Music
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Ringo Starr Spreads Peace and Love at Ovens
It’s not every day that a Beatle performs in the Queen City. Actually, it’s not even every decade. It’s been 15 years since Paul McCartney performed in Charlotte. The last time Ringo Starr & His All Starr Band performed here was 1992. Starr and Co. made their long-awaited return on…
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True Optimist Creates a Musical Getaway with ‘Parlor Palms’
The opening of True Optimist’s new single “Make Money All Day” suggests a soca madrigal entwining with a 1980s new-wave dancefloor hit. Shaking percussion rains down on ricocheting high-life guitars and a plangent, bittersweet bassline. Then a braided stream of swarming voices transforms the tune into a whirlpool of shifting…
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PREMIERE: G. Love Joins Of Good Nature in ‘Hold Me’ Video
Of Good Nature frontman Cam Brown kicks off the Charlotte-based band’s new single “Hold Me” by tapping out the tune’s title on an old-school typewriter while bandmate David Hamilton Jr., aka Smoov Alien, provides the rat-a-tat percussion of the machine’s clacking keys off camera. Brown then steps out onto the…
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How DOMii Is Transforming Charlotte’s House Music Scene
An Instagram video clip from late April captures DJ, musician and event promoter Ariel Dominguez doing what she does best: creating music to captivate a crowd and set bodies in motion. Manning the decks at Novelty House in Uptown, Dominguez, who deejays and composes as DOMii, lays down a steady…
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Dispatch, John Butler & Friends Flood Skyla with Good Vibes
It’s likely that Dispatch isn’t a household name, or perhaps you can’t even name one of their songs. But the positive vibes that the band puts forth at every live show are infectious. The band performed at Skyla Credit Union Amphitheatre on Friday, capping off a night full of music…
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Run the Jewels Keeps the Energy High in Ballantyne
While Raleigh Run the Jewels fans are hype to see the duo open for Wu-Tang Clan this Saturday, thousands of Queen City devotees got the jump on them when they got a chance to see RTJ perform a headlining set at The Amp Ballantyne on Thursday. The Charlotte stop was…
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Low Groves Doc Kicks Off ‘Wish You Were Here’ Event Series
An impressive crowd packed into the Evening Muse on a rainy Sunday evening for the start of something special. They broke into applause following a screening of Nick Will’s new music documentary, The 10,000 Hours of Low Groves, before the subject of the film, local alt-folk singer/songwriter Adam Naliwajko, who…
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PREMIERE: New Doc Showcases Secret Formula Band on Its Biggest Stage Yet
Charlotte rock group Secret Formula Band is a ferocious musical force. With bandmates drawn from across the South, the combo summons swampy Louisiana funk, soulful Memphis blues, rustic Alabama rock and evocative Carolinas storytelling to conjure gospel-charged tunes that can amble like a rolling river or rumble like a runaway…
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Metallica Offers More Than Nostalgia in Uptown Charlotte
It’s hard to believe that Metallica was formed 44 years ago, or as singer-guitarist James Hetfield told the sold-out crowd at Bank of America Stadium on Saturday night, “… 140-something years” ago. The metal quartet’s M72 World Tour hit Charlotte on the heels of its latest album, 2023’s 72 Seasons.…
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Keith Urban Rocks Off His Country Roots
When did Keith Urban get labeled as a country artist and why? Sure, the 57-year-old singer/guitarist has lived in Nashville since the early ’90s and won countless awards in the country genre, but does he really deserve to be categorized as such? First off, he’s a ripping guitarist — not…
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Catt Daddy Transitions from Hip-Hop to Southern Soul
When Maurel Nichols enters the Embassy Suites hotel in downtown Raleigh, he steps into the spotlight — metaphorically speaking, anyway. His entrance marks the opening shot of the video that accompanies “Love My Southern Soul,” the February 21 release by Nichols, the singer-songwriter who performs as Catt Daddy. Catt is…
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Shelby Punks Y’ALL’RE Do It for the Love of Music
Riding a roaring Ramones-fueled guitar-and-bass riff and splashy, zipper-tight drums, Shelby foursome Y’ALL’RE kicks off its 2024 debut EP First Edition with Galaxy Lineberger’s high-spirited, smart-ass vocals. “I’m tired of playing with the newbs/ Their games are dumber than gelatinous cubes/ We best the big, bad evil guy/ Because our…
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Wilco Makes Anticipated Return to Charlotte
Save for a private concert last year, Thursday night was the first time since 2007 that Wilco held a proper public concert in the Charlotte area. Performing a 20-song set followed by a four-song encore, the Jeff Tweedy-fronted band thrilled fans for roughly two hours at The Amp Ballantyne on…
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Gene Brown Marks Three Years of Producer Showcases in CLT
One cold night in December 2019, toward the end of a month-long sojourn in New York City, I was eager for a taste of home. I was in the midst of my third year of a Ph.D. program in English at UNC Chapel Hill and I had spent the last…
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Shakira Launches US Leg of World Tour in Charlotte
International pop star Shakira kicked off the US leg of her Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour in Charlotte on Tuesday night with a concert at Bank of America Stadium. Though the show’s start was delayed for nearly 40 minutes for unknown reasons, the weather held off as the…
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Carolina Beer Choir Lights Up the Room with Convivial Concerts
On March 15, the Saturday before St. Patrick’s Day, an affable group of people gathered at Divine Barrel Brewing in NoDa. Some were clad in the green T-shirts associated with America’s unofficial drinking holiday and a few ordered beers in the sunlit taproom. When two men sat down, one behind…
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