LINDER | Listeners literally place performers on pedestals, onto elevated stages and spotlights. So it was a little shocking to hear Sarah Borges say during her free-wheeling show at the Pearl Street Warehouse last week that she had spent some of the pandemic as a truck driver.

She couldn’t tour, and the clubs were all closed and she needed the dough. So why not? After all, she was pictured on the cover of her 2013 album, Radio Sweetheart, at the wheel of a T Bird. And being a songwriter who is always on the ball, she came up with a song about her part time duties, “She’s a Trucker.”

Whether songs come easily to Borges or not, they are certainly received easily. The Pearl Street show with a solid band led by her guitarist and producer Eric “Roscoe” Ambel, sounded great, had plenty of vigor, and with Borges’ droll delivery between songs, was thoroughly entertaining.

She’s got an enervating wail to her songs that draws you in, and a sassy style that makes everything seem to swing. Her guitar may be as much an accessory as her party dress, but why try soloing when you’ve got an ace like Roscoe in the house?

A member of the Blackhearts for Joan Jett, Ambel went on to co-found the Del-Lords before becoming an all around producer and guitarist for any number of artists from the Bottle Rockets to Emmylou Harris. He’s found a natural home playing with and for Borges though. And, dressed all white from bowler hat and coat to guitar and amp, looking like a tobacco tycoon, he played a few songs from his latest, You Asked for It – The Shut In Singles Series.

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Oftentimes artists will say they’re glad to be at a place. But Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway were clearly delighted to be making their debut at The Birchmere in Alexandria, VA, in between some festival gigs.

This, after all, was a hallowed ground for Mid-Atlantic bluegrass, where generations of stars have performed over the storied club’s half century, and local bluegrass superstars the Seldom Scene established an early residency and has been associated with the place ever since.

Tuttle likely knew The Birchmere name as a child, listening to records and learning flatpicking, cross picking, and clawhammer guitar styles from her music teaching father. Those lessons were successful enough to have her become the first woman to win the International Bluegrass Music Association’s guitar player of the year award five years ago—which she went on to win for a second consecutive year.

Still in her 20s, Tuttle wasn’t yet married to bluegrass traditions. She played in other people’s bands and wrote, sang, and recorded her own original material (as well as playing covers of others). The first time she headlined at The Birchmere, a year ago, she played solo, doing a lot of that material.

But her return to the bluegrass fold with a new album and a similarly accomplished young band made The Birchmere premiere of Tuttle and Golden Highway a special high point—for her and the audience. More than half her set came from the group’s debut album that came out this year, Crooked Tree. And like a traditional bluegrass group, the quintet lined up across the stage and burned through the material while each took their own impressive solos.

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An enthusiastic group of ska/punk fans gathered on a stormy night in Washington, DC to catch co-headliners Flogging Molly and The Interrupters take on the Anthem. The evening got off to an early start—6:30PM—a necessity given the bill’s four bands.

Kicking off the festivities were The Skints. Hailing from London, this young reggae punk band expressed gratitude to the still small crowd for getting in early—something, they acknowledged, they wouldn’t be likely to do themselves. In a swift 30 minutes, The Skints introduced themselves to the crowd, me included. I’m more of a metalhead but was quickly impressed by the band’s energy and talent. Drummer Jamie Kyriakides and bassist Jonathan Doyle provided the tight rhythms, while guitarist Joshua Rudge engaged the crowd. The remarkable Marcia Richards acted as frontwoman while playing guitar, keyboards, and sax.

After a quick turnover, Tiger Army took the stage. The California psychobilly trio, who’ve been at it since the late 1990s, consists of singer-guitarist Nick 13, stand up bassist Djordje Stijepovic, and drummer Mike Fasano. In a quick set, they gained more than a few new fans, including me. Tiger Army’s brand of psychobilly has a classic but modern sound and doesn’t feel at all dated.

The Interrupters then took the stage like Energizer bunnies to an explosion of cheers from the audience who sang along from the very first note of “Take Back the Power.” Fronted by the charismatic vocalist Aimee Interrupter, the band also features twin brothers Jesse and Justin Bivona on drums and bass, respectively, Kevin Bivona on guitar, and Billy Kottage from Reel Big Fish on trombone and organ.

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Bundling acts together for summer tours doesn’t just provide entertainment value, it also allows fans of one act to be introduced (or reintroduced) to acts they might otherwise not have bought a ticket for—and being pleasantly surprised as a result.

At first look, the Americana stardom of critics’ favorite Jason Isbell might not need a second act to bolster sales. Indeed, he’s drawn large crowds on his own across the country—including Wolf Trap, just last fall, where this month he was back again for two nights.

Yet for all his success, he hasn’t had a fraction of the radio play, sales, or widespread pop dominance of Sheryl Crow—whose fans in turn may or may not be aware of his deft songs. Sharing a bill on a tremendous summer night at the wooded Virginia venue and showed how much they have in common, with great bands and sharp songwriting.

Fans of Isbell would be reminded how many of Crow’s songs they already knew by heart and may have forgotten; and those who came for her hits were open and fair minded enough to hear what the fuss about Isbell was all about, maybe for the first time.

The double bill was more than a Machiavellian promoters’ idea; the two had worked together on Crow’s last album, Threads, on a remake of Bob Dylan’s “Everything is Broken” that they reproduced on stage, trading verses and guitar licks.

Crow professed to love everything about Isbell’s music and his politics—though that didn’t come up at all from either artist, particularly. Isbell, for his part, said he’d never had a more fun tour than the one with Crow and opener Waxahatchee, which was already winding up after just seven dates up the Atlantic coast. (Really? Never?)

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PHOTO: HOLLIE FERNANDO | Two summers of canceled or delayed concert tours due to Covid has not only resulted in a pent-up desire among music fans to get out and enjoy, but caused a big pile-up of top acts sharing bills in order to fit in all the season’s dates. There’d be no reason that, say, Belle & Sebastian and Japanese Breakfast couldn’t headline their own tours. But here they were together on a splendid outdoor bill at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts in the woods of Virginia on an evening kicked off by the sharp, grooving instrumentals of the London band Los Bitchos.

Belle & Sebastian, for one, was a band so anxious to perform they’ve been picking things from all over their career, doing multiple songs from six different albums in addition to only a couple from their latest, A Bit of Previous, that they had to record at home in Glasgow instead of Los Angeles because of travel restrictions. So giddy did they seem at performing, frontman Stuart Murdoch ended up dancing atop an upright piano at the end of “I’m a Cuckoo.” “How did I get up here?” he wondered at its end.

Every night’s set has been different from the last as they spin through their rich catalog. And as spontaneous as it all seemed, there was a definite plan in action as half its members—there are up to eight on stage this time—moved to different instruments for each selection.

The manic Murdoch served as frontman for nearly every tune, though Sarah Martin and Stevie Jackson each took lead exactly once (not counting Jackson’s impromptu salute to the state with a verse of The Rolling Stones’ “Sweet Virginia”). And while the kaleidoscopic films and projections behind them seemed to fit each song, it was clear that the visuals could accompany just about any song they could try.

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If you didn’t know he was a central figure of the LA punk scene, you’d think John Doe might have leapfrogged straight from the dusty circuit of 1940s country-western. In the inaugural set of The John Doe Folk Trio at Jammin’ Java in Vienna, VA, the lanky entertainer sported a classic cowboy shirt, sang behind a vintage microphone, and strummed a retro-style wooden guitar, backed by a standup bass and a drummer.

His songs, too, told of a yearning of a bygone America, with job struggles, pain, and death. It was the first stop of the tour following the release of his latest effort Fables in a Foreign Land that was borne of the Covid shutdown that also was a throwback to the pandemic of a century ago.

And the songs of the new Fables in a Foreign Land are all consciously set in the 1890s, a time before planes, phones, video, and internet further complicated and blurred life or death issues. But the new set of tunes weren’t so different from the songs he’s put out on his half dozen earlier solo efforts, such that the opening “The Losing Kind” went easily into the new “Never Coming Back” or even “Burning House of Love,” one of four X songs thrown into the setlist.

Behind the electricity and drive, a lot of the fierce, thundering songs of that seminal punk band were super-charged folk songs that fit into the continuity of the American songbook. Some of his new material grew out of fondly remembered songs from his childhood, such that the sagebrush saga of “Sierra Peaks” became the strange milieu of “The Cowboy and the Hot Air Balloon.”

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A delighted crowd packed Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland Saturday night to see Robert Plant and Alison Krauss “raise the roof” during a set that showcased the magical pairing of the two music legends.

You might argue it was long overdue. Plant and Krauss first collaborated in 2007, which resulted in the successful Raising Sand. Only in 2021 did we get a follow-up, Raise the Roof, released in November. The setlist drew from the new album and threw in some covers.

Of course, these covers included some Led Zeppelin. Over the years, the retooled, folk rock/country version of “Rock and Roll” has grown on me and I’ve come to appreciate hearing it live. However, this setlist also included two of my all-time favorite Zeppelin songs, “When the Levee Breaks,” which gave guitarist JD McPherson the opportunity to take the spotlight, and “The Battle of Evermore.” I daresay that Krauss’ angelic but powerful vocals on “The Battle of Evermore” rivaled Sandy Denny’s original recording in 1971. I’m not ashamed to admit that it brought a tear to my eye and was what finally got the mostly grey-haired audience on its feet Saturday night.

For his part, the Robert Plant of 2022 is matured and subdued, but there are hints of rock’s Golden God of the past, which manifest these days as the occasional familiar hand gesture, hip thrust, or “ooh yeah.” Mostly he is a lovely, harmonizing, on-stage partner for Krauss. The two elevate and improve upon material they cover together. Live, the duo is supported by an incredible backing band wielding instruments that include mandolin, fiddle, and stand-up bass. It really is magical to witness.

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The sold out 9:30 Club felt tropical last Thursday night as Royal Blood made a stop in Washington, DC on its Typhoons tour. Canadian rock duo Cleopatrick provided support.

Security provided water to those in attendance; the sold out club felt like a sauna. It hardly seemed to matter to the crowd, which collectively lost its mind over the English rock duo (vocalist/bassist Mike Kerr and drummer Ben Thatcher), touring to support its latest album, Typhoons, the first since 2017’s How Did We Get So Dark?. It wasn’t just a great gig, it was one of the very best I’ve seen in recent years.

Canadian rock duo Cleopatrick kicked off the night. In thirty minutes, they showed they are musical kin to Royal Blood, blasting the crowd with a steady stream of aggressive rock, which was infused with punk energy. While drummer Ian Fraser provided the rhythmic backbone for each song, Luke Gruntz played guitars with an intensity that set the tone for the rest of the night. The already full club responded with an enthusiasm usually reserved for headliners.

Singer-bassist Mike Kerr and drummer Ben Thatcher took the stage at 9PM sharp and kicked off their set with two songs from the new album, “Typhoons” and “Boilermaker” (with additional support from a keyboardist who sang backup). The set drew from all three Royal Blood albums, weaving the loud, sexy, metal-edged rock of their early tracks (which famously got the attention of Jimmy Page), such as “Loose Change” and “Out of the Black,” with the more danceable, but equally hot, new material. Wow, does it ever work—the crowd spent 90 minutes nearly bouncing off the walls.

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