Instead of talking about the headlines coming out of Washington D.C., today’s post takes an aside from every other outlet focused on hard-hitting news and instead focuses on the headliners, the artists and bands taking the stage at local live music venues.
Carver Commodore
This is the third show this photographer has attended where Carver Commodore has been on the lineup and each one has been better than the last. (Previous shows include Quarry House Tavern in Silver Spring and opening for Gable Price and Friends at DC9 last August.)
The alternative rock band hails from Florence, Alabama. If the town does or doesn’t sound familiar — let me ask about another town, Muscle Shoals? (It’s basically the same distance from Arlington to Washington, D.C. Although it’s probably a safe bet the drive between the two Alabama towns goes much faster than here inside the Beltway.) What’s the point of this aside? Oh yeah, this band hails from a region that is absolutely rich with musical heritage going back almost 70 years and Carver Commodore continues to innovate with a catalog that runs the gamut when it comes to styles.
Let’s just take two tracks for example. Recently, the band released the music video for its track “F.O.M.O.” (or Fear Of Missing Out for those who are afraid of acronym hell — kidding, mostly). Recently a friend pointed it out they thought the track was reminiscent of melodies you might’ve heard in songs like OK Go’s “Here It Goes Again.”
Yet, another track from a couple years ago “Drown Me in Emotions” really plays to a lighter style of melodies that defined indie artists and band recordings from the past decade. If you’re looking for a similar style to this, check out something like “Nausea in Paradise” by Plastic Picnic.
Regardless of what your favorite style is when it comes to the array of sounds in the alternative genre, there is probably a Carver Commodore track that will appeal to you.
Baltimore Avenue
Baltimore Avenue is from College Park, Maryland, and played some new tracks in addition to some off their 2024 album “static.” This photographer enjoyed the album’s lead off track “serendipity” the most from their Thursday night set.
Berra
The first half of Berra’s set was with an acoustic electric guitar before switching to this hollow-body Fender Telecaster and strumming some heavier chords in the final tracks of the set — like “Jennifer Bite” from the EP “Lover’s Virginia” earlier this spring.
About the photos:
These images were taken with a Nikon Z6III and a Nikon 24-120mm f/4 S lens. As much as this photographer loves Nikon glass and having the extra reach, he admits he would have been better off with either giving up the wide zoom and using a Nikon 70-180mm f/2.8, or perhaps something like the Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 G2.
Losing that extra stop of light in a venue like this is almost a dealbreaker — and this is a nice venue for its size. Especially when you have a stage full of talent that’s being subjected to constant shades (and shadows) of blues, reds, and occasionally a yellow perhaps to brighten up the backdrop vs. a solo artist that will have light on them constantly for their 30-minute set. But thanks to decades of innovation and photo editing features like AI denoise, these final images are still usable instead of having to skip and move on to the next frame(s).
