Happy New Year! 2014 was the fourth full year of ShowlistDC, and we certainly couldn’t have kept this site running without all of you who support the site by playing shows, putting on shows, telling me about shows, going to shows, and supporting live music in the greater DC area.
I do a little statistical analysis every year (here are the ones from 2011, 2012, and 2013), so here are some stats on what ShowlistDC did in 2014:
• We listed 11,266 shows at 489 different venues in DC, Virgina, and Maryland. (We’ve got 1,165 shows already listed for 2015!)
• May was our biggest show month, with 1,106 different shows listed. Three other months had over 1,000 events: March (1,080), June (1,042), and October (1,004).
• Not surprisingly, most of our events were listed on Saturdays (2,605 shows) or on Fridays (2,315 shows).
• As in the past three years, two venues had over 400 events listed in 2014: the Kennedy Center (633 events) and Jammin’ Java (422 events).
• We ended the year with 1,014 Facebook likes, 1,952 twitter followers, and 204 Instagram followers.
• We’re always sad to see venues close, and several DIY venues hosted their last show this year, including Paper Sun, the Far Out House, Ft. Loko. But when one DIY venue stops hosting shows, another one always pops up to keep live music going strong in DC– and we’re excited to find new places to see live music in 2015.
If there are any ideas for things you’d like to see on ShowlistDC or on this blog, please let me know, either with a comment here or an email to showlistdc@gmail.com!
And as always, feel free to look for me at shows– I went to 109 shows in 2014 and certainly plan to attend at least that many next year! Come up and say hi– and keep on supporting live music in 2014!
Last night, Boston-based dream-folk singer-songwriter Marissa Nadler performed at the Rock & Roll Hotel, and it was a special show for DC, since local cellist Janel Leppin is in her touring band! (I should say: Janel is her touring band, since it was just the two of them on stage.) As a bonus, the opening act was Janel’s main project Janel & Anthony with guitarist Anthony Pirog. Nadler’s set was heavy on songs from her newest album, July, which was just fine with me since that album is lovely. The videos I’ve posted below are a little hazy– the lighting at the Rock & Roll Hotel makes it hard for my little camera to focus– but that fits just fine with Nadler’s dreamy music. For more ShowlistDC concert videos and photos, subscribe to my YouTube channel or follow me on Instagram.
Last night, IOTA Club & Cafe in Clarendon hosted two local rock bands: the solo project Harness Flux (John from Metropolitan/the Cheniers) and the debut performance of Invisible Witches, a trio featuring Joshua Padgett on bass/vocals (from The Chance), David Barker on guitar (from Cobra Collective), and Simon Ley on drums (from many DC bands). Three of their songs are captured below. For more ShowlistDC concert videos and photos, subscribe to my YouTube channel or follow me on Instagram.
On Friday night, 27 June 2014, the Howard Theatre was packed for Ginger Baker‘s Jazz Confusion, a quartet made up of drummer Baker (formerly of Cream and Blind Faith), saxophonist Pee Wee Ellis (James Brown, Van Morrison), bassist Alec Dankworth (Dave Brubeck, Mose Allison), and Ghanaian percussionist Abass Dodoo. And it was definitely packed– I’d never seen the Howard’s balcony open before, and it was open for this show (it’s really cool up there!). The show was part of the DC Jazz Fest, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.
The quartet played a whole bunch of tunes from Baker’s new album Why? (the same musicians played on the album), which I wrote about as part of a concert preview for the Washington Post which you can read here. Baker definitely seemed his age on stage (you can hear how weathered his voice sounds on the recordings below), even joking that certain songs could do him in (you’ll hear his comment, “This could be the one!” before “Aiko Biaye”– just before I started recording, he’d called it a “Ginger-killer”, and he’d been making comments/jokes about his own mortality all night).
Four videos from Friday night’s show are below; for more ShowlistDC concert videos and photos, subscribe to my YouTube channel or follow me on Instagram.
Last night, the Black Cat‘s backstage was sold out for Icelandic singer-songwriter Ásgeir‘s first show in DC. He played a ton of tunes from his debut album In the Silence, plus a new song in Icelandic called “Nú Hann Blæs” and his cover of Nirvana’s “Heart-Shaped Box”. His full set list is below; we also took tons of video of the songs he played last night. For more ShowlistDC concert videos and photos, subscribe to my YouTube channel or follow me on Instagram.
Happy New Year! 2013 was the third full year of ShowlistDC, and we certainly couldn’t have done it without all of you who put on shows, play shows, let me know about shows, go to shows, or otherwise support live music in this area.
I do a little statistical analysis every year (here are the ones from 2011 and 2012), so here are some stats on what ShowlistDC did in 2013:
• We listed 11,568 shows at over 450 different venues in DC, Virgina, and Maryland. (We’ve got 1,488 shows already listed for 2014!)
• March was our biggest show month, with 1,108 different shows listed. Four other months had over 1,000 events: October (1,096), April (1,076), June (1,063), and May (1,022).
• Not surprisingly, most of our events were listed on Saturdays (2,630 shows) or on Fridays (2,373 shows).
• As in the past two years, two venues had over 400 events listed in 2013: the Kennedy Center (588 events) and Jammin’ Java (437 events).
• We ended the year with 839 Facebook likes and 1412 twitter followers.
• We saw venues open (Gypsy Sally’s, Bethesda Blues & Jazz Club) and close (Recher Theatre, 9th & Beats).
• . . . and we’re super proud to have put together a show ourselves, with our friends at Hometown Sounds DC. December 12th at Tropicalia is a night we won’t soon forget, so many thanks to the three awesome bands that performed– Heavy Breathing, the Jet Age, and Tereu Tereu– as well as all of you who came out that night.
And as always, feel free to look for me at shows– I went to 153 shows in 2013 and certainly plan to attend at least that many next year! Come up and say hi– and keep on supporting live music in 2014!
Father John Misty is coming to the 9:30 Club this Wednesday night, and ShowlistDC is giving away a pair of tickets! All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post telling me why you want to see this show, and I’ll pick the winner at random (using random.org) on Wednesday (the day of the show) at NOON. Be sure to use a valid email address when you enter, so I can contact you if you win (and don’t worry: your email address won’t be posted publicly when you comment on this entry and won’t be added to any sort of mailing list). If you’re a hotmail user, please add showlistdc@gmail.com to your address book or no-spam list, as other hotmail users have had problems with emails from us not getting through. Also note that since the show is on Wednesday night, we’ll ask winners to respond by COB on Wednesday, so make sure you’re checking your email regularly!
Joshua Tillman, aka J. Tillman, aka Father John Misty first gained recognition as the drummer for Fleet Foxes, but he’s had quite a prolific solo career as well: he was recording solo albums and opening for Damien Jurado in the pacific NW long before he was asked to join the Fleet Foxes lineup. He signed with Sub Pop and last year released the fantastic Fear Fun, so expect to hear some of those songs live at this show. Father John Misty has sold out several shows in DC over the last two years– including a 9:30 club show earlier this year– so for those that have missed his previous shows (or know how great they were), this is a good second chance to see him! FJM has made an interesting choice, too: rather than having an opening band, the first act at this show is comedian Kate Berlant.
We’ve put some videos at the bottom of this post, so check those out and let us know why you want to see this show. Did you miss the last few Father John Misty shows? Are you curious to see what happens when a comedian is thrown on to an indie-rock show? Are you a Fleet Foxes fan that’s curious about Tillman’s solo project? Or are you just looking for an excuse to get out of the house on a Wednesday night? Whatever your reason, it should be a great show, so leave a comment below to enter to win the free tickets!
If you’re new to ShowlistDC and wondering what this site is all about, check out our extensive calendar of upcoming events in the greater DC area (including Northern VA and Baltimore) and our concert recommendations. You can also follow us on twitter @showlistdc or like us on Facebook!
If you come across this post after the contest has closed, or if you’re not the lucky winner, then you can pick up tickets for $25, plus service fees, via ticketfly.com.
the Dismemberment Plan is coming to the 9:30 Club this weekend for TWO SHOWS(!), and ShowlistDC is giving away a pair of tickets to the Sunday 10/20 show with Paint Branch! All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post telling me why you want to see the D-Plan live, and I’ll pick the winner at random (using random.org) on Friday, 18 October at NOON. Be sure to use a valid email address when you enter, so I can contact you if you win (and don’t worry: your email address won’t be posted publicly when you comment on this entry and won’t be added to any sort of mailing list). If you’re a hotmail user, please add showlistdc@gmail.com to your address book or no-spam list, as other hotmail users have had problems with emails from us not getting through. Also note that since the show is this weekend, we’ll ask winners to respond by COB on Friday, so make sure you’re checking your email regularly!
the Dismemberment Plan is a DC indie-rock band that formed in the early 90s and released four albums before breaking up in 2003…..and then, surprisingly, they reunited in 2011 and just released a new album, Uncanney Valley this week! There’s been lots written about the reunion– check out some recent articles by NPR, the City Paper, Metro.us, and, uh, Wired. They’re pretty legendary in DC music lore, and we’ve put some videos from the band’s history at the bottom of this post, so check those out and let us know why you want to see this show. Did you ever get to see them “back in the day”? Did you miss their handful of reunion shows in the past few years? Or are you just hankering to see their new material played live? Or, maybe you really dig opening act Paint Branch and want to see them on the big stage! Whatever your reason, it should be a great show, so leave a comment below to enter to win the free tickets!
If you’re new to ShowlistDC and wondering what this site is all about, check out our extensive calendar of upcoming events in the greater DC area (including Northern VA and Baltimore) and our concert recommendations. You can also follow us on twitter @showlistdc or like us on Facebook!
If you come across this post after the contest has closed, or if you’re not the lucky winner, then you can pick up tickets for $25, plus service fees, via ticketfly.com. Remember that the D-Plan are playing TWO 9:30 Club shows this week (they’re also playing on Saturday, 10/19 with Deleted Scenes), so if you can’t make it to the Sunday show that we’re giving tickets away to, you’ve got another chance to catch them!
The contest has ended and the winner has been contacted. Thanks for entering!
Singer-songwriter Fiona Apple is coming to the Lincoln Theatre for two shows in October. The first one is already sold out, and ShowlistDC is giving away a pair of tickets to the newly-added second show on Saturday, October 26! All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post telling me which song you’d most want to hear live. On Friday, 27 September at noon Eastern, I’ll pick the winner at random (using random.org). Be sure to use a valid email address when you enter, so I can contact you if you win (and don’t worry: your email address won’t be posted publicly when you comment on this entry and won’t be added to any sort of mailing list). If you’re a hotmail user, please add showlistdc@gmail.com to your address book or no-spam list, as other hotmail users have had problems with emails from us not getting through. Also note that we ask winners to respond within 24 hours, or else we have to pick another winner, so make sure to check your email regularly!
Fiona Apple burst onto the scene with her debut album Tidal in 1996 (featuring the singles “Criminal” and “Shadowboxer”), followed that up with the lengthy-titled When the Pawn…, and then went on a lengthy hiatus. She eventually returned to making music, releasing Extraordinary Machine in 2005 and dropping another lengthily-titled album last year, The Idler Wheel…. She doesn’t tour very often, so this is a rare opportunity to see her live.
Apple is touring with California singer-songwriter Blake Mills, who has also produced albums for Jesca Hoop and Sara Watkins (oh, and he wrote/produced a song for Sky Ferreira as well). His debut album is called Break Mirrors. You can check out a few of Fiona Apple’s and Blake Mills’s songs via the videos embedded below, and while you’re giving those a spin, let us know which song you’d most want to either of them perform in concert.
If you’re new to ShowlistDC and wondering what this site is all about, check out our extensive calendar of upcoming events in the greater DC area (including Northern VA and Baltimore) and our concert recommendations. You can also follow us on twitter @showlistdc or like us on Facebook!
If you come across this post after the contest has closed, or if you’re not the lucky winner, then you can pick up tickets for $55, plus service fees, via ticketfly.com, here.
The contest has ended and the winner has been notified. Thanks!
Singer-songwriter Mike Doughty is releasing an album of re-recorded songs from his time in his old band Soul Coughing. He’ll be playing those songs at the 9:30 Club on Friday, 22 November, and ShowlistDC is giving away a pair of tickets, before they go on sale!! All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post telling me which Soul Coughing song you’d most want to hear Doughty cover in concert. On Thursday, 29 August at midnight Eastern, I’ll pick the winner at random (using random.org), and I’ll let the winner know before tickets go on sale on Friday morning. Be sure to use a valid email address when you enter, so I can contact you if you win (and don’t worry: your email address won’t be posted publicly when you comment on this entry and won’t be added to any sort of mailing list). If you’re a hotmail user, please add showlistdc@gmail.com to your address book or no-spam list, as other hotmail users have had problems with emails from us not getting through. Also note that we ask winners to respond within 24 hours, or else we have to pick another winner, so make sure to check your email regularly!
Soul Coughing was a NYC-based alt-rock band from 1992 to 2000, and they broke up due to member disputes….so don’t expect to see a Soul Coughing reunion tour any time soon. But this show might be the closest you’ll get– after years of not really playing the old Soul Coughing songs live, former SC frontman Mike Doughty has just recorded an album of Soul Coughing covers (it’s due out on 9/17, and it’s called Circles Super Bon Bon Sleepless…). He’s touring in support of that and will be playing an all-Soul Coughing covers set at the 9:30 Club on November 22nd! As an aside, if you’re interested in reading about Doughty’s time in Soul Coughing, he wrote a book about that, which was published last year: The Book of Drugs.
You can check out a few of Soul Coughing’s songs via the videos embedded below, and while you’re giving those a spin, let us know which song you’d most want to hear Doughty cover in concert.
If you’re new to ShowlistDC and wondering what this site is all about, check out our extensive calendar of upcoming events in the greater DC area (including Northern VA and Baltimore) and our concert recommendations. You can also follow us on twitter @showlistdc or like us on Facebook!
If you come across this post after the contest has closed, or if you’re not the lucky winner, then you can pick up tickets for $25, plus service fees, via ticketfly.com, here.
