Tag Archives: Washington Post

Brent Faiyaz brings R&B to Southwest Wharf’s new Union Stage

Posted on February 12, 2018 | Leave a comment

“On Friday night, R&B singer Brent Faiyaz opened his concert at Union Stage with the lyric, “I remember being scared to go home.” Soon, the 22-year-old Columbia, Md., native would prove he had nothing to fear.”

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Lana Del Rey finds truth in the artifice at Capital One Arena

Posted on January 27, 2018 | Leave a comment

“Pop culture is artifice, and the only pop star brave enough to fully acknowledge that is Lana Del Rey. The 32-year-old singer-songwriter has made a career out of authentically embracing inauthenticity, exploring the dark allure of nostalgic Americana for her generation of devotees. “Look at you kids with your vintage music,” she sings to them on “Love.” “You’re part of the past, but now you’re the future, signals crossing can get confusing.” On Thursday night, there was nothing confusing at Capital One Arena, where Del Rey invited the audience to visit the fantasy world she has created.”

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Justin Trawick’s journey to Americana

Posted on January 26, 2018 | Leave a comment

“As a kid, Justin Trawick thought he knew every nook, cranny and creaking floorboard of his childhood home in rural Loudoun County, Va. He was an only child — his “closest friends were chickens and cows” — and he spent plenty of time exploring the pre-Civil War home. But it wasn’t until the summer before he started high school that he made a discovery that would change the course of his life.”

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The best old albums that we discovered in 2017

Posted on December 30, 2017 | Leave a comment

“After Chris Cornell’s death in May, I tumbled down a Northwest rock wormhole and revisited the 1996 documentary “Hype!” As is always the case when a scene becomes an arms race, there are plenty of bands beyond the Soundgardens and Nirvanas that make all those headlines and platinum plaques possible. In this case, one of those bands was the Gits. In the film, they are seen performing “Second Skin:” Lead singer Mia Zapata sounds like a punk rock Janis Joplin as she lives up to her “I’ve got that chance to give every drop that’s left in me” lyric, leaving it all on the stage.”

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Lil Uzi Vert spills his guts in front of an audience of 6,000 teenage fans

Posted on December 17, 2017 | Leave a comment

“At a rap concert, the DJ sets the tone and hypes the crowd. Maybe he’ll scream, “You got a hundred-dollar bill, get your hands up!” like Fatman Scoop. But when the DJ says, “If you have straight A’s, make some noise!” you know you’re in for an entirely different experience. That was the case Friday night at the Anthem, which hosted its first hip-hop concert, headlined by Philadelphia rapper Lil Uzi Vert.”

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Rapper Fat Trel makes his triumphant return to Washington at U Street Music Hall

Posted on December 16, 2017 | Leave a comment

“Fat Trel has never been afraid to share, making true-to-life tales of gun violence, drug use and sexual escapades his stock in trade. Early Friday morning, his confessions showed a glimmer of maturity. “I’m on parole, so I can’t pop molly,” the D.C. rapper told the crowd at U Street Music Hall. “That’s why I’m drinking all this liquor.”

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St. Vincent goes it alone and it’s more than enough

Posted on November 29, 2017 | Leave a comment

“All human beings create their own mythologies,” Annie Clark, who performs as St. Vincent, explained to Pitchfork earlier this year, “and I’m in the somewhat bizarre circumstance of creating a big mythology that gets shared with a lot of people.” On Monday night at the Anthem, Clark played Edith Hamilton with her self-created mythology, embarking on an audiovisual tour through her body of work in three acts.

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Rapper Aminé brings his addictive hooks and zig-a-zig-ah to the Howard Theatre

Posted on October 20, 2017 | Leave a comment

Amid all the rock stars and Black Beatles of hip-hop, Aminé is perhaps rap’s biggest pop fanatic. You can hear the signs all over “Good for You,” a debut album that finds the Portland rapper flexing and finessing old and new flames with clever wordplay, a playful energy and beats so bright you might need shades.

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At the Anthem’s opening night, a rock-and-roll clinic from Foo Fighters

Posted on October 14, 2017 | Leave a comment

If the 9:30 Club feels like a warehouse turned into a rock club, then the Anthem feels like an airplane hangar that mutated into one. And when it was time to officially open the venue — the centerpiece of the redeveloped Wharf on Washington’s Southwest Waterfront, owned and operated by the team behind D.C.’s world-renowned 9:30 — the Anthem called in the only band with the local roots and international fame that could pull it off: Foo Fighters.

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Manila Killa brings his own dreamlike EDM world to U Street

Posted on October 13, 2017 | Leave a comment

On the eve of summer last year, D.C. DJ-producer Manila Killa released “Youth,” a breezy but propulsive bit of electronica that’s a microcosm of his sound — singalong melody, windswept synthesizers, EDM pulse. The song features breathy vocalist Satica, whose “is this really real?” is less a lovesick lyric than a rhetorical question about Manila Killa’s recent ascendance.

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