"Sad bastard music" has been a stubbornly resilient descriptor of Belle & Sebastian's music, a band who, fifteen years ago, helped popularize a phrase that launched a thousand self-conscious dorm-room wallflowers. But a lot has changed since then. "The only thing worse than being miserable is sentimentalizing misery as a desired state," said lead singer Stuart Murdoch in a recent The New York Times Magazine profile. If Murdoch once took satisfaction in the gloomy recesses of youth, his band has gradually shed its melancholic worldview for a more satisfying and, as last night's performance at D.A.R. Constitution Hall proved, wickedly-entertaining identity. more ›

Monday night's triple bill at DAR Constitution Hall had something for everyone, assuming they liked their guitars loud and their venues cavernous. Headliners Kings of Leon, touring behind their latest release, the stadium-rock ready Only by the Night, whipped fans into a prolonged frenzy by playing it cool, while openers We Are Scientists and The Whigs had to put in some extra work to win over the late-arriving crowd. more ›

Written and photographed by Martin Locraft more ›