Rebecca J. Ritzel leads this week's arts section with a look into why local dance troupes seem to be giving up on the Capital Fringe Festival. Tricia Olszewski reviews two films about life on this planet (and the one next door): Another Earth and How to Live Forever. Benjamin R. Freed reviews Studio 2ndStage's Pop!—about [...]
Yesterday was the first night of Taylor Swift's sold-out two-night stand at the Verizon Center. Swift played all of her hits with some crowd-pleasing gimmicks thrown in—namely, playing a few songs in the middle of one of the lower-level concourses, surrounded by fans, then making her way down to the floor and playing to the [...]
If folk music’s prime currency is authenticity, Langhorne Slim might well earn some crooked eyebrows. Classically trained at the SUNY-Purchase conservatory, Sean Scolnik donned loafers and floppy hat and named himself after his hometown in the tradition of all those rail-hoppin’ ramblers who used to do that. The blogosphere gobbled up this aesthetic and and [...]
Compared to the utter preposterousness that was Lady Gaga at the VMAs, last night's show in Richmond was surprisingly tame. Still, if you've got tickets for Gaga's show tonight at DAR Constitution Hall, you're in for a pretty bizarre spectacle. Lots of photos after the jump and at the full gallery.
If having your first name added to the name of your band is a bellwether for burgeoning celebrity, then you could say 22-year-old Davy Knowles has arrived. A British blues guitarist with a soulful baritone, Knowles has sort of an Stevie Ray Vaughan-meets-Richie Havens thing going on. His band, Back Door Slam Davy Knowles and [...]
Some 14 years after their first big hit, No Doubt is still a far bigger draw than I would have imagined, nearly selling out the 25,000-capacity Nissan Pavilion. After watching their stage show, that fact becomes a bit more comprehensible: these are incredibly professional entertainers with hit song after hit song after hit song to [...]
Yeah, that's right. Had enough of SXSW coverage and all that damn hipster music? Armed with photo pass and camera and ready and willing to destroy any last vestige of my music-snob credibility, I joined thousands of fans, parents and curious observers for the biggest concert in town last night, Britney Spears and the Pussycat [...]
"I'm like a sugar bomb," Lenka Kripac sings in "Skipalong," and that about sums it up.
The former vocalist/keyboardist for Australian post-rockers Decoder Ring played a decidedly un-post-rock set at DC9 last night. In sharp contrast to her old band's material, Lenka's solo writing is basically straight-up indie pop, and almost relentlessly upbeat—even the breakup [...]
If Breathe Carolina is any indication of the direction in which post-hardcore is headed, EATMEWHILEIMHOT! is either ahead of the curve or trying desperately to catch up (notice that EMWIH & BC share a thing for dirty-boy glamour shots).
EMWIH's early releases suggest that the members of the band (one of whom is Nevershoutnever's Christian/vegetarian Christoph(f?)er [...]
