Category Archives: Music

History swirled around the rare booking of MC50 at the 930 Club Tuesday. Yes, it was the half century anniversary of the debut LP of the Motor City Five. In addition, a couple of weeks earlier had marked 50 years since the Democratic National Convention police riots in Chicago, where the MC5 served as house band [...]

Song swapping may be the best way for a couple of esteemed singer/songwriters to tour. Rather than one opening for the other, sitting on stage together and taking turns playing songs allows the evening to unfold in unexpected ways. One performer is inspired by a line in the other’s song and brings out one with [...]

John Hiatt became eligible for Medicaid Monday, marking his 65th birthday at the first of two sold out shows at the Birchmere Music Hall in Alexandria, Va. But there was nothing suggesting anything close to retirement in his show with The Goners, the ace Louisiana trio led by guitarist Sonny Landreth. Indeed, on a night [...]

One of the great underrated American bands of the 1960s is the Rascals, purveyors of a soulful brand of East Coast that provided a few hits that everybody knows and who forged an expansive, spiritual course before petering out in the 70s. There have been attempts this century to reunite the original four, primarily by [...]

Despite the dizzying confluence of torches, fireworks, lights, immense video screens, dancing squads, light-up fan wristbands and three-story snakes — so many snakes — in Taylor Swift’s big Reputation stadium tour, the best moment comes when she’s finally alone with the guitar. It happens just over halfway in her two hour extravaganza when she’s on [...]

The fast jangle and hypnotic rhythms of The Feelies is not just a warm throwback to 1980s when their first album ushered in a precise kind of frantic nerd rock, influencing a number of other bands. By now, the band is a standard bearer for an enduring strain of New York rock. With its droning [...]

It was only last year when U2 hit the stadium circuit for a kind of nostalgia immersion with the 30th anniversary of “The Joshua Tree.” The give and take for the band’s 2018 tour boasts smaller venues — if hockey arenas can be considered small — and a largely lesser known album to promote, last [...]