Category Archives: Entertainment

Entertainment, Special Events, The Daily Feed
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Irish Book Day

Photo courtesy of
‘a book for the commute’
courtesy of ‘maria jpeg’

Tomorrow is the 6th Annual Irish Book Day! Chances are you’ll run into one of the hundred volunteers Irish arts organization Solas Nua will place at metro stops around the city, giving away free books from the wee hours of the morning commute into the evening rush.

Current Irish literature ranging from The Master by Colm Toibin to children’s author Eoin Coifer will be yours for the asking as DC’s only organization dedicated exclusively to promoting contemporary Irish arts celebrates St. Patrick’s Day. Last year they distributed 10,000 books. This year, they’ve got 20,000 on hand! I’ll be on the lookout for a copy of Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue – which sounds like a completely bawdy, brutal tale of an 18th-century red-light district (slammerkin is slang for “loose woman”).

Volunteers will pass out free books from 6am-7pm or until they run out. To find out what metro stops they’ll be at Thursday morning, follow @solasnuacht.

Entertainment, Music, We Love Music
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We Love Music: The Ex @ Black Cat, 3/12/11

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all photos by author.

On Saturday night at the Black Cat, legendary Dutch post-punk group The Ex treated DC fans to an energetic run through of most of the songs off their latest album, “Catch My Shoe”, a Hungarian folk song they used to do with Tom Cora, and a cover of the Konono No.1 song “Huriyet”. The Ex have been a band for over thirty years and while their line-up has changed many times over the years (most recently with a change of lead singers) the band has always maintained core values of improvisation, collaboration, and blistering guitar action. It was this third value that was most prominently on display Saturday night.

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Entertainment, Fun & Games, Music
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The Winning Ticket: Sweetlife Festival 2011

Check this out DC. The second annual Sweetlife Festival is happening at Merriweather Post Pavilion on Sunday, May 1st. It boasts a line-up that is “sweet life” personified in the form of the following bands:

The Strokes • Girl Talk • Lupe Fiasco • Crystal Castles • Cold War Kids • Ra Ra Riot • Walk the Moon • U.S. Royalty • Modern Man

This festival and its mega-watt line-up is a far-cry from seeing Hot Chip in a tent in Dupont Circle like we did at last year’s. A festival of this size with a line-up this impressive is a major booking coup for Sweetgreen and to celebrate their victory they have given We Love DC a pair of lawn tickets to give away for this week’s ticket raffle!

Tickets for Sweetlife Fest are $55 and go on sale on Friday, March 18th at Noon through Ticketfly. But you have a chance here to win a pair of tix from us before they go on sale! Winning these will make you just about the coolest music fan in the greater DC area for at least a whole day!

The Strokes!!!! Girl Talk!!!! Lupe Fiasco!!!! Crystal Castles!!!! Ahhhh!!!!

For your chance to win these tickets simply leave a comment on this post using a valid email address between 9am and 4pm today. One entry per email address, please. If today doesn’t turn out to be your lucky day, check back here each Wednesday for a chance to win tickets to other great concerts. Tickets for this concert are available on Ticketfly.

For the rules of this giveaway…
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Entertainment, The Daily Feed
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New Ireland Festival Kicks Off

Photo courtesy of
”
courtesy of ‘erin m’

Tonight the New Ireland: Enda Walsh Festival kicks off at Studio Theatre. Who is Enda Walsh? An amazing Irish playwright responsible for (among others) a brilliant play about disgruntled youth, Disco Pigs, and the co-screenwriter behind the excruciating film Hunger, about Bobby Sands’ hunger strike to protest British rule.

This Thursday you can meet the man himself after the performance of his riff on the Ulysses myth, Penelope, produced by the Druid, Ireland company. Future performances in April include The Walworth Farce and The New Electric Ballroom, a screening of Hunger, and other conversations on the state of Irish arts, including a panel with DC’s own Linda Murray from Solas Nua. It’s all part of new artistic director David Muse’s desire to bring in international performances to Studio, and I think it’s gearing up to be a great initiative.

Being proud to be an Irish American should mean more than just wearing the green and drinking beer. Challenge yourself to explore more about the New Ireland. And anyway, who better to share St. Patrick’s Day with than the man famously quoted by the Guardian as saying, “I’ve never had to punch anyone, but I know I won’t regret it if I do.”

Entertainment, Music, We Love Music
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We Love Music: Meek Is Murder @ Firehouse Grill (Fairfax), 3/11/11

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all photos by author.

There is nothing quite like the experience of discovering a new band that is obviously destined for great things. For one, it is pretty rare to get in on the ground floor with a band that is this good before their secret is already out. So when you are one of the 10 or 15 people in a room who witness this new band rip open the sky with their musical brilliance for the first time, you should count yourself blessed by the gods of music. Second, while you are filled with the exhilaration of discovery and passion for the new band’s music, it can be very hard to convince people who were not there to take the time to seek the band out to give them a listen.

The reason for this is that there is no “buzz”. You’ve witnessed a band no one’s ever heard of, before they were big; no one cares. More than ever before, “buzz” is a critical element that anyone who wasn’t in that room with you requires before they’ll listen. Only then when the internet is ablaze with tales of the band’s amazing feats in far off cities will people start to take notice of the band that you have been shouting about for weeks, months, sometimes even years. So discovering a band like this; a fully formed, ass-kicking unit in their pre-buzz phase is both amazing and sometimes frustrating. I think out of that frustration is where music snobbery and “I saw them before they…” posing is born. I can see how it can make some people feel bitter and others feel elitist about their discoveries.

I’m not like that. I just want people, as many people as possible, to learn about the new music, embrace it, and support the folks making it. I don’t really care that I saw them first, but when I occasionally do, I am going to shout as loud as I can for as long as I can about this amazing discovery until the “buzz” bullshit catches up with them and people start to listen. Maybe a few of you will hear me and give Meek Is Murder a spin before waiting for them to gain the stamp of “buzz” approval.

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Entertainment, Music, We Love Music
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We Love Music: Abigail Williams/Melechesh/Rotting Christ @ Jaxx Nightclub, 03/09/11

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all photos by Michael Darpino

Guest reviewer Mark Hensch is a freelance writer based in Washington DC. He has been writing about Heavy Metal since he was in High School back in Michigan. He currently contributes to the Washington Times online as Heavy Metal Hensch and is senior editor of Thrash Pit.

The “Apostles of Darkness Over The Americas” tour launched their nationwide sonic assault at Jaxx Nightclub on Wednesday night. The first stop on a two-month tour, the lineup read like a roster from the embassy of evil: leading the charge were the grim ghouls of Abigail Williams, followed by the Middle Eastern heavy metal of Jerusalem’s Melechesh and the battle-ready anthems of Athens’ Rotting Christ. It was a concert of musical carnage that wasn’t just great it was global; fire-breathing proof that the heavy metal scene still thrives at home and abroad.

Thanks to Jaxx’s layout, DC-area heavy metal fans were treated to a trio of intimate performances. The crowd was small but vocal, filling the floor space in front of the raised stage with an energy that surpassed their numbers. There wasn’t much space between band and fan, letting the two collide in uproarious confrontation. Guitar necks brushed past thrown devil horns as the fans and bands became one in an extreme metal meltdown.

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Entertainment, The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: The Chosen

Joshua Morgan and Derek Kahn Thompson in Theater J's production of "The Chosen." Photo credit: Stan Barouh.

There’s something old-fashioned about Theater J’s production of The Chosen, presented with a quiet sensitivity in the staging and the acting, echoed in the warm wood of James Kronzer’s set. To call it old-fashioned is to by no means denigrate its power. It has a sepia-toned subtlety.

Theater J first produced an adaptation of Chaim Potok’s novel ten years ago, and is returning to it now under the aegis of Arena Stage. Setting a play of such intimacy in the airy round of the Fichandler is a bit of a risk – a play about the complicated relationships between fathers and sons requires a closer access than that large theater can provide, and sometimes I longed for the smaller confines of Theater J’s usual home. But it’s thrilling to see a company I’ve long admired in the gorgeous space by the waterfront, and it expands the audience capacity to see two Washington powerhouses – Edward Gero and Rick Foucheux – command the stage regardless of its size.

“Acquire a teacher, chose a friend.” This is the advice David Malter (Edward Gero) gives his son Reuven (Derek Kahn Thompson) as essential to start becoming a man. He’s just met his unlikely friend Danny (Joshua Morgan), after a baseball game that turned into a battle between Hasidic Jews and those Jews they consider “apikorsim” – heretics. Unbeknownst to Reuven, Danny has just met his unlikely teacher, Malter himself, whose reading suggestions include Freud and Darwin. Not exactly what his father Reb Saunders (Rick Foucheux) would want his son to be reading in preparation to become a “tzaddik” – the spiritual leader of his community.

The adaptation written and directed by Aaron Posner takes its time exploring the nuances between the four men, building to a shattering moment between a father and the son he raised in silence. Continue reading →

Entertainment, Music, We Love Music
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We Love Music: Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark @ 9:30 Club, 3/10/11

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all photos by Patrick Onofre

Last week, my buddy Mickey McCarter loaned us his New Wave expertise to interview Andy McCluskey. Seemed only natural to ask him to review OMD’s show for us too.

Some things are worth the wait.

Andy McCluskey of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) reminded attendees at the 9:30 Club on Thursday that he and the band had not toured the United States in 23 years. Their return did not disappoint. The classic line-up of McCluskey, Paul Humphreys, Malcolm Holmes, and Martin Cooper showed the generation of bands that came and went in the intervening time exactly what was so exciting about marrying synthesizers to a guitar and calling it New Wave to begin with. A wildly enthusiastic audience at the nearly sold out show embraced not only the OMD classics but also the five new songs introduced live from the new album, “History of Modern”.

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Entertainment, Interviews, Music, We Love Music
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Q&A with Andy Moor of The Ex


courtesy of PMA PR.

Andy Moor, guitarist in The Ex since 1990, lives in the Netherlands; his adopted home ever since he accepted the invitiation from The Ex to join their ever-changing ranks. I have been a fan of The Ex since high school, which means I have been a fan of theirs for (ahem) quite some time. The Ex are playing at the Black Cat tomorrow night and I thought it would be a fine opportunity to interview Andy about one of my favorite bands.

The first time I tried to call Andy, he was sleeping off jetlag having just returned from Addis Ababa. The second time I tried to reach him, he was out for a bike ride. The third time, he was on a boat ride with visiting family. I guess that’s what I get for expecting a so-called “anarchist” to stick to a schedule! Andy and I finally connected via Skype on the fourth try and we proceeded to have an epic conversation about some of Andy’s side projects, The Ex’s rich history of collaboration, the recent departure of G.W. Sok (the group’s lead singer for 30 years), the band’s excellent new album “Catch My Shoe”, and that pesky “anarcho-punk” label that follows The Ex everywhere, much to their chagrin.

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Adventures, Entertainment, Essential DC, Fun & Games, Life in the Capital, Special Events, The Daily Feed, The District
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WARL’s Pasta for Pets

Photo courtesy of
‘Cats Eating Pasta’
courtesy of ‘Lee Coursey’

Spaghetti Dinner? Yum! Bingo? Well, Bingo! Raising money for in need kittens and puppies? Snorgle-rific! Combining them all? Epic interspecies snorgling and noming, which is exactly what the Washington Animal Rescue League has planned for its annual Pasta for Pets event to be held Saturday, March 19 from 6:00 – 8:30pm at Eastern Market’s North Hall.

The night features delicious pasta from local restaurants, an assortment of homemade desserts and, most importantly, fundraising for WARL’s Project Rescue, which provides support for local families and individuals who are finding it difficult to provide for their pets in this challenging economic climate. Continue reading →

Entertainment, The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: At Home at the Zoo

James McMenamin as Jerry and Jeff Allin as Peter in the Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater production of At Home at the Zoo March 4 – April 24, 2011. Photo by Scott Suchman.

Forty-five years separate the two acts of At Home at the Zoo, though in terms of the play’s action it’s probably only an hour. The second act is The Zoo Story. Written in 1958, it’s the play that assured Edward Albee’s genius. The first act is Homelife, written in 2004 as an exploration of what happened earlier in the older play.

I wish he’d left it alone.

The chief joy of seeing At Home at the Zoo, presented at Arena Stage as part of the Edward Albee Festival, is that second act. Featuring a lightning rod performance by James McMenamin as the mysterious Jerry, it’s a speedy and dangerous duel between action and reaction as he plays off the controlled listening of Jeff Allin’s erudite Peter. The entire stage comes alive with this act, a true evocation of why Albee is still revered today as one of our greatest playwrights.

But you have to get through the first act. I recommend caffeine. If you can make it through without your eyelids drooping too much, your energy will be revived by the tension of a riveting second act. Don’t give up. It’s worth it. Continue reading →

Entertainment, Interviews, Music, We Love Music
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Q&A with Andy McCluskey of Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark

omd1
all photos courtesy of The Musebox.

When it turned out that I would be unavailable to conduct this interview myself, the first person who came to my mind as the perfect pinch hitter for the gig was Mickey McCarter. By day, Mickey is a professional journalist, covering homeland security and military affairs for Homeland Security Today and Fox News. On nights and weekends, he is one of DC’s foremost experts on the New Wave and synthpop genres.

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, founded by UK songwriters Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys, led a synthpop revolution from the ‘80s through today in the United Kingdom, consistently charting in the UK top 30 with each of their 11 studio albums, including their very latest History of Modern. McCluskey alone kept the band’s name alive throughout the ‘90s until he and Paul Humphreys reunited for a successful return-to-form last year.

Now the band returns to the United States for the first time in more than 20 years, playing the 9:30 Club on Thursday, March 10. We Love DC caught up with synthpop virtuoso McCluskey recently to talk about Pretty in Pink, the new generation of synthpop musicians, and the sound of the future.

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Entertainment, Fun & Games, Music, We Love Music
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The Winning Ticket: Loretta Lynn

As a way to say thanks to our loyal readers, We Love DC will be giving away a pair of tickets to a 9:30 Club concert to one lucky reader each week. Check back here every Wednesday morning at 9am to find out what tickets we’re giving away and leave a comment for your chance to be the lucky winner!

“She was born a coal miner’s daughter, but she has become a Country Music legend, Ms. Loretta Lynn!” That introduction I borrowed from Johnny Cash just about says it all doesn’t it? Win these tickets and join Loretta Lynn as she celebrates her 50th year as an entertainer with a special show at 9:30 Club on Thursday, March 17th.

For your chance to win these tickets simply leave a comment on this post using a valid email address between 9am and 4pm today. One entry per email address, please. If today doesn’t turn out to be your lucky day, check back here each Wednesday for a chance to win tickets to other great concerts. Tickets for this concert are available on Ticketfly.

For the rules of this giveaway…
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Entertainment, The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

(left to right) Ensemble members Tracy Letts and Amy Morton in Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s production of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Directed by Pam MacKinnon. Photo by Michael Brosilow.

We’ve all had those nights we don’t want to end, when the party moves down the street into the afterhours, only to sputter out around dawn when guests blearily enter back into reality. Sometimes those parties are wildly beautiful, other times they are the stuff of nightmares. Friendships implode, relationships fracture – the whole evening becomes a nuclear bomb which leaves you shaking at the end, repeating to the empty space, “What the hell just happened?”

You could say I’m familiar with those kinds of nights. Which is why I spent most of the three hours at George and Martha’s afterhours alternately laughing and crying in recognition of the ultimate power struggle party. Since its Broadway premiere in 1962, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf has continued to shatter audiences with the ugly truth – we’re all capable of total war in relationships. Some of us may even relish it.

Presented by Chicago’s brilliant Steppenwolf Theatre Company as part of Arena Stage’s Edward Albee Festival, this production is simply not to be missed. There’s a complete dedication to the realism of Albee’s script that makes everything passionately alive, from Todd Rosenthal’s tired living room set, crowded with books and booze, to the acting master class delivered by Tracy Letts and Amy Morton. That dedication sucks the audience in and makes us all culpable. You’ll feel dirty afterwards, like a host surveying the piles of empty bottles and broken glass.

Don’t let that stop you from joining this party. From “Hump the Hostess” to “Get the Guests,” it may be a night in a Machiavellian mine field, but it’s also hilarious.  Continue reading →

Entertainment, Music, We Love Music
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We Love Music: Smith Westerns @ Rock & Roll Hotel, 3/4/11


courtesy of Smith Westerns.

It was another sold out show at Rock & Roll Hotel on Friday night as the club continued its recent run of strong indie buzz-band bookings with Chicago’s Smith Westerns. Between the sold-out show downstairs and the mega-popular DJ night upstairs, there was actually quite a long line to gain entry to the club. As I stood in the pleasant evening air, waiting to get inside, I could not help but overhear the chorus of whining from the privileged and entitled who felt put-out by having to wait in a line for 10-15 minutes. I didn’t hear a single person talking about the band most of us were there to see.* This was a bad sign that foretold of an audience more interested in talking rather than in actually listening to the music we had paid to see.

Once inside, the audience did indeed talk through most of the opening set by O.M.U., which is a shame because they are a fun band with some pretty great guitar playing. Duing Smith Westerns’ set, the drunken crowd switched from talking to sloppily singing along. This was a welcome change in audience behavior and indicated Smith Westerns’ surprising mainstream appeal. Their set was a mix of inventive indie-rock and platitude-filled, teen romance anthems. While I enjoyed the majority of their set, I was left with the distinct impression that Smith Westerns are a band at a crossroads.

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Entertainment, Music, We Love Music
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We Love Music: TR3 @ State Theater, 3/3/11

Reynolds brandishing his double neck guitar
all photos by Andrew Markowitz.

I first heard Tim Reynolds on the double CD “Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds Live at Luther College” back in 1999. Being a big Dave Matthews fan at the time, I was constantly on the lookout for anything and everything related to DMB, so I’ll never forget the day of my senior year in high school when I saw that bright blue CD cover staring at me from the rack at Best Buy.

I haven’t listened to that album in years, but the one track that always immediately comes to mind is “Stream”, a 5 minute acoustic guitar performance that blew my mind. Who was Tim Reynolds? How the hell did he play this? It was one of those moments that many music fans know, when you hear something that’s so unbelievable you play it again and again and again…and even rewind it to hear your favorite 10-15 second snippet again and again and again…and that’s the only track I really care about on that album. I’m not as much of a Dave Matthews fan as I used to be and I don’t know where that double disc album is but I still pull up that performance from time to time just to marvel at the skill Reynolds displays in that song.

I’ve been able to photograph Reynolds three times in the last year, twice in acoustic performances with Dave Matthews and once with the full Dave Matthews Band. The first performance I saw with Reynolds and Matthews last year was at Constitution Hall and it was nothing short of incredible, one of my favorite shows of 2010. So when the opportunity arose to photograph the Tim Reynolds 3 (TR3) at State Theatre in Falls Church I jumped all over it.

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Entertainment, Fun & Games, Music, We Love Music
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The Winning Ticket: Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark

As a way to say thanks to our loyal readers, We Love DC will be giving away a pair of tickets to a 9:30 Club concert to one lucky reader each week. Check back here every Wednesday morning at 9am to find out what tickets we’re giving away and leave a comment for your chance to be the lucky winner!

The reunited, reinvigorated, UK New Wave sensation Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark are performing in the United States for the first time since 1988! Tune in to We Love DC next week for our great interview with OMD’s founder Andy McCluskey. In the meantime, we have a pair of tickets to their show at 9:30 Club, on Thursday 3/10, up for grabs!

For your chance to win these tickets simply leave a comment on this post using a valid email address between 9am and 4pm today. One entry per email address, please. If today doesn’t turn out to be your lucky day, check back here each Wednesday for a chance to win tickets to other great concerts. Tickets for this concert are available on Ticketfly.

For the rules of this giveaway…
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Entertainment, Music, The Features, We Love Music
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We Love Music: White Rabbits @ Rock & Roll Hotel, 2/27/11


courtesy of White Rabbits.

Sunday night might have belonged to the Oscars but those that stopped by Rock & Roll Hotel weren’t paying attention. White Rabbits were in town to end a week-long mini-tour of the northeast and showcased their dual (sometimes triple) percussion attack. The band is currently recording a new album and used the show to preview some of that material. It was a gutsy move (they could have easily lost their audience during those moments) but it paid off as the new songs sounded good and the band rewarded the audience’s patience with a strong finale to the whole affair.

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Entertainment, The Daily Feed, We Love Arts
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2011 Helen Hayes Awards Nominees Announced

The gathering at the Helen Hayes gallery at the National Theatre looked like any other networking event. Wine and appetizers were served as people made introductions and small talk. However a pianist playing soft music and a lit podium revealed that this wasn’t an ordinary reception.

It was the nominations announcement for the 27th Annual Helen Hayes Awards, DC’s premiere theatre awards honoring the past year in local professional theatre.

Helen Hayes was a DC-born actress who became known as the, “First Lady of the American Theatre”. Her legacy includes being one of 12 people who has won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony. Besides having the awards named after her there is also a theatre on Broadway that also shares her name.

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Entertainment, Life in the Capital, The Daily Feed, The District
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An Evening with Fred Armisen @ The Black Cat

The show was sold out.  A packed mainstage concert room  full of hipsters, preppies, middle age couples and the like mixed it up, awaiting Fred Armisen of SNL and more recently, Portlandia, fame to take the stage. Taking place at the Black Cat, and heavily promoted by Brightest Young Things, the show was simply described as “An Evening With Fred Armisen,” and the event details were simply two YouTube clips of Armisen’s sketch work.

Given the billing and the performer, the audience was primed for a comedic show that would likely (and I say likely, because given the vagueness of the event’s details, we were all unsure of the performance’s format) include stand up comedy, skits, impersonations and, with Armisen’s background, some form of comedic musical accompaniment.

Unfortunately, when Armisen took the stage, the vast majority — if not the entirety — of his show was uninspired, lacked creativity and did not live up to his billing.   Continue reading →