Alejandro Escovedo brings a lot of talented approaches into one rock figure. His show at the Birchmere in Alexandria Saturday had aspects of both his hard rocking postpunk career and also his quieter acoustic material. In both he was backed by a talented three piece, who wailed when the electricity was full and sat with [...]
At a time when heritage artists have been distinguishing their tours with reverent presentations of their classic albums, playing them in strict order, one side and then the other, Elvis Costello has found a more flexible vehicle in a tour to celebrate his 1982 ”Imperial Bedroom.” A landmark album in his rich period of complex pop, [...]
Playing whole albums from past catalogs is the variation that has kept arenas full for classic rock acts. It’s a way to both break from the greatest hits format and the struggle to push a new product fans may not prefer while providing a one time celebration of the past. U2 may be one of [...]
It’s amusing to me that on the 100th anniversary of the birth of the namesake of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, there are two popular, quite different musicals on either end of the Grand Foyer. What if ticket holders to the traveling national tour of “The Sound of Music” made it [...]
I wanted to see the show by (Sandy) Alex G in part because my daughter called him “the Elliott Smith of my generation.” This comparison took me aback, partly because I thought of, say, Nick Drake as the Elliott Smith of my generation. Which means I’m about two generations removed from what’s selling out the [...]
When Tom Verlaine brought his latest version of Television on tour last year, fans savored hearing so much of “Marquee Moon,” their 1977 debut that has only grown in guitar stature over the years. Good as it was, there clearly was a missing link – the guitarist Richard Lloyd, whose intricate guitar interplay (and co-writing [...]
Among the perks of being a successful actor is the ability, at the drop of a hat, to fulfill every vague rock star notion you ever had. Unlike most struggling artists, there is no barrier to hiring a decent band, recording an album, or booking a tour that sells out based simply on your celebrity, [...]
Conventional wisdom says the road from the Stooges to Nirvana went through the Pixies. And though they never broke through to the degree of some of their emulators, the driving Massachusetts band returned from a long hiatus this century to see just how engrained their songs had become. In ads alone, their anthems got much [...]
Ian Merrill Peakes begins and ends his role as “Timon of Athens” standing in the center of Folger Shakespeare Theatre’s stage. At the start, he’s basking in his glory as a prosperous master of the universe, happily dispersing his gold; in the end he’s alone, torn down, penniless emotionally, at the mercy of gods, or [...]
Lisa Hodsoll emerges as fully First Lady in The Klunch world premiere “Laura Bush Killed a Guy.” She’s got that soft West Texas accent, the omnipresent smile as shiny as her pearls, a cream colored ensemble, and poise to burn. How much poise? Well, during a matinee press performance Sunday at the aptly named Caos on F, [...]