The Airborne Toxic Event closed its old-out two-night stay at the 9:30 Club last night with the bombastic style the band is known for: Lead singer Mikel Jollett crawled up and scaled the stage-right balcony rail as he sang; violinist Anna Bulbrook crowd-surfed; rock poses were struck; Jollett's songs, full of smart wordplay that tends [...]
Thursday night, on the second-to-last show of her current tour supporting her new album The Chronicles of Marnia, Marnie Stern started off with an apology: "My voice is shot." Not something you want to hear from a musician whose compositions are heavy on fast-paced, aggressive vocals. But after a couple of admittedly rough songs, Stern [...]
The Breeders released their second album, Last Splash, in August of 1993. In honor of the album's 20th anniversary, the band hit the road for an album tour this spring. Their route took them to the 9:30 Club Saturday night, where a capacity crowd packed the venue to hear Last Splash in its entirety.
It has been said that ex-Smiths frontman Morrissey was about wearing one's politics on your sleeve, while lead guitarist Johnny Marr was about the music. After the Smiths disbanded, Marr's signature guitar sound cropped up in his collaborations with Bernard Sumner (in Electronic), Bryan Ferry, Modest Mouse, and The Cribs—though Morrissey proved to be much more enthusiastic about releasing [...]
"How many of you came with your dancing shoes on?" asked Solange at the 9:30 Club show last night. "How many of you came with the wrong shoes but you're gonna dance anyway?" The sold-out show was short: She played only 12 songs, and that included a two-song encore. But throughout the show, both onstage and [...]
Saturday night, the New Orleans Bingo Show brought its makeup, bingo cards, and a whole bunch of friends from New Orleans to the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. The showcase was designed to show off and celebrate New Orleans' music in a unique, Cajun circus-like way.
Over the course of the three-hour show, all flavors of brass [...]
Judging by the size of the crowd at Black Cat last night, it would seem that Chelsea Light Moving doesn't yet boast the name recognition of Thurston Moore's other band, Sonic Youth. But having captured the band's awesome show at SXSW a few weeks ago, I—and the others inside the half-full venue—suspected we were in for [...]
Friday night at the 9:30 Club, Bad Religion commanded the stage much like it does its songs: with guns blazing. But the mood onstage was light. "How many of you are in town for the Cherry Blossom Festival?" said lead singer Greg Graffin. Motioning to lead guitarist Brian Baker, Graffin said, "Let's ask the native." Baker [...]
After three months of renovations, the reopening of Echostage—a Saturday night show featuring Canadian dubstep DJ Excision—didn't go as smoothly as one might have hoped. Doors opened a full hour late. The upstairs bars are completely unfinished. The women's restroom flooded within an hour, forcing the club to split the men's restroom in two and [...]
