Music, The Features, We Love Music

We Love Music: Sweetlife Festival @ Merriweather Post Pavilion–5/10/14

St. Lucia's sunny clothes reflected their upbeat music. (Photo courtesy Sweetlife Festival.)

St. Lucia’s sunny clothes reflected their upbeat music. (Photo courtesy Sweetlife Festival.)

The Sweetlife Festival, celebrating its fifth year in the D.C. metropolitan area, brought an estimated 20,000 attendees to the Merriweather Post Pavilion for three stages of bands and several lots of food and beer. Presented by D.C. salad shop Sweetgreen, the festival stretched for about 11 hours, 20 musical acts and perhaps a combined 80 food vendors and retail stores on Saturday, May 10.

While the festival had a few repeat acts this year, I personally found the lineup a lot more to my musical tastes than last year’s festival.

I arrived in time to catch some of St. Lucia, the Brooklyn dreampop outfit headed by producer Jean-Philip Grobler. Dressed in Hawaiian shirts, Grobler and company gave a performance as bright as their clothing, showcasing songs from the band’s debut album, When the Night. I managed to catch St. Lucia’s best song, the new wave jam “Elevate,” a feel-good confidence booster of a song that certainly complemented the pleasant weather and beachware found at the Sweetlife Festival’s Treehouse Stage early in the day.

A short trip to the mainstage revealed one of the significant perks of being a Sweetlife VIP—free salads from Sweetgreen were available near the VIP bar to stage right. Friends and I took the opportunity to relax and check out some vendors before I hopped over the main stage to catch a bit of Bastille, the London synthpop quartet best known for their hit “Pompeii” from their debut album last year, Bad Blood. I caught an fun performance of the very wave “Of the Night,” a mash up of 1990s European dance hits “The Rhythm of the Night” by Italian group Corona and “Rhythm Is a Dancer” by German group Snap!. Bastille and singer Dan Smith brought a charm and energy all their own to the performance, however, and I made a mental note to look into their upcoming performance at the Patriot Center on Saturday, Oct. 11.

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Entertainment, Music, We Love Music

We Love Music: Chromeo @ 9:30 Club, 2/6/11

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All photos by Michael Darpino

Per Michael’s advice, I thought I’d cruise over to the 9:30 Club on Sunday night to dance with single ladies with good taste in music. I even came up with the perfect line – “excuse me, do you care about sports? Me neither.”

Okay, not entirely true. I try to care about football at least once a year, so I caught the first three-quarters of the Super Bowl. And I pretended to be heartbroken when I had to leave before the final quarter to catch Chromeo. They played two shows this weekend – Saturday night’s sold out forever ago, but The Game meant there were still tickets for Sunday. But even with competing activities, Chromeo nearly filled the club. It proved to be a great venue for these guys – with a full stage setup, complete with stadium-style lighting, backup dancers, and their trademark sexy-leg-synthesizers, Chromeo showed off their bona-fide rock star credentials.
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The Daily Feed

Hot Ticket: Chromeo @ 9:30 Club, 2/6/11

Hey Ladies,

While all your boyfriends and husbands are jumping out of their armchairs, hooting at the television in their salsa stained Rothilsberger jerseys on Sunday, you can be at the 9:30 Club listening to the sexy smooth sounds of Canada’s most recent threat to monogamy since k.d. lang and Gordon Lightfoot. Of course I’m talking about Chromeo.

It’s your choice. You can be at home, relegated to sitting on the ottoman to make room for your fella’s friends on the couch; watching your man give his bro a touch-down celebratory hug that contains more affection than he’s shown you in a year; or you could be at the 9:30 Club on Sunday night, being seduced by Chromeo’s sultry sythesizers and worked-over by their brassiere busting bass.

Head over to 9:30 Club on Sunday and let Chromeo’s P-Thugg and Dave 1 give you the attention you deserve.

Chromeo
w/ MNDR and The Suzan
@ 9:30 Club
2/6 – 7pm
$25

Entertainment, Fun & Games, Music, We Love Music

The Winning Ticket: Chromeo

As a way to say thanks to our loyal readers, We Love DC will be giving away a pair of tickets to a 9:30 Club concert to one lucky reader each week. Check back here every Wednesday morning at 9am to find out what tickets we’re giving away and leave a comment for your chance to be the lucky winner!

This is our first repeat offender on The Winning Ticket! Last summer when we gave away Chromeo tickets our readers lost their collective mind in the mad scramble to win the coveted prize. Shall we try for a repeat?

This week we are giving away a pair of tickets to see…the Canadian reincarnation of Hall & Oates…yes…Chromeo at 9:30 Club on Sunday, February 6th. Frankly, I considered these guys a musical joke that I didn’t quite get until I saw them perform in the Dance Forest at last year’s Virgin Mobile FreeFest. Their brilliant, sunset, synthesizer party caught me completely off guard and made me an instant convert to their cheesy/sexy/silly 80’s throwback electronic monster jams. There is something magical in Chromeo’s music that gets the party going from that first massive, warbling synth tone and keeps the energy up until their final Tenderoni ballad.

For your chance to win these tickets simply leave a comment on this post using a valid email address between 9am and 4pm today. One entry per email address, please. If today doesn’t turn out to be your lucky day, check back here each Wednesday for a chance to win tickets to other great concerts. Tickets for this concert are available on Ticketfly.

For the rules of this giveaway…
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Entertainment, Fun & Games, Music, We Love Music

The Winning Ticket: Chromeo

Chromeo @ 9:30 Club

As a way to say thanks to our loyal readers, We Love DC will be giving away a pair of tickets to a 9:30 Club concert to one lucky reader each week. Check back here every Wednesday morning at 9am to find out what tickets we’re giving away and leave a comment for your chance to be the lucky winner!

This week we are giving away a pair of tickets to see Chromeo perform at the 9:30 Club on Monday, July 26th.

You wouldn’t think a couple of guys called P-Thugg and Dave 1 would be Hall & Oates reincarnate, but that is exactly how the men who are Chromeo have been described in the press. To embrace this comparison, Chromeo went so far as to do a full set with Daryl Hall at Bonaroo recently! These electro-funk Lotharios hail from the sexy Great White North and are spreading their unique brand of synth seduction across America with fellow electrolytes Holy Ghost and Telephoned in tow.

For your chance to win these tickets simply leave a comment on this post using a valid email address between 9am and 4pm today. One entry per email address, please. Tickets for this show are also available through Ticketfly. If today doesn’t turn out to be your lucky day, check back here each Wednesday for a chance to win tickets to other great concerts.

For the rules of this giveaway…
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