18 Best Photos of 2018

Kaylee DuganDecember 21, 2018

FeaturedPhotos 75 min read

Our Flickr account is a buffet of amazing photography. Narrowing thousands upon thousands of photos down to 18 picks took hours. From concert photography, to fashion to food to portraiture, here are the best photos we took in 2018. Fingers crossed 2019 looks this good.

Drinking Out Of A Terrarium At The Columbia Room by Sarah Gerrity – March 19

Lose Yourself in No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man by Jeff Martin – March 28

DC Ink: Jinx Proof by Franz Mahr – April 3

2001: A Space Party @ National Air & Space Museum by Franz Mahr – April 9

Behind the Scenes: Cirque Du Soleil’s Luzia by Nicholas Karlin – April 17

Red Pandas Poop Glitter by Armando Gallardo – May 16

The Caps Are Going to the Stanley Cup Finals by Armando Gallardo – May 24

BYT & Capital Pride Present: Eath, Wind, Glitter & Fire by Katherine Gaines – June 11

Goth Jimmy Buffett Party @ DC9 by Clarissa Villondo – August 14

Live NYC: Afropunk 2018 by Maya-Katharine Moore – August 29

Dream Jobs: Julie Kent, The Washington Ballet by Nicholas Karlin – September 20

Glenstone Is the Free Museum of Our Dreams by Clarissa Villondo – September 24

Think Local First Awards 2018 by Blink Ofanaye – October 22

Bentzen Ball Photos 2018 by Jeff Martin – October 29

Death Becomes Us: A True Crime Festival by Clarissa Villondo – November 5

Photos: Rodarte Opens @ NMWA by Franz Mahr – November 13

15th Annual Transformer Auction by Mariah Miranda – November 19

Mitski @ Brooklyn Steel by Michael Gebhardt – December 3

18jan(jan 18)8:00 pmJohn Oates with The Good Road Band8:00 pm Wolf Trap

19jan6:00 pmCracker and Camper Van Beethoven6:00 pm 9:30 Club

more

Event Details

Cracker’s tenth and most recent studio effort, the double-album, Berkeley To Bakersfield, finds this uniquely American band traversing two different sides of the California landscape — the northern Bay area and further down-state in Bakersfield.

Despite being less than a five-hour drive from city to city, musically, these two regions couldn’t be further apart from one another. In the late ’70s and ’80s a harder-edged style of rock music emerged from the Bay area, while Bakersfield is renowned for its own iconic twangy country music popularized, most famously, by Buck Owens and Merle Haggard in the ’60s and ’70s. Yet despite these differences, they are both elements that Cracker’s two cofounders, David Lowery and Johnny Hickman, have embraced to some degree on nearly every one of their studio albums over the last two decades. On Berkeley To Bakersfield, however, instead of integrating these two genres together within one disc, they’ve neatly compartmentalized them onto their own respective regionally-titled LPs.

As Lowery explains, “On the Berkeley disc the band is the original Cracker lineup — Davey Faragher, Michael Urbano, Johnny and myself. This is the first time this lineup has recorded together in almost 20 years. We began recording this album at East Bay Recorders in Berkeley, CA. For this reason we chose to stylistically focus this disc on the music we most associate with the East Bay: Punk and Garage with some funky undertones. To further match our sense of place we often took an overtly political tone in the lyrics.”

“This Bakersfield disc represents the ‘California country’ side of the band. Throughout the band’s 24-year history we’ve dabbled in Country and Americana but this time we wanted to pay homage to the particular strain of Country and Country-Rock music that emerges from the inland valleys of California.”

Cracker has been described as a lot of things over the years: alt-rock, Americana, insurgent-country, and have even had the terms punk and classic-rock thrown at them. But more than anything Cracker are survivors. Cofounders Lowery and Hickman have been at it for a quarter of a century — amassing ten studio albums, multiple gold records, thousands of live performances, hit songs that are still in current radio rotation around the globe (“Low,” “Euro-Trash Girl,” “Get Off This” and “Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out With Me” to name just a few), and a worldwide fan base — that despite the major sea-changes within the music industry — continues to grow each year.

Time

(Saturday) 6:00 pm

Location

9:30 Club

815 V ST NW, Washington, DC 20001

Cost

$25

Learn More

Calendar GoogleCal

19jan6:30 pmStory District’s Top Shelf6:30 pm Lincoln Theatre

19jan7:00 pmgnash9:30 Presents ... 7:00 pm U Street Music Hall

more

Event Details

gnash

w/ Mallrat Guardin.

hi! my name’s garrett, but a lot of people call me gnash, & i’m here to let you know you’re not alone. in gnash, the g is silent, but my feelings aren’t. simply put, i was raised that it’s okay to have feelings, as long as you aren’t afraid to talk about them. so i’ve chosen to do that by documenting the feelings i have in my heart in my art, & lately, more specifically, in my music.

when i have a feeling, to get it off my chest, i find it’s most therapeutic for me to make a song about it. what’s even more redeeming is that nowadays when i release a song, an open-minded & constantly growing group of people from all around the world (who have come together over my music & call themselves the dreamers) let me know they have felt, currently feel, or will eventually feel the same. that makes us both feel better, & they help me just as much as i help them. so really, what i’m creating isn’t a fan base, it’s a support group & a movement, & it’s filling with people who let each other know that whatever it is, however you feel, it’s going to be okay.

everything in life is about balance. that’s the number one thing i’ve learned while growing up in a big city like los angeles. my first single, “i hate u you i love u,” & my label, happysad, spelled :): , both, in the titles alone, tackle balancing emotional issues everyone faces daily, but most people are afraid to (or don’t find the time to) discuss. so i’ve found the best answer to this problem is for me to do the talking so the listener can focus on thinking.

my music has become a sort of emotional guide book for those who are open to experiencing life’s up’s & down’s, but who are also committed to an overall positive outlook on life. the 3 ep’s i’ve released, “u,” “me,” & “us,” serve as a walk through a break up, finding yourself, & finding something new, but also the universality of that journey (& the harmony that comes from learning how to co-exist with other people in this often self-centered world we live in). eventually, i want to make a song for every feeling, & i felt this 3-part, 21-song series was a great place to start.

Time

(Saturday) 7:00 pm

Location

U Street Music Hall

1115 U Street NW Washington, DC, 20009

Cost

$20

Learn More

Calendar GoogleCal

19jan8:00 pmEvening of Indian Dance8:00 pm Wolf Trap

19jan8:00 pmJohn Oates with The Good Road Band8:00 pm Wolf Trap

20jan6:00 pm7:00 pmDuPont Brass on Millennium StagePresented by Washington Performing Arts and The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts6:00 pm - 7:00 pm Kennedy Center Millennium Stage

more

Event Details

DuPont Brass is a unique, soulful, brass ensemble hailing from the D.C. Metropolitan Area. Originally composed of five music majors from Howard University trying to raise money for tuition during the Christmas season, they have now grown to an 8-piece ensemble consisting of brass, a rhythm section, and vocalists. Gaining popularity from playing at local Metro stations, DuPont Brass started out professionally playing for weddings, banquets, and other private events in the surrounding area. Thanks to the foundation laid in their earlier years, DuPont Brass has had the opportunity to perform in conjunction with the D.C. Jazz Festival, Washington Performing Arts, and on the prestigious Kennedy Center Millennium Stage. Consistently touching the hearts of the community with their heartwarming testimony, DuPont Brass has been featured on WPFW’s “Live at Five” three times and featured in the Washington Post Newspaper five times. Through their training in both classical and contemporary styles, the young group has developed a sound that mixes varied genres of music, including jazz, hip-hop, and R&B. At the top of 2018, they released Eclectic Soul, a full length project that is a testament to that sound. Their latest EP, Halftime, is an ode to their marching band upbringing. Halftime stays true to the DuPont Brass style of taking something old and making something totally new.

DuPont Brass is a 2018/19 Ensemble-in-Residence for Washington Performing Arts’ Mars Urban Arts Initiative, which is generously supported by Jacqueline Badger Mars and Mars, Incorporated.

“This performance is featured as part of the Kennedy Center’s free daily performance series: https://www.kennedy-center.org/video/upcoming

We regret that as the theater reaches capacity, seats cannot be saved for patrons who have not arrived or are not next in line.

No free parking is provided for this event.

Time

(Sunday) 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Location

Kennedy Center Millennium Stage

2700 F St NW, Washington, DC 20566

Cost

Free

Learn More

Calendar GoogleCal

20jan6:00 pm8:00 pmFree Weekly Bar Bingo w/ O’Sullivan’s Irish PubEVERY SUNDAY AT O"SULLIVAN"S6:00 pm - 8:00 pm O'Sullivan's Irish Pub

20jan6:30 pmA$AP RockyAEG Presents ... 6:30 pm The Anthem

X

X