Results tagged “live”

            

As we touched on earlier today, there were plenty of concerts around the area this weekend that weren't centered around inclement weather. On Friday, you had your choice of a three-hour, catalog spanning marathon by the Cure at the Patriot Center in Fairfax as well as a raucous set by the Drive By Truckers at the 9:30 Club. Saturday night's big event was the Kanye show, but during the day over 21,000 people made their way to the site of the old Convention Center to rock out for a good cause at the 29th annual DC101 Chili Cook-Off, benefiting the National Kidney Foundation.

As the clock rolls down on 2007, we've done as bloggers tend to do and taken a look back. The DCist music staff scratched our chins, tapped our temples, and compiled a list of our favorite local acts of the year. Whether it was because they released a new album, had some great shows, or just finally wore us down with press releases, these are the D.C. musicians that really made us proud to call the District home this year.

Aimee Mann never seemed like one of pop's 500 likeliest candidates to release a Christmas album, but last year’s One More Drifter in the Snow was a tasteful, minor-key treat, and her “1st Annual Christmas Show” at the Birchmere last December was one of the best concerts of 2006. As she promised she would at the end of last year’s freewheeling interfaith revue, she's hitched up the sleigh again this year for a monthlong yule-tour that landed for the first of two shows at the Birchmere last night. As before, the show mingled seasonal fare with secular material from Mann’s deep songbook, music with comedy, and Christmas with Hanukkah. Kind of.

>> The Capitol Christmas Tree lighting ceremony is scheduled to take place at 5 p.m. this evening on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol. >> Washington-area writers Michelle Brafman, Merle Collins, T. Greenwood, Joanne Leedom-Ackerman, Faye Moskowitz, Barbara Mujica, Jessica Neely, Amy Stolls, Hananah Zaheer, and Christy J. Zink will be at Politics and Prose to read from their contributions to the latest anthology, Electric Grace: Still More Fiction by Washington Area Women....

A Post business columnist and an independent music non-profit have joined the chorus questioning Live Nation's proposal for a Silver Spring music hall. Last Friday, Steven Pearlstein wrote that while I.M.P. boss Seth Hurwitz has fought against competition for his 9:30 Club before, and his alternative proposal to Live Nation is in his own best interest, "he's put forward a financial proposal attractive enough that county officials cannot ignore it."

The plot thickens for the Montgomery County-Live Nation concert hall deal. In September the county signed a non-binding letter of intent with concert promoter Live Nation for a Fillmore concert hall in Silver Spring, which would give the company $8 million in state and county funds, rent well below the market rate, and other perks. But now, county council members, groups of residents, and even the Howard County executive are questioning the county's deal and backing the proposal by I.M.P., Seth Hurwitz's Montgomery-based company that runs the 9:30 Club and Merriweather Post Pavilion. I.M.P.'s proposal for a club would be cheaper for the county and would pay more rent.

Fun Fun Fun Fest 2007 Recap from Super!Alright! on Vimeo. Austinist attended a town hall meeting about proposed noise ordinances that could undermine the city's future as the Live Music Capital of the World, and lamented the possible loss of Texas's only feminist bookstore. Throughout the week, they interviewed a bunch of indie fashion designers and D-I-Y websites—Etsy, Ornamental Things, 31 Corn Lane, and Aorta Designs—for the upcoming Stitch Fashion Show. They also did...

It looks like I.M.P., the Montgomery County-based company that runs the 9:30 Club and Merriweather Post Pavilion, hasn't given up on opening a Silver Spring music hall. In September, we wrote that concert producer and venue owner Live Nation had signed a non-binding letter of intent to put a Fillmore music hall in the old J.C. Penney store at Georgia Avenue and Colesville Road in Silver Spring, across from the AFI Silver Theater. Both the...

It’s been a few years since the Pope of Mope has graced the District with his presence—four three to be exact—and in the meantime, many of us have managed to see him play in other nearby locales. As a matter of fact, a few DCist staffers caught the Moz’s Halloween show in Baltimore, at the relatively intimate Ram’s Head Live—a date that was rescheduled due to Morrissey’s string of cancellations this past July. While...

The National Symphony Orchestra is about to lose its captain, when Music Director Leonard Slatkin steps down at the end of this season. Slatkin is clearly not ready to retire, although he has hinted that he is all too ready to move past the discomforts of his tenure in Washington. He will split his time among the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic in London, and the Pittsburgh Symphony, as well as teaching at Indiana...

DCist's highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week. Indie: Control Live fast, die young. The two most important rules to follow for rock 'n' roll immortality. We suppose having great music probably helps, too. Ian Curtis followed those rules, and enjoys a massive cult following nearly three decades after his death. Maybe "enjoys" is the wrong word. As the years have passed and Joy...

We've written at length about England's The Go! Team and their fantastic live shows. The last time they were in town, they drove the Black Cat crowd into a frenzy, and now they'll be doing the same thing at the 9:30 Club tonight for a late show (10 p.m. doors). We recently spoke to Ninja, the band's energetic female MC who serves as the live show's focal point, on the phone from Los Angeles where...

Outside of her relatively small but loyal following, the United States has not seen much of Sinéad O’Connor over the past decade, though she has continued to release albums and perform. Despite having a massive hit with the Prince-penned "Nothing Compares 2 U," she is remembered equally for the controversy she generated with her infamous appearance on Saturday Night Live and her refusal to have the national anthem played before a concert in New Jersey....

Via our tipline comes a disturbing allegation about Washington's beloved NBA all-star, Gilbert Arenas. Game-fixing! Encouraging teammates to take dives to pad his own stats! And an unrepentant attitude that makes it all that much worse. Of course, the competitive enterprise in question is Halo 3, not NBA basketball. But that makes it no less disturbing. The allegations of Agent Zero's ill-gotten swag surfaced this morning on the forums of Bungie, the company responsible for...

We noted awhile ago that the owners of the Birchmere had been in talks to open another venue in Silver Spring — while that has fallen by the wayside, it looks like Live Nation will be moving in instead. The Clear Channel spinoff, which produces concerts and owns music venues around the country, including Nissan Pavilion, various Fillmores, and the House of Blues chain, signed a letter of intent to build in an old J.C....

Protest over national vs. regional chains, the never-ending debate over the place of cars and bicycles in our metropolises, professional sports scandals, remembering a solemn day, and being issued a search warrant - it all happened across our sites this week! Another banner week at Chicagoist started off with daily reports from food writer Lisa Shames on her attempt to eat only locally grown and raised foodstuffs all week as part of a farmers market...

There was very little else for Londonist to be concerned with when the threat of a Tube strike became a very unpleasant reality. The inconvenience was extreme: there aren't many alternatives to the Tube in London despite the best efforts of the Londonist team to get everyone from A to B. Brighter news came in the form of the first ever female Yeoman Warder, or Beefeater as the position is more commonly known, and...

Happy first weekend of September - and happy Labor Day weekend, too, for our American cities! Let's take a look at what's been happening around the Ist-a-verse. The deaths of two firefighters shook Bostonist this week. Boston's firefighters bent over backwards all week long - first, they fought flames pouring from the Boston Tea Party museum, and then a restaurant fire killed two and injured many more. Their efforts make everything else - like Tom...

Via Wonkette, some lovely video of everyone's favorite political pundit/dancer with zero shame or credibility, Tucker Carlson. In the wake of the accusations of lewd activity in a men's bathroom against Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho), Carlson appeared on MSNBC Live on Tuesday to proclaim Craig as seeming awfully guilty, and later told host Dan Abrams that some twenty years ago he and a friend once beat up a gay man who he says made...

Last year, the DAM! Festival made an impressive debut in our fair city. As the festival gears up for its second year, they've got even more up their sleeve, including performances from indie heavyweights like Cat Power and Cloud Cult, and local favorites like The Beanstalk Library and These United States. The festival is happening this fall, from October 11 through 15. Founded and organized by BigYawn.net's Eric Boucher, this year's goal was to go...

Can't anyone get D.C. right? Today the Post's Reliable Source reports that Nicole Kidman's newest thriller, The Invasion, makes a number of relatively amateur mistakes in trying to use the District as a backdrop, even though a good part of it was filmed here. Among those: - Kidman, who plays a D.C. psychiatrist, buys magazines at one of those big sidewalk newsstand kiosks -- the ones all over New York but not on any corner...

The phrase “review-proof” usually denotes some property so universally recognizable and demonstrably saleable that no amount of critical huffing and puffing can possibly derail its commercial invincibility.

The day has finally arrived -- the official release of J.K. Rowling's final installment in her Harry Potter book series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is scheduled for midnight tonight (unless of course you received one of those magical early copies that have been floating around). For all you D.C. area Potter nerds out there (and as we already know, there are a whole lot of you) looking to celebrate tonight, here's some area...

MONDAY >> Today's Fort Reno show features local indie poppers Greenland (***) with Statehood and Kitty Hawk. The weather report calls for clear skies, but bring water. 7:15 p.m., free. >> How about another free event? The Black Cat backstage will feature movies about punk rockers Murder City Devils and Anti-Flag. 9 p.m., free. >> This week marks the sixth year of the Hip-Hop Theater Festival, sponsored by the DC Commission on the Arts and...

Hope for a last minute hail mary. After the highs and lows of almost getting an installment of Live Earth in our town, then having Congress stomp all over it, Al Gore's figured things out in the final hour and is adding the District to the globe-crossing concert. Live Earth will take place tomorrow, from 9 locations around the world. The purpose of the massive undertaking is to raise worldwide awareness of climate change. Musical...

FRIDAY: >> Palace of Wonders is celebrating its one-year anniversary with a literal circus of performers both tonight and Saturday. Acrobats, burlesque performers, magicians, freaks and rope trick artists are just some of the acts that will take the stage, and fortune tellers will be on hand near the bar. Tickets are $15 in advance (click here), and $20 at the door. 7 p.m. to midnight tonight, 7 to 2 a.m. on Saturday. We recommend...

There's been all kinds of crazy stuff found on Google's new StreetView application, which we wrote about before - guys who appear to be peeing on the side of the road, climbing fences into houses, and so on. While D.C. won't be getting StreetView for a little while longer, there is still some strange stuff to be seen with good ol' Google Maps. Joyriding has long been a problem in D.C., where (usually) kids steal...

There are plenty of NBA trade rumors floating around out there with the draft less than 30 hours away, and while the Wizards are keeping a relatively low profile as a team, that doesn't mean the players aren't keeping busy. Above is one of the new NBA '08 Live commercials that feature our still beloved Agent Zero with Maryland native and future NBA superstar Kevin Durant. Angry T has the other two if you're...

We've certainly noticed these ads in metro stations recently. Slogans like "It's Better in Baltimore" and "Get In on It", accompanied by images of spacious back yards and comfortable train commutes contrasting with cramped D.C. apartments and Beltway traffic. And we have to admit, as much as we're die hard D.C. enthusiasts, it's a compelling campaign that hits right where we feel it most: this is a great city, but are you ever going to be able to afford to buy real estate here? If recent economic predictions come true, odds are good that you won't. And that's exactly what the people behind the Live Baltimore campaign are hoping you'll think about when you spot their ads.