The Scene

MusicDetour.com’s commentary on music, performances, and the DC metro area music scene

Special Treat for anyone going to the Nationals Game on Friday August 1st, Everyone But Pete is playing inside Nationals stadium from 6 to 7:30 – first pitch is at 7:35!! So either go check out EBP and stay for the game or go early for the game and maybe get your first experience with EBP.

We are trying to move MusicDetour.com forward by giving users more access to updating the site on their own. One feature that we have been working on in that direction is the ability for users to enter artist and concert info from their own computers. Eventually those features will be available to everyone who uses MusicDetour, but right now we want to give people who are interested in helping out the opportunity to begin to use this tool. If you are interested in entering band and concert info, feel free to email me, dave@musicdetour.com, and let me know.

Also, I would like users to feel free to send me more band information via email. As the only person working on content on the site, it is difficult for me to enter a ton of information for each band. At this time there are somewhere around 4,000 bands entered on the site and I can’t enter information for everyone. However, if you send me information on your band or bands that you like, I would be glad to enter that information. Things to include about the band/artist: name, bio, picture, genre and several subgenres, City and State, website, email. Once again email: dave@musicdetour.com.

Finally, anyone interested in blogging should feel free to contact me. Eventually, the blog is going to be set-up so that people can filter the type of content that they are interested in. Ideally people would blog about different genres and different regions. If you’re interested, once again email me.

Blues Alley has a great small scale feel to it and there are few bad seats in the house (a big change up for those of you used to going to shows at the amphitheatres). When I went there to see Arturo Sandoval, I ended up sitting about two feet away from Arturo in the front row. I could practically feel the spit flying out of his trumpet while he played.

This show was a lot different than the first time I saw Arturo perform. M parents had taken me to see him at Town Point Park in Norfolk, VA when I was a kid. His performance was a part of the summertime music series in the park in front of thousands of fans (quite different from Blues Alley). The entire show was balls to the wall Latin Jazz/Funk that had the crowd dancing.

I expected Arturo to play some hot Afro-Cuban jazz, but at this show he blew me away by covering all of the bases of jazz. He began the show with a jazz standard and followed it with some crazy 80s-synthesizer-jazz piece. (more…)

After seeing Erykah Badu with The Roots in Richmond, I can only imagine how great of a show is in store this Saturday, August 2nd. The Roots will share the stage with not only Jill Scott, but also Chuck Brown at the Merriweather Post Pavilion. This will be a very high energy show. No one sings with as much body and soul in her voice as Jill Scott. I don’t think that we’ll be lucky enough to have everyone on the stage at the same time, but I have no doubt that this show will rock. This show will be locking down Hip-Hop, Go-Go, R&B and Soul. Also performing is Estelle. (more…)

A look ahead at music playing in the DC area in the coming week.

Monday 7/28/08

Wolf Trap: Crosby, Stills & Nash – 8:00pm

Tuesday 7/29/08

Black Cat: Hello Society, Bottles/Cans and The Ivorys – 8:30pm
Blues Alley: Tom Browne – 8:00pm and 10:00pm

Wednesday 7/30/08 (more…)

So the Big O and Dukes Show was ranting about the closing of T.T. Reynold’s on Thursday. Check out the audio from that show. They weren’t really sure when T.T.’s is closing, which is actually Sunday, July 27th, but I have to say that I like their rant against soccer moms. People need places to drink and watch music. That’s the bottom line. I was there on Thursday night and T.T.’s was absolutely packed with people of all ages. T.T. Reynold’s has been part of the History of the City of Fairfax and the City won’t even tear down the building because of its historical building. Word on the street is that its becoming a Vietnamese restaurant and while some people love Vietnamese food, it is probably not necessary to have 2 in the small City of Fairfax (with two more right outside the city). (more…)

There is a traveling festival passing through the DC region this coming weekend as Rock the Bells visits the Merriweather Post Pavillion. Rock the Bells is a Hip-Hop festival that began in California in 2004 andbegan touring in 2006 to get to fans across the country. Wu Tang Clan used Rock the Bells in 2004 to play some reunion shows (and has done so several times since then). Last year the festival was notable because it brought Rage Against the Machine back together to play two shows. This year A Tribe Called Quest, Nas and Mos Def are the featured artists on tour with about 20 acts all together on two stages. The gates open at Merriweather Post Pavillion at 11am. Get there early and “rock the bells” all day.

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While the official closing day of T.T. Reynold’s is July 31st, the music is ending with a bang this week. After T.T.’s closes, we know that the building will become a Thai restaurant. That raises two questions: why on Earth would someone want to pay top dollar for that should-be-condemned building? and Does the City of Fairfax need another southeast Asian restaurant? While both of these questions probably have no answer and it will be sad to see such a great watering hole and music venue gone. See schedule below. (more…)

Hip-Hop and Rock acts do not always share the same audience. In fact, some fans of one genre will not even listen to the artists that play the other genre. This artificial division is frequently encouraged by the music industry in order to create clear markets (whether it is on the radio or different sections of a record store). Overall this has led to more stagnant music as musicians and fans a like hesitate to experiment across genres. One way to cross the genre line is to bring acts out on tour together to cross these lines.

The Unity Tour 2008 is coming to the Nissan Pavillion on Sunday, July 20th. It is a chance for 311 and Snoop Dogg to perform at the same venue and begin to create a new genre. The gates at the Pavillion open at 5:30 and Fiction Plane will also be performing. (more…)

The mothership will land at the 9:30 Club on Saturday, July 19th. Get your “Flashlight” and “Tear the Roof off the Sucker” cause George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic are coming to town. No one is funkier or more outlandish than the P-Funk all-stars and they role deep (I’m thinkin’ that there will be about 24 people on stage for the show). You never know what kind of theatrics George Clinton has in store for the audience and he really defined the word “jam”. The doors open at 8:00pm, tickets are $40. (more…)