Believe the Hype: Chuck D and Flavor Flav at Virgin Free Fest's West Stage. Photo by Francis Chung.
My arbitrary and semi-complete (owing to some collaborative difficulties) recap of yesterday’s Virgin Free Fest is up at DCist now, accompanied by more photos like the Public Enemy shot above by Francis Chang.
Categories: music · shameless self-promotion
Tagged: DCist, Merriweather Post Pavilion, pop music, Virgin Mobile Festival
Oklahoma’s Flaming Lips have subverted expectation of how a “rock” band should sound and behave for so long that the most radical performance they could give at this stage of their singular career would be merely to perform an hour-and-a-half of songs absent psychedelic videos, Yeti-costumed cheerleaders, or Mini Cooper-sized balloons full of confetti.
Still, no one was complaining at Merriweather Friday night when the Lips turned up with all their circus wagons full of Yippie ephemera in tow. Frontman Wayne Coyne was onstage 20 minutes before their performance began, helping to set up gear in full view of the tri-generational crowd. (He got a big cheer when he unpacked the plastic bubble he would soon inflate and enclose himself in for his customary walk-and-roll above the most pit.) (more…)
Categories: The Washington Post · music · shameless self-promotion
Tagged: Dada, Merriweather Post Pavilion, music, surrealism, The Washington Post, Wayne Coyne
Ladies and Gentlemen, opening for the serene and poetical Mr. Leonard Cohen this evening: the brilliant and genteel Mr. Leonard Cohen.
At Merriweather Monday night, under skies that might be called “Coheneque” — cold, rainy, despairing, but not without a solitary beauty — the spry 74-year-old* songwriter’s songwriter glided on-stage at 7:35, and sang for 65 minutes. Yes, sang. Save your jokes. He’s heard them all, and written some of the better ones himself.** (more…)
Categories: The Washington Post · job insecurity · music · shameless self-promotion
Tagged: Leonard Cohen, Merriweather Post Pavilion, music, songwriting, The Washington Post
Aging gracefully? It’s for wimps!
If e’er you rolled a ten-sided die during the 1980s, you were a candidate for the Cult of Maiden. (Although I’m pretty sure that by the time I got into Maiden for a couple years starting in sixth grade, any hysteria over their alleged satanism had mostly blown over. Certainly, my mom never ordered me to take my Seventh Son of a Seventh Son poster down.)
My review of Iron Maiden’s nostalgic-by-design Somewhere Back in Time tour is in today’s Paper of Record.
Categories: The Washington Post · music
Tagged: aging gracefully, Iron Maiden, Merriweather Post Pavilion, puppets, pyrotechnics, Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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