Music, The Features, We Love Music

We Love Music: The Sounds @ 9:30 Club — 4/12/14

Maja sings at Jesper in Philadelphia

Maja sings at Jesper in Philadelphia

The Sounds brought plenty of shake-shake-shake to the 9:30 Club Saturday.

In a very nearly totally sold-out room, the Swedish quintet kicked off the night with “Emperor,” a song from their new album. If some in the audience didn’t know it that well, the band got their attention with better-known “Song with a Mission” from their popular second album, Dying to Say This to You, and kept the crowd jumping and squealing in delight for the rest of the night.

All members of The Sounds performed with a furious energy. Vocalist Maja Ivarsson was in good form, singing huskily through selections from all five of the band’s albums as she writhed, hopped and slinked across the floor. Ivarsson however did not perform too many of her trademark kicks Saturday. I caught The Sounds earlier in the week at the Union Transfer in Philadelphia, and Ivarsson was striking out with her legs in dramatic fashion as she pranced along the stage in heels with some disregard as to how much of her underwear she showed off. Still, Ivarsson stomped and vamped through the set — at one point during the end of the show, she even slid down on her belly to sing seductively into a microphone that had fallen on the ground.

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Entertainment, Fun & Games, Get Out & About, Life in the Capital, Music

The Winning Ticket: ASTR @ U Street Music Hall, 12/12/13

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Given the craptastic weather this week, let’s start your weekend a little early with two tickets to ASTR at U Street Music Hall Thursday night. The duo is opening for Ghost Beach and The Chain Smokers making this a kill-a-rific show that will rage until the wee hours of Friday morning. Get the coffee ready for your Friday morning wake up.

FYI: ASTR is poised to release their first EP in the new year and is already getting heavy buzz for their track “Operate.”  [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/87895411″ params=”color=ff6600&auto_play=false&show_artwork=true” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

For your chance to win these tickets, simply leave a comment on this post using a valid email address between 10am and 5pm today. Feel free to leave any comment, but please limit yourself to one entry per email address, please. Continue reading