By CM Gorey Chuck Prophet & His Cumbia Shoes Tuesday 1/21 at The Southern Café & Music Hall For his latest record, Wake the Dead, singer-songwriter Chuck Prophet teamed up with cumbia band ¿Qiensave?. The result is a mix of Prophet’s alt-country rock blended with the Latin-rooted sounds of the Salinas, California-based group, in the […]
It’s all too easy to get disgruntled about some of the usual entertainment in a tight town like ours—that is, if you close your eyes and ears too tightly and just stay home all the time. Here are some of the events that made me glad I got my ass off of the couch. Please […]
Thursday 12/19 at John Paul Jones Arena I thought I knew enough about Trans-Siberian Orchestra, but it turns out that just about everything I had in mind was wrong. For starters, I let the name fool me—its founding members were American, with the band’s visionary producer, composer, and lyricist, the late Paul O’Neill, born in […]
Friday 12/6 at The Southern Café and Music Hall LA LOM, an acronym for the Los Angeles League of Musicians, floats out a dreamy-yet-driving instrumental soundtrack with West Coast cool. More of a three-piece than a league, per se, the band’s sound careens smoothly through adventurous, succinct tracks that lilt with well-placed, heartbreaking chords and […]
Comedian, actor, and writer David Cross is a recognizable face thanks to still-fresh classics like ’90s HBO sketch show “Mr. Show” and the sitcom “Arrested Development,” as well as more recent roles such as that of Sy Grossman on Netflix’s “The Umbrella Academy.” Decades ago, Cross earned a core of devoted Gen X fans, and […]
Tuesday 11/12 at Old Cabell Hall Universally hailed for its instrumental prowess, emotive performances, and wide- ranging repertoire, the Danish String Quartet kicks off a series of seven eastern U.S. dates at UVA’s Old Cabell Hall. The Grammy-nominated foursome, who have been tearing it up for more than 20 years, will perform a program rich […]
Wednesday 10/30 at John Paul Jones Arena Shaboozey may be third on the bill for award-winning country rap headliner Jelly Roll, but he’s already proven to have much of what mainstream music fans want: a No. 1 track (“A Bar Song [Tipsy]”), big name collabs (Beyoncé), and the strength of a heady country-hip-hop mix capable […]
Wednesday 10/16 at The Southern Café and Music Hall In many ways, Jonathan Richman has traveled far from the emotive rock ‘n’ roll where he made his original splash with The Modern Lovers in the early 1970s. Emotive, jubilant, and at times, the lonesome reflections of a sensitive young man, the originality of the Boston-based […]
“We do it with the lights on,” says The American Shakespeare Center’s Blackfriars Playhouse website about its use of “universal lighting.” So right up front you know that whatever you see in its elegant, woody environs will take place with the house lights aglow. Understandably, in its staunch attempt to maintain historical accuracy wherever possible, […]
Wednesday 9/25 at The Jefferson Theater It’s probably unfair to reduce a band that’s been plugging away in various forms since 2007 to wimpy dance music for disinterested millennials. It’s also likely giving an unfair shake to a reasonably successful group if you suggest that people like it, or tolerate it en masse, because vocalist […]