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Music & Concerts

Concerts are back!

From Chopin to Bad Bunny to New Edition, get ready for return of live music

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Jazmine Sullivan brings The Heaux Tales Tour to the Anthem. (Screen capture via YouTube)

Spring is nearly here and that means all your favorite artists will be electrifying stages around D.C. as COVID restrictions wane and artists return to the road. Below are our picks for some of the most promising upcoming shows.

Khruangbin and Nubya Garcia will perform at The Anthem on Friday, March 11. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Tickets start at $49.50 and can be purchased on Official Lyte Exchange’s website.

Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center will perform “Chopin” on Friday, March 11 at 7:30 p.m. at Wolf Trap at the Barnes Stage. Pianists Gloria Chien and Michael Brown, violinist Cho-Liang Lin, and cellist Nick Canellakis. Tickets cost $44 and are available on Wolf Trap’s website. 

Jamestown Revival and Robert Ellis will play at 9:30 Club on Saturday, March 12. Doors open at 6 p.m. Tickets cost $25 and can be purchased on Ticketmaster.

BENT: Burlesque will be on Saturday, March 12 at 11 p.m. at 9:30 Club. This event will be hosted by Pussy Noir and there will be performances by  Vagenesis, Betty O’Hellno and Ricky Rosé. There will also be appearances from DJs Rosie, Lemz and Sidekick and visuals by PROJECTILEOBJECTS. Tickets cost $25 and can be purchased on Ticketmaster. 

Animal Collective and L’Rain will perform on Sunday, March 13  at 9:30 Club. Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets cost $25 and can be purchased on Official Lyte Exchange’s website. 

Galactic and Low Down Brass Band will perform on Saturday, March 19 at 9:30 Club. Doors open at 6 p.m. Galactic – a quintet from New Orleans, LA- features saxophone, harmonica, bass, drums, percussion, guitar and keyboards. Tickets cost $30 and can be purchased on Ticketmaster.

The Set: A R&B Experience will be on Saturday, March 19 at 9 p.m. at Howard Theatre. Started by a collective of R&B enthusiasts, The Set is a social experience that features multiple DJs with an energetic and enthusiastic crowd that shares a love for R&B. Tickets start at $25 and can be purchased on Howard Theatre’s website. 

Jazmine Sullivan: The Heaux Tales Tour will be on Sunday, March 20 at The Anthem. Tiana Major9 will open the show. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and tickets are available on Official Lyte Exchange’s website.

The 8-Bit Big Band will perform on Friday, March 25 at 8 p.m. at Howard Theatre. This 30-65 member jazz/pops orchestra will play some of the best musical themes written from various video games from all consoles. Tickets start at $49 and are available on Howard Theatre’s website.

Snoh Aalegra- Ugh These Temporary Highs Tour will be on Thursday, March 31 at The Anthem. Ama Lou will be opening the show. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and tickets are available on Ticketmaster.

Other upcoming shows of note:

Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia has a busy schedule, including the Foo Fighters on May 16 and 18; Halsey on June 8; and Tears for Fears on June 19. 

For those who haven’t been to a large-scale concert since the pandemic, The Capital One Arena is back with Bad Bunny on March 25; New Edition on March 31; Maxwell on April 2; and Journey on May 9. 

MGM at National Harbor brings an array of acclaimed artists to its state-of-the-art theater, including Faith Evans, Mya, and SWV on March 13; Daryl Hall and Todd Rundgren on April 16; and Air Supply on June 3. 

The Black Cat has Squid on March 21; Sasami on March 24; Andy Shauf on March 30; and an already sold out show from the Circle Jerks on April 16.

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Music & Concerts

Underdog glorious: a personal remembrance of Jill Sobule

Talented singer, songwriter died in house fire on May 1

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Writer Gregg Shapiro with Jill Sobule in 2000. (Photo courtesy Shapiro)

I’ve always prided myself on being the kind of music consumer who purchased music on impulse. When I stumbled across “Things Here Are Different,” Jill Sobule’s 1990 MCA Records debut album on vinyl in a favorite Chicago record store, I bought it without knowing anything about her. This was at a time when we didn’t have our phones in our pockets to search for information about the artist on the internet. The LP stayed in my collection until, as vinyl was falling out of fashion, I replaced it with a CD a few years later.

Early in my career as an entertainment journalist, I received a promo copy of Jill’s eponymous 1995 Atlantic Records album. That year, Atlantic Records was one of the labels at the forefront of signing and heavily promoting queer artists, including Melissa Ferrick and Extra Fancy, and its roster included the self-titled album by Jill. It was a smart move, as the single “I Kissed A Girl” became a hit on radio and its accompanying video (featuring Fabio!) was in heavy rotation on MTV (when they still played videos).

Unfortunately for Jill, she was a victim of record label missteps. When 1997’s wonderful “Happy Town” failed to repeat the success, Atlantic dumped her. That was Atlantic’s loss, because her next album, the superb “Pink Pearl” contained “Heroes” and “Mexican Wrestler,” two of her most beloved songs. Sadly, Beyond Music, the label that released that album ceased to exist after just a few years. To her credit, the savvy Jill had also started independently releasing music (2004’s “The Folk Years”). That was a smart move because her next major-label release, the brilliant “Underdog Victorious” on Artemis Records, met a similar fate when that label folded.

With her 2009 album “California Years,” Jill launched her own indie label, Pinko Records, on which she would release two more outstanding full-length discs, 2014’s “Dottie’s Charms” (on which she collaborated with some of her favorite writers, including David Hadju, Rick Moody, Mary Jo Salter, and Jonathan Lethem), and 2018’s stunning “Nostalgia Kills.” Jill’s cover of the late Warren Zevon’s “Don’t Let Us Get Sick” on “Nostalgia Kills” was particularly poignant as she had toured with him as an opening act.

Jill was a road warrior, constantly on tour, and her live shows were something to behold. My first interview with Jill took place at the Double Door in Chicago in early August of 1995, when she was the opening act for legendary punk band X. She had thrown her back out the previous day and was diagnosed with a herniated disc. To be comfortable, she was lying down on a fabulous-‘50s sofa. “I feel like I’m at my shrink’s,” she said to me, “Do you want me to talk about my mother?”

That sense of humor, which permeated and enriched her music, was one of many reasons to love Jill. I was privileged to interview her for seven of her albums. Everything you would want to know about her was right there in her honest lyrics, in which she balanced her distinctive brand of humor with serious subject matter. Drawing on her life experiences in songs such as “Bitter,” “Underachiever,” “One of These Days,” “Freshman,” “Jetpack,” “Nothing To Prove,” “Forbidden Thoughts of Youth,” “Island of Lost Things,” “Where Do I Begin,” “Almost Great,” and “Big Shoes,” made her songs as personal as they were universal, elicited genuine affection and concern from her devoted fans.

While she was a consummate songwriter, Jill also felt equally comfortable covering songs made famous by others, including “Just A Little Lovin’” (on the 2000 Dusty Springfield tribute album “Forever Dusty”) and “Stoned Soul Picnic” (from the 1997 Laura Nyro tribute album “Time and Love”). Jill also didn’t shy away from political subject matter in her music with “Resistance Song,” “Soldiers of Christ,” “Attic,” “Heroes,” “Under the Disco Ball,” and the incredible “America Back” as prime examples.

Here’s something else worth mentioning about Jill. She was known for collaboration skills. As a songwriter, she maintained a multi-year creative partnership with Robin Eaton (“I Kissed A Girl” and many others), as well as Richard Barone, the gay frontman of the renowned band The Bongos. Jill’s history with Barone includes performing together at a queer Octoberfest event in Chicago in 1996. Writer and comedian Julie Sweeney, of “SNL” and “Work in Progress” fame was another Chicago collaborator with Sobule (Sweeney lives in a Chicago suburb), where they frequently performed their delightful “The Jill and Julia Show.” John Doe, of the aforementioned band X, also collaborated with Jill in the studio (“Tomorrow Is Breaking” from “Nostalgia Kills”), as well as in live performances.

On a very personal note, in 2019, when I was in the process of arranging a reading at the fabulous NYC gay bookstore Bureau of General Services – Queer Division, I reached out to Jill and asked her if she would like to be on the bill with me. We alternated performing; I would read a couple of poems, and Jill would sing a couple of songs. She even set one of my poems to music, on the spot.

Jill had an abundance of talent, and when she turned her attention to musical theater, it paid off in a big way. Her stage musical “F*ck 7th Grade,” a theatrical piece that seemed like the next logical step in her career, had its premiere at Pittsburgh’s City Theatre in the fall of 2020, during the height of the pandemic. The unique staging (an outdoor drive-in stage at which audience members watched from their cars) was truly inspired. “F*ck 7th Grade” went on to become a New York Times Critic’s pick, as well as earning a Drama Desk nomination.

In honor of the 30th anniversary of Jill’s eponymous 1995 album, reissue label Rhino Records is re-releasing it on red vinyl. Jill and I had been emailing each other to arrange a time for an interview. We even had a date on the books for the third week of May.

When she died in a house fire in Minnesota on May 1 at age 66, Jill received mentions on network and cable news shows. She was showered with attention from major news outlets, including obits in the New York Times and Rolling Stone (but not Pitchfork, who couldn’t be bothered to review her music when she was alive). Is it wrong to think that if she’d gotten this much attention when she was alive she could have been as big as Taylor Swift? I don’t think so.

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Music & Concerts

Tom Goss returns with ‘Bear Friends Furever Tour’

Out singer/songwriter to perform at Red Bear Brewing Co.

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Singer Tom Goss is back. (Photo by Dusti Cunningham)

Singer Tom Goss will bring his “Bear Friends Furever Tour” to D.C. on Sunday, June 8 at 8 p.m. at Red Bear Brewing Co. 

Among the songs he will perform will be “Bear Soup,” the fourth installment in his beloved bear song anthology series. Following fan favorites like “Bears,” “Round in All the Right Places,” and “Nerdy Bear,” this high-energy, bass-thumping banger celebrates body positivity, joyful indulgence, and the vibrant spirit of the bear subculture.

For more details, visit Tom Goss’s website.

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Music & Concerts

Kylie brings ‘Tension’ tour to D.C.

Performance on Tuesday at Capital One Arena

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Kylie Minogue visits D.C. on Tuesday.

Aussie pop icon Kylie Minogue brings her acclaimed “Tension” world tour to D.C. next Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at the Capital One Arena. Tickets are still available at Ticketmaster.

The show features songs spanning her long career, from 1987 debut single, “The Loco-Motion,” to “Padam, Padam” from her album, “Tension.”

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