Arts & Entertainment
Jason & deMarco bring ‘Diversity’ tour to region
Gay Christian pop duo celebrate music, family in low-key concert
Jason & deMarco in Hagerstown, Md., Saturday night. (Blade photo by Joey DiGuglielmo)
I’ll be honest — I initially feared I was in for an unbearably saccharine evening when Saturday night’s Jason & deMarco concert at Veritas United Church of Christ in Hagerstown, Md., opened with the duo — partners in music and life — walking down the aisle, crooning “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” each holding one of their toddler-aged twin sons.
The gay Christian pop act (interviewed here), in their first appearances in the region since playing Capital Pride in 2008, played MCC-D.C. Friday night, Veritas on Saturday and were scheduled to be in both Frederick and Bethesda, Md., Sunday. This fall leg of their “Celebrating Diversity Tour,” finds them traveling the country with their young sons, Jason’s parents, their inspirational — but not too heavy handed — music and a message of love, dreaming big, LGBT inclusion and marital commitment.
Though it flirted occasionally with being too sugary, the evening was thoroughly redeemed by two points. First, context. The church they were at is less than a mile from a shopping area that has a Christian bookstore in the same shopping center as Target, a Hobby Lobby craft supply mega-store that’s so fundamentalist its owners think bar codes are Satanic, and a Chick-fil-A. In a region so rampant with traditional, conservative (i.e. anti-gay) brands of Christianity, that Jason & deMarco were even there, was a bit of a miracle. New church Veritas, which meets at Church of the Holy Trinity, is a bastion of gay-friendly light in a highly conservative area. Jason & deMarco’s music and message are refreshing enough in and of themselves but in that context, both took on added significance.
Jason & deMarco with their twin sons Mason and Noah. (Blade photo by Joey DiGuglielmo)
Second, the two guys are sorely underrated as singers. They’re not just decent singers — they’re both showstoppers easily in the league of Michael Buble or Clay Aiken. Throughout a nearly 90-minute set of standards, covers, praise and worship ditties and more, they lavishly showered their big, brassy, precisely pitched-and-harmonized vocals all over the space. Over the course of a 10-year-plus career, they never made much of a splash outside the gay umbrella (the mainstream can handle one gay performer at a time, but two perhaps, is a bit much it appears), but talent wise they’re on a par with the best male pop singers around.
Standouts were a shiver-inducing a cappella rendition of the classic hymn “In the Garden,” a lovely (and faithful) rendition of the worship standard “How Great is Our God” and a funky, soulful take on U2’s “One.” Only John Lennon’s chestnut “Imagine” felt out of place. While tastefully performed, it’s anti-religion sentiments — even in a setting as free-thinking as this — were slightly jarring.
Their set was:
1. Twinkle Twinkle/First Love
2. In the Garden (with Jason’s mom)
3. How Great is Our God (Chris Tomlin cover)
4. The Prayer
5. I Will Bless the Lord at All Times
6. Breathe (Michael W. Smith cover)
7. Hallelujah
8. Imagine (John Lennon cover)
9. You Are Loved
*offertory
10. One (U2 cover)
11. Bridge Over Troubled Water (Simon & Garfunkel cover)
The 2025 Baltimore Pride Parade was held on Saturday, June 14.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
You’ve done your share of marching.
You’re determined to wring every rainbow-hued thing out of this month. The last of the parties hasn’t arrived yet, neither have the biggest celebrations and you’re primed but – OK, you need a minute. So pull up a chair, take a deep breath, and read these great books on gay history, movies, and more.
You probably don’t need to be told that harassment and discrimination was a daily occurrence for gay people in the past (as now!), but “American Scare: Florida’s Hidden Cold War on Black and Queer Lives” by Robert W. Fieseler (Dutton, $34) tells a story that runs deeper than you may know. Here, you’ll read a historical expose with documented, newly released evidence of a systemic effort to ruin the lives of two groups of people that were perceived as a threat to a legislature full of white men.
Prepared to be shocked, that’s all you need to know.
You’ll also want to read the story inside “The Many Passions of Michael Hardwick: Sex and the Supreme Court in the Age of AIDS” by Martin Padgett (W.W. Norton & Company, $31.99), which sounds like a novel, but it’s not. It’s the story of one man’s fight for a basic right as the AIDS crisis swirls in and out of American gay life and law. Hint: this book isn’t just old history, and it’s not just for gay men.
Maybe you’re ready for some fun and who doesn’t like a movie? You know you do, so you’ll want “Sick and Dirty: Hollywood’s Gay Golden Age and the Making of Modern Queerness” by Michael Koresky (Bloomsbury, $29.99). It’s a great look at the Hays Code and what it allowed audiences to see, but it’s also about the classics that sneaked beneath the code. There are actors, of course, in here, but also directors, writers, and other Hollywood characters you may recognize. Grab the popcorn and settle in.
If you have kids in your life, they’ll want to know more about Pride and you’ll want to look for “Pride: Celebrations & Festivals” by Eric Huang, illustrated by Amy Phelps (Quarto, $14.99), a story of inclusion that ends in a nice fat section of history and explanation, great for kids ages seven-to-fourteen. Also find “Are You a Friend of Dorothy? The True Story of an Imaginary Woman and the Real People She Helped Shape” by Kyle Lukoff, illustrated by Levi Hastings (Simon & Schuster, $19.99), a lively book about a not-often-told secret for kids ages six-to-ten; and “Papa’s Coming Home” by Chasten Buttigieg, illustrated by Dan Taylor (Philomel, $19.99), a sweet family tale for kids ages three-to-five.
Finally, here’s a tween book that you can enjoy, too: “Queer Heroes” by Arabelle Sicardi, illustrated by Sarah Tanat-Jones (Wide Eyed, $14.99), a series of quick-to-read biographies of people you should know about.
Want more Pride books? Then ask your favorite bookseller or librarian for more, because there are so many more things to read. Really, the possibilities are almost endless, so march on in.
Music & Concerts
Indigo Girls coming to Capital One Hall
Stars take center stage alongside Fairfax Symphony
Capital One Center will host “The Indigo Girls with the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra” on Thursday, June 19 and Friday, June 20 at 8 p.m. at Capital One Hall.
The Grammy Award-winning folk and pop stars will take center stage alongside the Fairfax Symphony, conducted by Jason Seber. The concerts feature orchestrations of iconic hits such as “Power of Two,” “Get Out The Map,” “Least Complicated,” “Ghost,” “Kid Fears,” “Galileo,” “Closer to Fine,” and many more.
Tickets are available on Ticketmaster or in person at Capital One Hall the nights of the concerts.
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