Posts Tagged ‘verizon center’
Photos: Miley Cyrus @ Verizon Center
The First Lady was at the Verizon Center last night, daughters and Secret Service in tow, to witness Miley Cyrus‘ first tour under her own name rather than the Hannah Montana brand. Many more photos after the jump (click on any photo for a larger version).
Note: these photos may not be republished elsewhere.
Photos: Bruce Springsteen @ Verizon Center
The fact that Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band last played in D.C. just this past May didn’t seem to put a damper on the reception that the Boss and friends received when they hit the stage at the Verizon Center. After the jump and at the full gallery, check out some images from the initial moments of last night’s show.
Springsteen Freaks Declare D.C. Crowd ‘Embarrassing’
Bruce Springsteen fans have a lot invested in the Jersey man. They may have had a lot more invested in last night’s show at the Verizon Center. Tickets sold out in minutes. Then a company sold tickets they didn’t quite have. Anyone who had a ticket was lucky. This was no mere Dad Rock.
And Springsteen doesn’t have mere fans. Every other dad wore a faded Boss shirt from an old tour. I’ve never seen mom jeans rock so hard during the trips to the back catalog. At this point, Springsteen doesn’t even have to sing “Born to Run,” the audience—even a D.C. audience—did more than a fine job screaming about Jersey desperation, springing from cages out on Highway 9. At least that’s what I saw/heard from my nosebleed seat. At this point, the obsessives are the ones willing to wait in lines for tickets, and refresh furiously at the Ticketmaster website. Last night, Springsteen seemed to acknowledge the Backstreet freaks in his midst. On this tour, he’s started taking requests. Last night, the Verizon center went epileptic when he picked “Blinded By the Light” despite the song’s hilarious backstory.
Read More “Springsteen Freaks Declare D.C. Crowd ‘Embarrassing’” »
Photos: Britney Spears @ the Verizon Center
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 Dolls at the Verizon Center.
Photos of the Pussycat Dolls are in this Flickr gallery; for contractual reasons I have to post the Britney Spears photos right here on the blog, so you’ll find a huge number of photos after the jump, as well as some brief thoughts on the little bit of the show that I saw.
Photos: Metallica @ Verizon Center last night
(Full set of photos at Flickr.)
In my City Lights pick of The Sword at Rock & Roll Hotel, I didn’t really have particularly glowing things to say about Metallica. Like many metalheads, I’m a big fan of their early material, up to and actually including the Black Album, but they completely lost me after that. Death Magnetic was clearly better than any of their other recent work, but at this point I’ve moved on to other kinds of metal and was left largely unmoved by it.
Still, last night’s show proved one thing: they’ve still got the knack for performance. I didn’t have a ticket so I couldn’t stay past the first three songs that I was allowed to photograph, but from what I saw and heard, this was probably one hell of a show. Energy levels through the roof (the stage was in the round with eight mics set up in different spots, and all the band members were constantly bouncing around between them), and they sounded great. The first two songs they played were the first two songs off of Death Magnetic, and while I’m not crazy about either of them, the performances were pretty much flawless.
The crowd was into it too, all 20,000 of them – the arena was sold out all the way to the upper decks. Dinosaurs past their prime maybe, but people do love a good dinosaur, especially when they’re still this vicious.
Slideshow: The Who at the Verizon Center
Pete Townshend didn’t duck-walk on Monday night. He didn’t curse, or smash his guitar, or clock Abbie Hoffman in the back of the head. In fact, he didn’t do anything of which your mother wouldn’t approve.
Which isn’t to say that the Who in its current incarnation lacks vim, vigor, or even cheek…just that the guys who came to prominence as purveyors of auto-destructive art now seem more intent on self-preservation.
