Music, The Features, We Love Music

Hot Ticket: The Virgins (Opening for The Killers) @ Merriweather Post Pavilion, 8/10/13

The Virgins (Photo courtesy Sacks & Co.)

The Virgins (Photo courtesy Sacks & Co.)

The Killers are playing at Merriweather Post Pavilion tomorrow, Saturday, Aug. 10. But they are bringing with them an interesting band from New York City, The Virgins. The Virgins’ frontman Donald Cumming started up the band and put out an album in 2008. Five years later, Cumming returned with a new lineup and released a second album, Strike Gently, in March.

Critics have heralded the return of The Virgins as a kind of post-punk Dire Straits. To me, they sound quite a bit like The Cars! After embarking on the tour with The Killers, We Love DC caught up with Cumming to ask about touring, playing guitar and putting out records — three things The Virgins plan to do a lot of in the near future!

Mickey: How has been being on the road, particularly opening for The Killers?

Donald Cumming: It’s a lot of fun. We are really enjoying it. It’s been cool. We played some club shows on our own, and now we are on The Killers’ tour, which is a very different experience. But they are both very fun. It’s great to play for lots of different people.

MM: How did that come about? Did The Killers contact you? How did you connect?

DC: I got an email out of the blue from somebody connected to them, asking if we were available for the dates. It all came together very quickly. Our new record [Strike Gently] has just come out. It was something we were really excited to do. When I heard it was possible, I said, we would love to do that.

Continue reading