Author Archives: Rachel Lange

Colorado jam band Big Head Todd and the Monsters stopped at the Fillmore Silver Spring for a relaxed and fun night of blues rock tinged with a bit of 1990s nostalgia. Without any support act, the band (vocalist Todd Mohr, keyboard/pedal steel guitarist Jeremy Lawton, drummer Brian Nevin, and bassist Rob Squires) was free to take the stage promptly at 8PM and lept into its set, which reached into the band’s early 1990s work.

The Washington, DC area is known for being a region crawling with transplants, so it was no surprise that the crowd responded with a supportive roar when Mohr introduced the band as being from Colorado. Big Head Todd and the Monsters is known for its sizable live following out in the western part of the United States where they spent the late 1980s and ’90s touring extensively. The band still fills venues like Red Rocks near Denver, where they are scheduled to appear again in June. Big Head Todd and the Monsters’ first album, Another Mayberry, was released in 1989. In 1993, Sister Sweetly was released and went platinum in the US. The band’s 12th full-length album, Thunderbird, is scheduled to be released in late spring.

Friday night at the Fillmore Silver Spring, Mohr and the rest of the band, by the looks of it, gave the crowd what it wanted—a well-rounded setlist featuring old favorites (such as “Bittersweet”), new material (“Her Way Out”), and a few carefully selected cover tunes (some John Lee Hooker, anyone?). It was a crowd that skewed in the direction of being old enough to have seen the band in the 1990s; it was also one that was enthusiastic and became more well-lubricated as the show progressed.

Favorites like “Please Don’t Tell Her” got the crowd singing along. “It’s Alright” was delivered with a dash of Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get it On,” which promptly got the unselfconscious in the audience slowly dancing with each other. There were many! The show wrapped up with a cover of Tom Petty’s “You Wreck Me,” which brought the house down.

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Metal fans gathered Monday night—the night after the Super Bowl—for a blinding night at the Fillmore Silver Spring, the latest stop on metal icon Machine Head’s massive Slaughter the Martour North American tour. Machine Head has Fear Factory, Orbit Culture, and Gates to Hell along for the ride.

The night kicked off early as Gates To Hell took the stage at 6:30PM to a still-assembling crowd. Gates to Hell (vocalist Ryan Storey, bassist Dustin Cantrell, guitarists Seth Lewis, Stephen Price, and Eli Hanson, and drummer Jared Barron) is a metalcore outfit from Louisville, Kentucky; in September 2022, they released their debut self-titled album. The band has said that their body of work is largely inspired by horror-related themes; live Monday night, it prepped the stoked fans for a long night of metal chaos with a 30-minute set.

After seeing Orbit Culture three times in 2023 when they supported Avatar, I was eager to see the Swedish band again. At 7:20PM, Orbit Culture (vocalist/guitarist Niklas Karlsson, guitarist Richard Hansson, bassist Fredrik Lennartsson, and drummer Christopher Wallerstedt), took the stage and proceeded to tear the place down. Watching them perform, the word that kept coming to mind was “ferocious.”

Writing about the band last September, when I covered their date in Nashville with Avatar, I said that Orbit Culture seemed to have gotten better over the course of 2023, if it were possible. I daresay the same thing has happened since last fall—their sound and stage presence seems to have improve even more. The terrorizing sound of the band’s live set was punctuated by the egging on of the audience, which was more than happy to comply with Karlsson’s instructions to form circle pits.

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It was a frosty night in the Washington, DC area, but the Fillmore Silver Spring was warm with 1990s nostalgia when The Charlatans and Ride stopped by on a date for their coheadlining Between Nowhere tour last Wednesday night. Between Nowhere is a mashup of Ride’s classic album Nowhere, from 1990, and The Charlatans’ classic Between 10th and 11th , from 1992, both of which are played in full on this tour. 

Wednesday, The Charlatans kicked the night off and tore through Between 10th and 11th sounding as well-oiled as ever. Led by the energetic Tim Burgess, The Charlatans (Burgess, Martin Blunt, Mark Collins, Tony Rogers, and touring drummer Peter Salisbury), are known for being a pioneering indie rock band, having formed in 1988 in England, and associated with the “Madchester” scene. The R&B and keyboard-tinged soul music the band is known for was on display at the Fillmore Wednesday night.

As mentioned, the set included all Between 10th and 11th which included “Tremelo Song,” “The End of Everything,” and “Weirdo,” and “Chewing Gum Weekend.” Once the album wrapped up, the band launched into selections from the rest of their catalog, including “Just When You’re Thinking Things Over” and “The Only One I Know.” The first half of the night ended with “Sproston Green” from The Charlatans’ debut album, 1990’s Some Friendly. It was a set filled with fan favorites and clearly designed to evoke memories.

The blond-mopped Burgess hyped the crowd through the band’s set, clapping waving his arms, and engaging with the audience. After some banter about where folks shopped for clothes, one fan in the balcony took off her sweater and threw it at Burgess. The crowd cheered for him to give her his sweater in return. After a few unsuccessful attempts to toss his wooly blue garment up to the balcony, the “jumper swap” was finally successful. Burgess spent the rest of the set wearing a bright green sweater that said “WEIRDO” in bright pink letters across the front and presumably the fan went home with a memorable item from the show.

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Weirdos, misfits, and freaks gathered at The Anthem in Washington, DC on Tuesday night to catch one of the last few dates of the Kiss of Death tour, with coheadliners Ice Nine Kills and In This Moment. Swedish metal gods Avatar provided support, as did California’s New Year’s Day. It was a fun and fabulous evening for lovers of heavy music with a theatric bent, and I was delighted and honored to have the privilege of covering this tour date for The Vinyl District. It was a spectacular night.

With four bands on the bill, the festivities got started early. At 6:15 PM the lights went down, and the members of New Year’s Day took the stage. Avatar followed precisely at 7 PM. But more on those bands in a bit.

The first coheadliner to take the stage Tuesday night was In This Moment. I’ve been hearing about In this Moment and their lavish live shows for years now; somehow, I’d never seen them until Tuesday night. As their set began, I was eager to experience what was in store. The stage was hidden by a white sheet adorned with a giant black spider. Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” filled the room until the curtain dropped—and the crowd lost its collective mind.

Led by the beautiful and mysterious Maria Brink, In This Moment hails from LA, and was formed in 2005 by Brink and Chris Howorth. Along with Brink and Howorth, the current lineup includes Travis Johnson, Randy Weitzel, and Kent Diimmel. Live, In This Moment couples heavy but catchy music with an elaborate stage production.

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Twenty years after the release of Permission to Land, rock legends The Darkness hit the road on a tour supporting the reissue of their massively successful debut album. The US leg of the Permission to Land 20th Anniversary Tour wrapped up in Washington, DC, Sunday night at the storied 9:30 Club.

Permission To Land was released in 2003; it was met with immediate success, powered by the single “I Believe in a Thing Called Love.” I was able to briefly catch the band the following summer at Summerfest in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I was excited to see them but got dragged away by my aunt and cousin after a few songs; we had just seen Prince and they wanted to get home. After Sunday night, I’m very sorry it’s taken 19 years for me to see the band again. Better to be late to the party than to never show up at all, I suppose.

The band (frontman Justin Hawkins, Dan Hawkins, Frankie Poullain, and Rufus Tiger Taylor) wasted no time, launching into “Black Shuck,” “Get Your Hands Off of My Woman,” and “Growing on Me,” the first three tracks of Permission to Land. From there it felt like barely contained, delightful chaos, fueled by Hawkins himself who, by the way, sounds just as good as he did 20 years ago.

Clad in a jumpsuit reminiscent of 1970s Freddie Mercury, Hawkins filled the entire club with his charisma and mischievous spirit, jumping in the air, doing a handstand on the drum riser, joking with the crowd, and stepping onto the barrier from the stage. He playfully teased a few dudes in the audience; one man was scolded for wearing a non-licensed Darkness t-shirt to the show. His punishment? Hawkins removed the shirt from the man and wore it himself for a bit before handing it back.

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St. Paul & The Broken Bones performed to a delighted crowd in Washington, DC Tuesday night, a stop on the Angels in Science Fiction tour.

The Birmingham, Alabama-based soul band (Paul Janeway, Browan Lollar, Jesse Phillips, Kevin Leon, Allen Branstetter, Amari Ansari, and Chad Fisher), wasted no time getting into the groove when they took the stage, jamming until bandleader/vocalist Janeway strutted into the spotlight, crowd cheering. They kicked off their set with “Flow with It (You Got Me Feeling Like),” from their 2016 release, Sea of Noise.

The band’s latest album is Angels in Science Fiction, a work largely inspired by fatherhood, specifically, the experience of Janeway becoming a new father to a baby girl. Before performing “Lonely Love Song,” accompanied only by a guitar, Janeway talked about the feelings he had about impending parenthood and how they moved him to write that song. It was one of only three songs (out of an 18 song setlist) from the new album.

The rest of the night’s selections were pulled from across the band’s expanding discography, with the most coming from 2014’s Half the City, which nearly ten years later, remains a fan favorite, judging by the DC crowd. A highlight of the night isn’t a St Paul & the Broken Bones song at all, but a cover of Jeff Buckley’s “Lover, You Should’ve Come Over.”

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Legendary trio Melvins stopped at Washington, DC’s Howard Theatre last Friday night, a date on their massive 40th anniversary “Twins of Evil” tour, a coheadlining tour with Boris.

Formed in Washington State in 1983, Melvins (currently Buzz Osborne, Dale Crover, and Stephen McDonald) are credited with merging the worlds of punk and heavy music, influencing the development of sludge metal and grunge. The “Twins of Evil” tour is not just a 40th anniversary tour for Melvins, but a showcase for their 1991 album Bullhead. This album is what is cited as a turning point for the band, the point at which Melvins became a true metal outfit with a more chugging sound and longer songs.

Melvins kicked off the coheadlining set Friday night to a packed and steamy house—one unfortunate fan succumbed to heat before the show even got started. The legends played all of Bullhead with a few additional tracks thrown in for good measure to the delight of the crowd. They were impressive over the course of their hour-long set.

Singer/guitarist Osborne’s voice and playing have stood the test of time and bassist McDonald hammed it up for the crowd. Coady Willis, filling in for Crover on tour, pounded away tirelessly on drums. Melvins played on stage with a backdrop of actress Agnes Moorehead in full Endora makeup (from the old TV show Betwitched) and vibrant, almost psychedelic, lighting—all pink and orange. It was a heady experience coupled with the sludgy metal. They ended with, of course, “Boris.”

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After more than 40 years, the legendary Duran Duran shows no signs of slowing down. Not even a little bit. They’ve been touring to promote Future Past, the icons’ 15th album, since last year, taking a quick break to get inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in November. Last month, they announced Danse Macabre, to be released in October, just in time for Halloween. According to the press release, the new album is Duran Duran’s “soundtrack to their ultimate Halloween party…threading together new songs, themed covers, and newly reimagined versions of their own ‘spooky’ classics.” Sounds fun!

Last Wednesday night, the band once known as the Fab 5, which is now just four since the departure of guitarist Andy Taylor (Simon LeBon, Roger Taylor, John Taylor, and Nick Rhodes) graced Washington, DC with a stop on the Future Past tour. The all-ages crowd got treated to new material while also dancing to old favorites. The fans loved it all. I was thrilled to have the privilege of photographing one my first true musical love and still one of my all-time favorite bands.

Boy, does Duran Duran know how to make an entrance. Emerging from backstage, backlit by a video screen showing AI footage of the band dressed as astronauts, Duran Duran stood at the top of a staircase, peering out onto the screaming crowd, pausing for dramatic effect before scattering to take their respective places on stage. Two metal “curtains” that obscured the drum kit and keyboards then were lifted into the air and functioned as video screens for the night. Graphic art and video have a major presence on this run of the tour—it’s fitting given the band’s pioneering use of the music video in the 1980s.

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Five years, almost to the day, since the last time they appeared in the Washington, DC area, English indie/rock outfit Nothing But Thieves played to a very stoked, sold-out crowd on Tuesday night at The Fillmore Silver Spring. It was the very first date on the “Welcome to the DCC” US tour, and it possessed the air of a ship setting sail on a great adventure—all excitement and happiness. If the opening night is any indication, the “Welcome to the DCC” tour will be a huge success.

The Fillmore was already filled with fans when supporters Kid Kapichi took the stage at 8PM. Kid Kapichi (Ben Beetham, Jack Wilson, George Macdonald, and Eddie Lewis) come from England, in their case, Hastings, on the southeast coast. Known for their working-class voice, with a body of work that addresses racism, poverty, and mental health, Kid Kapichi cut their teeth on the Hastings music scene until they got a big break from Frank Carter, who invited them to play his birthday party then join him on tour.

The crowd at the Fillmore got a taste of this voice Tuesday night, with 30 minutes of working-class finger-flipping in songs like “5 days on (2 days off),” about monotonous day jobs, and “Working Man’s Town.” Vocalist Jack Wilson asked the crowd if everything in the States was outrageously expensive like it is back home. When the crowd roared in the affirmative, the band launched into “Rob the Supermarket.” Kid Kapichi’s latest album is Here’s What You Could Have Won.

Standing at the barrier between sets, I didn’t realize the Fillmore had become even more crowded until I looked over my shoulder at the urging of my pal on the security staff. We were packed in like sardines, and the crowd erupted when Nothing But Thieves took the stage. Nothing But Thieves formed in 2012 in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, in England. They are lead vocalist and guitarist Conor Mason, guitarist Joe Langridge-Brown, guitarist and keyboardist Dominic Craik, bassist Philip Blake, and drummer James Price. The band scored a top spot on the UK album chart with its latest album, Welcome to the DCC, a concept album that, according to the band, addresses “themes such as advertisement, unity, internet culture, the music industry, aging and politics, as well as escapism and change are highlighted by the alienation or privilege of a members only club.”

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On the heels of a sold-out performance at The Anthem in Washington, DC on August 9th, Queens of the Stone Age returned to kick DC’s ass in a second round on August 14th on the band’s The End is Nero tour. 

Hardcore punk outfit The Armed kicked off the night. They’re an interesting bunch. The band formed in Detroit back in 2009 as a “functionally anonymous” collective. The band omitted the names of its members from albums and would employ varying lineups when playing live, which fueled speculation about the band’s makeup. However, the band has recently come clean about itself, revealing its six current members: Kenny Szymanski, Randall Lee, Urian Hackney, Patrick Shiroishi, Cara Drolshagen, and Tony Wolski.

On The End is Nero tour, the connection to QOTSA is Troy Van Leeuwen, who produced The Armed’s newest album, Perfect Saviors, slated to be released at the end of August. Taking the stage at 7pm, The Armed blazed through the roughly half hour set—eight songs, split right in half between their 2021 release, Ultrapop, and Perfect Saviors. It was hard to know where to look as vocalist Tony Wolski’s tornadic presence fueled the punk rock energy.

After a quick turnover, Phantogram, took the stage. The “street beat, psych pop” duo of multi-instrumentalists and vocalists Sarah Bartel and Josh Carter formed in 2007 in Greenwich, NY. The friends met as children and, around 2007, reunited and formed Phantogram. Over the course of seven songs, the crowd got acquainted with Phantogram’s swirling guitars, spacey keyboards, echoes, and airy vocals. The setlist was pulled from across the band’s discography but was weighted toward songs from Three and Voices, including bangers “Howling at the Moon” and “You Don’t Get Me High Anymore.”

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From July 10–12, the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) presented NIVA ‘23, the leading conference for independent music and comedy venues, festivals, and the promotion industry. Members gathered in Washington, DC across venues around the city to meet and discuss topics of interest to independent venues, including industry diversity, mental health, safety, insurance, the economic impact of live entertainment, and the relationship between live entertainment and policy issues. On July 12, NIVA members also engaged with partners on Capitol Hill on issues relevant to the live entertainment industry during the first-ever Congressional fly-in on Capitol Hill before closing out the conference at a closing night party at the Black Cat.

NIVA is a relatively new organization, forming in April 2020, only three weeks into the pandemic shutdown. The immediate goal was to help save independent venues crippled by the effects of the global pandemic. It now represents independent music and comedy venues, festivals, performing arts centers, and promoters throughout the US. NIVA led efforts leading to the passage of the Save Our Stages Act, which secured $16 billion in federal relief funds, the largest amount allocated to the arts in U.S. history.

In 2023, NIVA’s formal mission is to “preserve and nurture the ecosystem of independent live venues, promoters, and festivals throughout the United States.” The first conference was held in Cleveland, Ohio last year. While about 500 attendees gathered in Cleveland, almost twice that number was expected in DC.

The festivities began Sunday night, at an opening night party at DC’s famed 9:30 Club and neighboring Atlantis, the city’s newest music venue, built as a replica of the original 9:30 Club on F Street in downtown DC. Attendees enjoyed food and drink while brass from See Tickets (the evening’s sponsor) and NIVA gave brief, informal opening remarks to the still-gathering crowd.

While eating, drinking, and networking went on at the 9:30 Club, Rudy Love the & the Encore and Elise Trouw were the opening night performers next door at The Atlantis, Washington, DC’s newest venue. Rudy Love & the Encore, hailing from Wichita, Kansas, are a collective made up band leader Love’s friends and family. For about an hour they energized the intimate crowd with their blend of R&B and soul.

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In December 2012, Rolling Stone ran an interview with Jimmy Page. Being a lifelong Led Zeppelin fan, and knowing that Page rarely gave interviews, I read it with excited interest. The article noted that Page kept up with current music; he mentioned that one of the bands he’d been listening to was Rival Sons.

Figuring Pagey was on to something, I immediately sought out the band’s music. Blown away by the loud, bold, rock and roll, Pressure and Time, Rival Sons’ 2011 album, entered my regular rotation. During the late summer of 2013, I traveled to Whitesburg, Kentucky to see the band for the first time; they played Summit City Lounge in the tiny Appalachian town as a nod to the local rabid fanbase. I made friends that night I have to this day.

Ten years later, I finally got to cover Rival Sons when they made a stop at the Fillmore Silver Spring on the Darkfighter tour last Tuesday night. The Record Company and Starcrawler provided support. The Fillmore shook with the sounds of true dirty rock and roll.

Starcrawler got the night started. From Los Angeles, Starcrawler (lead singer Arrow de Wilde, guitarist Henri Cash, bassist Tim Franco, and drummer Seth Carolina, pedal steel/guitar player Bill Cash) has already amassed a fanbase of big names, including Iggy Pop and Elton John. These musicians are young, charismatic, and play raw glam rock.

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Avatar brought their Swedish metal circus to the Fillmore Silver Spring last week, one of the last stops on the Dance Devil Dance tour. Joining Avatar was fellow Swedish death metal band Orbit Culture and Veil of Maya, from Chicago. It was a marathon night—the festivities started at 7:30 sharp and it was after 11:30 when the Fillmore emptied out. The crowd was left exhilarated and joyful after an incredible show. I expected nothing less.

Swedish melodic death metal outfit Orbit Culture (Niklas Karlsson, Frederik Lennartsson, Richard Hansson, and Christopher Wallerstedt) kicked the night off with an enjoyable set. The 30-minute set featured songs from the band’s newest album Nija such as “Open Eye,” “North Star of Nija,” and “The Shadowing.” The buzz among us photographers and our security pal, Keith, was that the band had a distinct Metallica sound to their music. Orbit Culture’s latest track is “Vultures of North,” released in August 2022, a brutal, thudding bit of violence I just added to my music library.

Chicago metalcore band Veil of Maya (Marc Okubo, Sam Applebaum, Danny Hauser, and Lukas Magyar) took the stage and promptly had us photographers dodging crowd surfers in the photo pit. Launching into the 2021 single “Viscera,” the band’s 12-song set showcased songs from across the band’s career. In particular, “Godhead,” “Red Fur,” and “Synthwave Vegan” are from Veil of Maya’s latest album, [m]other, released this year. That album is praised for Veil of Maya’s ability to evolve. It was an excellent set that prepped the crowd for the dark carnival to follow.

I first caught Avatar in 2019, when I covered them at the Anthem in Washington, DC; they were on tour as support for Babymetal. I had never heard of the band and had no idea what I was getting into when they took the stage. There have only been a few instances in my life where I felt like I’d been hit by lightning seeing a band for the first time; that night a bolt hit me square in the head. From that moment, I was hooked on the thundering metal made by the five men from Gothenburg, Sweden (Jonas Jarlsby, John Alfredsson, Johannes Eckerström, Tim Öhrström, and Henrik Sandelin).

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