Preview: Flaming Lips w/ Bartees Strange @ The Anthem — 12/31/25
The Flaming Lips celebrate the death of 2025 with opener Bartees Strange on New Years Eve at The Anthem on Wednesday, Dec. 31.
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Poll: What Is the Best Music Festival in the DC Area for 2025?
Vote in our annual readers poll!
Parklife DC will name the best local music festival of the year with your input. The Thrushie Awards are open to DC-area music festivals. These festivals are in the National Capital Region, and often they occur annually.
As always, our Thrushie Awards are inspired by our mission to review live music concerts and spotlight bands and concert halls covered by Parklife DC.
Voting for Thrushies runs through Friday, Dec. 12, at midnight, and you get to vote for your favorite DC venue. Write-in candidates are welcome.
Snapshots: Natalie Merchant @ Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts — 11/23/25
Natalie Merchant brought her Autumn Acoustic Tour to Maryland Hall in Annapolis on Nov. 23, delivering an intimate, literary-leaning set that drew heavily from Motherland, Leave Your Sleep, and Keep Your Courage — her solo albums from 2001, 2010, and 2023, respectively.
James Todd Miller was there to photograph the show for this Snapshots photo feature.
Poll: What Is the Best Music Venue Around DC for 2025?
Vote for best DC-area music venue for 2025!
Parklife DC will name the DC best local music venue of the year with your input. The Thrushie Awards are open to DC-area music venues that host touring bands. These venues must be occupied by its owner-operator and not a “for-rent” concert hall operated by an independent agent.
As always, our Thrushie Awards are inspired by our mission to review live music concerts and spotlight bands and concert halls covered by Parklife DC.
Voting for Thrushies runs through Friday, Dec. 12, at midnight, and you get to vote for your favorite DC venue. Write-in candidates are welcome.
Learn more about each nominee by clicking on their name in keywords.
Live Review: Brandy & Monica: The Boy Is Mine Tour w/ Kelly Rowland, Mýa, and Jamal Roberts @ Capital One Arena — 11/30/25
I was lucky enough to snag tickets to The Boy Is Mine Tour — starring Brandy and Monica — in Washington DC, and let me tell you, it was a phenomenal night of ’90s nostalgia that I won’t soon forget. Held at the Capital One Arena, the atmosphere was electric from the moment my friends and I found our seats. The place was packed with millennials like us, ready to be transported back in time, and we certainly were not disappointed.
Live Review: Stone Horses @ Hub City Vinyl (Hagerstown, MD) — 11/28/25
Stone Horses Bring a Hard-Hitting, Hometown Spark to Hub City Vinyl
Words and Photos by Mike Sprouse / Odd Rocker Photography
There’s something about a chilly late-November night in Western Maryland that makes a rock show feel heavier in all the right ways. Folks pile in with coats half-zipped, wit a little leftover Thanksgiving fuzziness, and the first real bite of winter hanging in the air.
Hub City Vinyl has a kind of friendly warmth to it that’s part shop, part hangout, part listening room and when Stone Horses recently stepped up, it already felt like the space had shifted from “small venue” to “living room with a decibel problem” that just happened to include a loud, confident rock band from right here in Maryland.
Live Review: Blind Guardian w/ Ensiferum and Seven Kingdoms @ The Fillmore Silver Spring — 11/24/25
Every saga has an unlikely beginning. Ours began at a Burger King.
Not literally, perhaps, but Seven Kingdoms’ frontwoman took The Fillmore Silver Spring stage in a sequined jumpsuit and cheeseburger slippers, the front stage monitors adorned with cheeseburger plush pillows. A charming splash of levity in the otherwise Very Serious Business of heavy metal.
Live Review: KATSEYE @ The Anthem — 11/24/25
When I saw back in July that “global girl group”/HYBE x Geffen dream collaboration KATSEYE was coming to The Anthem in DC on their first concert tour (The Beautiful Chaos Tour), I had initially hoped to document the performance with my DSLR camera at the ready (my usual MO). However, as it would have it, an amazing opportunity to pivot from lens to pen presented itself! KATSEYE’s sold out show last night was everything a fan — an EYEKON — could hope for: K-pop concert fandom authenticity coupled with the intuitive breadth of international recognition.
Live Review: Avatar w/ SpiritWorld and Alien Weaponry @ The Fillmore Silver Spring — 11/23/25
Avatar Bring Their Circus of Chaos to Silver Spring
Words and Photos by Mike Sprouse / Odd Rocker Photography
There are concerts you attend, and then there are concerts you survive. Avatar’s recent show at The Fillmore Silver Spring was the latter; an unrelenting carnival of sound, sweat, and spectacle. A night where the whole room felt like it was perched on a wobbling carnival ride, and you’re not entirely convinced the bolts are screwed in tight. That’s part of the charm. Avatar’s theatrical style is rooted in their identity as a “metal circus,” blending heavy riffs with surreal stagecraft.
Live Review: Steph Strings @ St. James Hall (Vancouver, BC, Canada) — 11/21/25
As winter starts to set in, Australian Steph Strings brought a bit of southern hemisphere musical warmth to Vancouver, BC.
When Steph Strings sings (say that fast three times!), her powerful voice with its Aussie undertones, conjures visions of kangaroos and koalas, sun splashed Great Barrier Reef beaches and endless outback highways. The Melbourne/San Remo-based singer-songwriter recently brought her unique Australian musical visions to St. James Hall, briefly transporting a sold-out crowd to another hemisphere.
