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Articles by Joe DiConsiglio
Lockn’ won’t fade away, but Block Party will
Yet another summer is drawing to a close and most returning Hoos have survived the two things separating them from the inevitable first day of classes — a sweltering day spent unloading and dragging belongings into a new home, and the terrifying, disturbing boozing holiday that students have come to know and love called Block Party. For first-years, it’s a portal into a stunning new life where freedom and constraint shed their meaning and hysteria takes the reins.
Mumford & Sons delights Charlottesville
Everyone has had that experience of being around someone that just lights up a room. It’s really the perfect Seinfeld character. They don’t have that much to say, but everything that comes out of their mouth is timed so perfectly that the wittiness and snark of whatever the heck they’re saying leaves a smile on the listener’s face. It’s like that person who yells out “Free Bird!” after every song the band at Coupe’s plays. It’s horribly played out but always pretty darn funny.
Pigeons Playing Ping Pong flocks to Charlottesville
To describe a jam band’s work as a form of wizardry should be held as an utmost compliment, reserved for a band that exhibits its magical faces and can play with an audience in ways that most bands cannot. A musical wizard has the ability to penetrate the minds of those in the audience and replace the brain’s power of controlling the body with music. The mind-body connection ceases to exist and the music takes over as the composer of the body’s movements.
The Revivalists blend influences, retain individuality on 'Take Good Care'
As both music and life become increasingly robotic, individual taste and desire are going to give way to a hegemony of conformity and boredom. Has all art already been made? Has individuality been exterminated by dependency? The Revivalists’ new album “Take Good Care,” released last week, provides a definitive answer — no. The unique mix begins with Ed Williams’ pedal steel guitar.
Zeppelin Jr. is fine for now, but Greta Van Fleet needs to evolve past their influences
Rock has never died. It’s evolved, transported, played out and played back in again. It’s been the most daring news in the world. It’s been stomped out and mopped across. It’s blurred the line between fantasy and reality and made its own levels of thought. It sold its soul with Johnson, endured windmills with Townshend and survived its greatest challenge, hair bands (yuck!). More than anything, it’s influenced.
Moon Taxi’s live energy is riveting
It isn’t often that a show elicits just as ecstatic a reaction to the openers as the headliner. Thursday night at the Sprint Pavilion might as well have been billed as a festival — because Moon Taxi, Ripe and Kendall Street Company all came out and blew the tent off the place. It’s too demeaning to say the openers satisfied the fans — the majority of whom were still filing into the Pavilion.
An interview with Moon Taxi’s Tyler Ritter
Moon Taxi’s music may not drive you to the moon but it’ll certainly make you dance your way there. The high-energy group is back in Virginia a month after their robust Lockn’ Festival set rocked the lover’s state into a deep and groovy trance. The pop-rock Nashville quintet will take over the Sprint Pavilion Thursday night with a little help from their friends of Ripe and the University’s own Kendall Street Company. Moon Taxi has been flying high over the past year.
In good company: An interview with Kendall Street Company
They say that people are always in good company when they are doing what they truly enjoy with the folks who they truly enjoy. Whether it’s with friends, family or strangers, good company encourages you to bounce thoughts off of each other and turn those thoughts into reality. Good company leads to good inspiration. For the last five years, there has been no better company at the University than the six young men of Kendall Street Company.
Dark Star Orchestra gives C-Ville a night with the Dead
The scene outside the Jefferson Theater was reminiscent of a bygone era. Prominent Grateful Dead cover band Dark Star Orchestra was kicking off their spring tour. Deadheads everywhere would recognize the scene. Those without a ticket stood outside the doors holding up one finger in desperate search of a chance to get in. Tie-dye shirts, dreads and Steal Your Face logos jammed their way into the venue.
Virginia bands compete to play at LOCKN’ Music Festival
The annual ROCKN’ to LOCKN’ competition is going down Friday at the Jefferson Theatre. ROCKN’ to LOCKN’ is a battle between local Virginia bands in which they go through rounds of performances and are voted on by the fans to play at LOCKN’ music festival, being held Aug. 23-26 in Arrington, Va. This round, taking place in Charlottesville, is the semi-finals, and the winner will earn a chance to compete in the final round and eventually win a spot on the LOCKN’ lineup.
Lockn’ Music Festival announces initial lineup with Dead & Co, Widespread Panic, Tedeschi Trucks Band and more
Virginia deadheads rejoice! Lockn’ has announced its initial lineup, and it is huge. Lockn’ will be held Aug. 23-26 at Infinity Downs and Oak Ridge Farm in Arrington, Va., about 35 miles southwest of Charlottesville. Dead & Company, the continuation of the Grateful Dead, will be playing four sets while headlining both Saturday, Aug. 25 and Sunday, Aug. 26 of the festival.
Noah Gundersen brings relaxed, acoustic power to The Southern
The only mistake Noah Gundersen made during his show at The Southern Saturday night was asking the Charlottesville audience how the basketball game went earlier in the day. The crowd, still trying to forget, raffled off corky responses and obscenities directed at that school who shall not be named.
Hippo Campus needs more time to find live expression
Had the intentions of this piece been to write about the kernel buried inside the popped shell of a Hippo Campus track, the essence would have been spent praising Jake Luppen’s ability to stand up for an entire generation on its 2017 first full-length album Landmark.
SOJA’s benefit show makes Charlottesville a 'proud community'
“I think what people don’t understand about what we do is when you’re up here every night, working our butts off, it doesn’t matter how fun it looks — it starts to feel like work, like a job because after all, it is. But when you get to play a show like this — a show when everyone feels good because what they’re doing is for a good cause — then it feels the way it’s supposed to.
‘A Mecca of creativity’
“I want to speak for people, who don’t have microphones. Our goal as a band is to stick up for the human race. We see the world, and we try to make it better in the limited time we have here.” This is how frontman Jacob Hemphill describes the philosophy surrounding his band SOJA. The reggae group, based out of Arlington, Va., started as a group of friends in middle school and has since become a Grammy-nominated, international success.
‘Wonderful Wonderful’ is The Killers most personal album, but not their best
Ask anyone to name a song by The Killers and they’ll tell you “Mr. Brightside,” “Somebody Told Me” or “When You Were Young.” The Vegas-based group has endured success as one of the greatest singles-producing bands of all time, emerging in the early 2000s when indie rock was at its peak.
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