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Mauricio Castro 7/28/22 Mauricio Castro 7/28/22

Newport Folk Festival 2022 - 7/22/2022 - 7/24/2022

Newport Folk Festival is always a special place to be every July - not just for the Narragansett Bay views, but also for the top-notch curation and camaraderie between artists and between attendees. After a canceled 2020 iteration and a half-capacity 2021 festival, 2022 brought a larger Harbor stage, two new smaller stages (the Bike and Foundation stage, both serving as counterprogramming to the Quad and Fort stages between their sets, respectively), but the same intimate feel, full of lawn chairs, buskers, frozen lemonade drinks, and musical surprises that fans have come to expect.

Mauricio Castro 7/29/21 Mauricio Castro 7/29/21

Newport Folk Presents: Folk On 2021 - 7/25/2021 - 7/27/2021

The ever-changing landscape of the pandemic birthed a slightly different kind of Newport Folk Festival lineup this year. Billed as “Newport Folk Presents: Folk On”, the name change was a hint to long-time attendees that this wouldn’t quite be the weekend in July that they remembered. And while the spirit of festivals gone by inspired and informed the 2021 iteration of the Newport Folk Festival, this year’s fest – expanded to six-days – was an entirely different animal.

Mauricio Castro 3/4/20 Mauricio Castro 3/4/20

Tosser / Den-Mate / Model Home @ Pie Shop [DC] - 2/20/2020

DC-based stoner rock group Tosser celebrated the release of their debut album Total Restraint the way any band would love to celebrate it - with a raucous and sold-out show among friends at Pie Shop. Helping them along the way were DC music staples Den-Mate and experimental electronic duo Model Home. Scroll down for more pics from the show.

Mauricio Castro 3/2/20 Mauricio Castro 3/2/20

Glass Animals @ U Street Music Hall [DC] - 2/25/2020

UK’s Glass Animals haven’t played a venue as small as U Street Music Hall since 2014, and the stage presence they’ve built up since then made their intimate and very-much-sold-out show an explosively fun night for everyone involved.

Reggie Cunningham 2/27/20 Reggie Cunningham 2/27/20

Dwele @ City Winery DC - 2/15/2020

For over 20 years, Dwele has lived in the groove between stardom and obscurity. From his major-label debut Subject to his 2012 release Greater Than One, he’s cultivated a staunch following while working alongside artists like Slum Village, Eric Roberson, Common, and Kanye West. His fans definitely showed up and showed out for his concert at City Winery!

Hailey Collins 2/20/20 Hailey Collins 2/20/20

Tove Lo @ Fillmore Silver Spring - 2/7/2019

Swedish pop star, Tove lo brought the 4th night of her Sunshine Kitty Tour to the Fillmore Silverspring. The sold-out crowd was dripping in glitter as they danced all night to the singer’s iconic anthems. She delivered a high-energy set that featured songs from all four of her albums, with fan favorites “Disco Tits,” “Talking Body,” and “Hey You Got Drugs?” taking the spotlight.

Mauricio Castro 2/19/20 Mauricio Castro 2/19/20

Lower Dens @ Songbyrd Music House [DC] - 2/14/2020

There’s a lot to love about Lower Dens’ latest record The Competition (listen to Discologist’s discussion of the album here). The Baltimore-based band’s reliably expansive synth-heavy sound has leaned heavily into our country’s state of affairs with lyrics like “No spines, no tongues, no fingerprints / We’re young Republicans” and “Look them in the eyes / When they push you off the raft / And make them watch you drown.” Jana Hunter and company spared no expense when it came to their live show, a sold-out affair at Songbyrd where they brought their own lights and fog machines placed around the stage for dramatic effect.

Mauricio Castro 2/14/20 Mauricio Castro 2/14/20

Mystery Friends @ Comet Ping Pong [DC] - 2/8/2020

DC’s ‘moderately danceable’ synth-pop quartet brought a few friends of their own from local groups Nah. and Color Palette for a very danceable Saturday night at Comet Ping Pong.

Michael Zwirn 2/7/20 Michael Zwirn 2/7/20

Bonny Light Horseman @ Songbyrd Music House [DC] - 2/4/2020

Folk "supergroup" Bonny Light Horseman, born out of a chance collaboration at the 2015 Eau Claire festival, is a fascinating standalone project of three musicians — Anaïs Mitchell (Hadestown), Eric Johnson (Fruit Bats), and Josh Kaufman (Bob Weir, Hiss Golden Messenger) — each with a distinguished track record, uniting over a shared love of folk music in the Anglo-American traditions.

Of the three, singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell offers the deepest credentials in folk music, from her 2013 record of the Child Ballads, the anthology of Scots-English traditional folksongs, and her Tony Award-winning adaptation of mythology in Hadestown. Johnson provides his extraordinary facility with banjo and guitar and his effortless tenor. In contrast, Kaufman, the quietest member of the trio, provides much of the texture of Bonny Light Horseman's refracted folk songs, on steel guitar and other instrumentation…

Mauricio Castro 2/5/20 Mauricio Castro 2/5/20

CAAMP @ 9:30 Club [DC] - 1/31/2020

CAAMP’s music and easygoing attitudes make it hard to dispute the success they’ve earned thus far.

Carolina Correa Caro 1/26/20 Carolina Correa Caro 1/26/20

Illiterate Light @ DC9 [DC] - 1/25/2019

Hailing from the quiet college town of Harrisonburg, Virginia, Illiterate Light’s Jeff Gorman and Jake Cochran have gone from playing in bands during their time at James Madison University to releasing their self-titled debut album through Atlantic Records.

Kevin Hill 1/20/20 Kevin Hill 1/20/20

Garcia Peoples @ Colectivo Backroom [MKE] - 1/17/20

Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow – a LOT of snow – could keep the Garcia Peoples faithful from receiving their latest sermon Friday night in Milwaukee. Fresh of a residency at Nublu in New York City and a WILD triple bill to close out the decade, the sextet from New Jersey (along with a little help from opener/Milwaukee resident Kendra Amalie) braved the storm to deliver a tight and ferocious 90-minute set that highlighted their songwriting chops as much as it made room for the jams that their fans crave.

Mauricio Castro 1/16/20 Mauricio Castro 1/16/20

Yola @ 9:30 Club [DC] - 1/10/2020

The four-time Grammy nominee graced DC’s 9:30 Club with a performance full of favorites from her 2019 debut Walk Through Fire and brought some Elton John, Joni Mitchell, and Aretha Franklin covers too.

Joel Richard 12/17/19 Joel Richard 12/17/19

Tyler Childers @ The Anthem [DC] - 12/13/19

Tyler Childers didn't talk much through a 23-song set that spanned the best of his early acoustic work and his two recent full-length studio albums, 2017's breakout Purgatory and 2019's Country Squire. Toward the end, he admitted he was feeling a bit under the weather, but it never showed through his two-hour performance.

Mauricio Castro 12/9/19 Mauricio Castro 12/9/19

Miami Horror @ 9:30 Club [DC] - 11/29/19

The Australian-based Miami Horror is in the midst of a musical transformation. Since the last time they passed through 9:30 Club in support of 2015’s All Possible Futures, guitarist Joshua Moriarty took a break to focus on a solo album (and entertaining podcast), and guitarist/keyboardist Aaron Shanahan left after seven years to pursue a new musical project. Founding member Benjamin Plant (who initially used the name for his solo project) and keyboardist Daniel Whitechurch have remade the live band in a new image, bringing in Australian drummer Kosta Theodosis and American vocalists TC Milan and Reva DeVito.

Hailey Collins 12/9/19 Hailey Collins 12/9/19

Kim Petras @ Fillmore Silver Spring [DC] - 11/20/2019

Just before Thanksgiving, German pop star Kim Petras returned to the Fillmore Silver Spring on her second US tour of the year. Joined onstage by her DJ and songwriting partner, Aaron Joseph, Kim opened the night with “Clarity,” the title track of her most recent album and proceeded to deliver a massive twenty-three song set that featured material from her entire discography, and no less than FOUR outfit/hair changes.

Mauricio Castro 12/3/19 Mauricio Castro 12/3/19

Oh He Dead @ Pearl Street Warehouse [DC] - 11/22/2019

Oh He Dead is feeling all the love right now, and it's well-deserved. The DC-based group (and arguably one of the area's best) began as a two-piece acoustic duo and eventually landed on and expanded band and a soul-infused sound that is best exemplified in their NPR Tiny Desk Contest submission, "Lonely Sometimes."

Mauricio Castro 12/3/19 Mauricio Castro 12/3/19

Neon Indian @ 9:30 Club [DC] - 11/16/2019

Alan Palomo is proudly putting his Mexican heritage on display with his first new song in more than four years, the funky-sounding "Toyota Man." It carries the musical DNA of 2015's VEGA INTL. Night School, but this time, Palomo is taking a stand against anti-immigrant sentiments that have come to a head in the United States. The chorus of the song, mostly sung in Spanish, goes: "We came to study / we want to work / and even though they try to deny it / we are all Americans." The song was one of two new tracks Palomo performed at 9:30 Club.

Joel Richard 11/27/19 Joel Richard 11/27/19

Tool @ Capital One Arena [DC] - 11/25/19

In a punishing set at Washington, D.C.'s Capital One Arena, prog/metal gods Tool (singer Maynard James Keenan, guitarist Adam Jones, bassist Justin Chancellor, and drummer Danny Carey) delivered two-and-a-half hours of churning, polyrhythmic insanity. Touring behind this year's long-awaited Fear Innoculum, the all-inclusive setlist highlighted how complementary the new songs are with the back catalog. "Fear Innoculum" the song was paired with "Aenema" to kick things off, and things just got heavier from there.

Mauricio Castro 11/26/19 Mauricio Castro 11/26/19

Mikaela Davis and Southern Star @ Songbyrd [DC] - 11/11/2019

Mikaela Davis may have had to cancel her show the night before in Philly, but she was in high spirits on this night at Songbyrd in DC. The classically-trained harp player has been touring places that her instrument usually doesn't show up, like on the stage of Lock'n Festival performing with Bob Weir. The Grateful Dead admiration goes a long way - in fact, this tour featured a two-set performance from Davis and her band, one of which was dedicated to The Dead.