MMS Concert Previews - Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars and Communist Daughter

Sunday night brings with it an inevitable sense of existential dread, what the late Douglas Adams termed "the long dark tea-time of the soul". You can forestall that sense of foreboding through your choice from a pair of vastly different but entertaining concert choices—Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars at AMP by Strathmore, or The Dig and Communist Daughter on Black Cat's Backstage.

SLRAS return to the DC area as part of Strathmore's Shades of Blues festival. Their latest release is a collaboration with artists including Robert Plant and Tinariwen on The Long Road, an EP supporting the refugee support services of the British Red Cross. You can check out our 2014 interview with bandleader Ruben Koroma to get a sense of how this collaborative has channeled heartache and suffering into an astonishingly joyous sound.

Communist Daughter have honed a sound and style with the beauty of a sunny January in the deep woods. You can sense the energy behind the stillness, and marvel in a beauty both serene and severe. Bandleader and co-lead singer Johnny Solomon isn't shy about his recovery from addiction and his struggles with mental illness, and his wife and co-vocalist Molly Moore has proven to be a formidable partner in life and musical counterweight.