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I don’t know if you’ve noticed but Sweden has been producing a ton of great new bands lately. So many, in fact, that I’m inclined to agree with Chris Richards of the Washington Post when he recently declared Sweden as the epicenter of emergent pop music for the new century. Lucky for DC music fans then that our city seems to be one of the friendliest frontiers for Swedish music in the United States. DC is virtually guaranteed a tour date from most of the Swedish invasion acts because we always give them a very warm reception. One of the finest examples of the new wave of Swedish pop is Little Dragon, who played a phenomenal set to a sold out Black Cat on Saturday night.
Category Archives: Entertainment
The Winning Ticket: Lissie
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!
This week we are giving away a pair of tickets to see Lissie perform at the 9:30 Club on Sunday, January 30th. This on-the-rise folk pop phenom was picked as Paste Magazine’s #1 best new solo artist of 2010. The sample of music on her Myspace page reveals a rather iconic new voice with bullet proof song-writing that lends every tune hit single potential. I have a feeling this will be one of those concerts that really sneaks up and surprises you.
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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By Jenn Larsen
We Love Arts: The Arabian Nights
Maureen Sebastian and David DeSantos in the Arena Stage production of The Arabian Nights. Photo by Stan Barouh.
There are two types of perfume. One kind hits with a ravishing force. You recognize the top notes instantly, as they drag you down an olfactory lane whether you want to or not. The other kind is subtly layered, ingratiating itself into your memory with a more delicate air. I expected Mary Zimmerman’s adaptation of The Arabian Nights to be a powerful whiff of rose attar or sandalwood, instead, it’s more elusive, like night jasmine on the breeze.
Meandering metaphor? Well, yes, and that seems to be the play’s point. After almost three hours of stories intertwined with stories, you might feel like you are on the hunt for that beautiful scent. This isn’t a play intending to make a political statement about our continuing entanglement with the Middle East, or even a social statement about women’s rights. I may have wished for those things, and felt sorely disappointed when I didn’t get them, but perhaps that desire for “relevance” was misguided. I didn’t fully appreciate the production’s intention until a few days after seeing it, when an image of rolling bodies in white like ghostly sheaves of paper in the wind re-entered my mind.
The best way to approach The Arabian Nights, performed in the round at the Fichandler in Arena Stage’s Mead Center for American Theater, is to just drop any expectations and let the perfume take you where it will. It’s a drifting play, born of improvisation, about the healing power of myth as a mad king is shown the slow road to salvation.
But it’s not all perfumed nights and sensuality. There’s some castration. Oh, and a lot of farting. Continue reading
By We Love Music: Tokyo Police Club @ 9:30 1/19/11
all photos by author.
I had heard of Tokyo Police Club before and knowing that they were popular on the indie scene I thought I’d take the opportunity to check them out at the 9:30 Club last week. I knew this was a hot ticket; it sold out rather quickly and there were people in front of the club looking for extras, so I anticipated seeing a good show.
By Brittany
We Love Music: The Dismemberment Plan @ Black Cat, 1/21/11
photo courtesy of Drew McDermott via Flickr
If you interviewed for a job at the Twitter corporate headquarters some time in 2008, you were likely asked to name your “theme song” – the song that should play in the background as you walked on screen or into a room. The question was not just one of taste or tip-of-the-tongue recall, though it was those, but they also wanted to know how you wanted to project yourself and make people feel when you arrived. I had been in San Francisco for two weeks when I was asked the question a few beers in at a drafty Western Addition bar.
About ten seconds of consideration and I responded. “Dismemberment Plan. Face of the Earth.”
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By Erin McCann
Dismemberment Plan: a weekend in tweets
When Dismemberment Plan’s “Emergency & I” was first released in 1999, “tweet” was the sound a bird made. This weekend, as they played three reunion shows in our city’s finest venues (check back at 3 for Brittany’s review!), it became an often hilarious and sometimes poignant way for some fans to experience the event. Many of you might complain that in the age of smartphones, we’ve forgotten how to kick back and just enjoy the music. But as someone who spent Friday and Saturday night’s shows following along from home, and Sunday night’s show sending photos out to friends who couldn’t make it, I’d argue that there’s some communal value in the concert tweet. There’s room for poignancy, humor and nostalgia in those 140 characters, all of which were on display by some of DC’s tweeters this weekend. Below the jump, a collection of our favorites.
By We Love Music: Kylesa @ Black Cat Backstage, 1/20/11
Obviously, last week in DC’s music scene was all about Dismemberment Plan. Except for on Thursday night when a hundred or so dedicated metal fans packed the backstage at Black Cat, oblivious to any legendary reunions, for one of metal’s best new bands. Kylesa brought a set full of huge metal anthems that would’ve been large enough to entertain a festival-sized crowd.
Kylesa are one of the bands at the forefront of a new style of “sludge metal” that’s emerging from the South. Sludge metal takes elements from doom metal that were once too grim and frostbitten for the average listener, and adds the styling of psychedelic rock to create something more fun and exciting. You get dark, brooding riffs cranked up loud combined with bright melodies and screaming lyrics instead of demonic growls. Also, everything is played faster – fast enough that only the truly talented can crank out the riffs with such speed. Bands like Baroness, Black Tusk, and Mastodon have been doing this for awhile, but Kylesa has perfected the craft over their ten-year career.
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We Love Music: The Magician @ U Street Music Hall, 1/19/11
courtesy of The Magician.
On Wednesday night Belgian DJ, Stephen Fasano a/k/a The Magician made a southern swing on his “Magical Winter Tour in America” to spin at U Street Music Hall. What could have been a sleepy, mid-week party on a freezing cold night was instead the hottest place in town as body temperatures warmed the packed dance-floor and Fasano’s DJ sorcery gave the audience a preview of the aural tricks he has in store for the world now that he has gone solo.
Leading up to this show, Stephen Fasano was being billed as “(formerly of Aeroplane)”; I suppose in an attempt to draw in fans of Fasano’s former project. Fasano left the group and his DJ partner of seven years late last year to pursue his solo work. While Aeroplane continues under the command of his former partner, Vito DeLuca, I felt that billing Fasano in this way was also sort of hand-cuffing him to his former group. Perhaps to distance himself from Aeroplane after his departure, Fasano has crafted a musical persona for himself called The Magician. It is an identity born out of the Belgian’s rich sense of humor; complete with a costume, a gimmick, and custom dance mixes that proved to be truly magical. I think everyone in attendance at Wednesday night’s set at U-Hall would agree that Fasano can drop the “(formerly of Aeroplane)” from his marketing scheme. The Magician is a new, unique presence on the international DJ scene that will soon be a big draw in his own right.
By Comedy in DC: Wayne Manigo
Two huge speakers were blasting at me and Wayne Manigo as we chatted at the bar in Ras Restaurant on Tuesday evening while the snow started sticking to the streets. It was Wayne Man’s Comedy open mic night at the restaurant and it did not seem like anyone was going to make it. This DC comic was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York and has been a Washingtonian for nine years. He was your every day working man until he was laid off one day, which was not funny, but the job loss helped him to discover comedy. At the time he was plotting his next move he said to himself, “This is the perfect opportunity to see if I can be funny.” Wayne worked with a friend that was already doing stand up to write some jokes and performed for the first time at the Palace of Wonders, Red Palace now, on H Street. He said to me that after his performance people said, “Hey, you don’t suck.” He has been stepping into the spotlight for two years strong since he found his ability to make people’s abdominal muscles contract. Continue reading
The Winning Ticket: Dr. Dog
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!
This week we are giving away two pairs of tickets which means we will be picking two winners! Philadelphia psych-rockers Dr. Dog are setting up for a two night residency at 9:30 Club on Friday, January 28th and Saturday, January 29th. We are giving away one pair of tickets for each night.
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…
Continue reading
By Jenn Larsen
We Love Arts: Return to Haifa
Raida Adon and Rozina Kambos in The Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv's "Return to Haifa" at Theater J. Photo credit: Stan Barouh.
Two women are arguing about their son. One gave birth to him, the other raised him. The adoptive mother makes a cutting comment about the son being more likely to listen to her than his birth mother. Many in the audience laugh. It’s a grim laugh, low and knowing.
A women next to me says out loud in frustration and disbelief, “Why is that funny?”
It was a strange preview night at Theater J, watching the production of Return to Haifa performed by the Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv in Hebrew and Arabic. Uncomfortable for some, painful for others, odd for me in my role as critic – as the talkback session afterwards becomes a bit of theater unto itself, worth investigating just as much as reviewing the play. I didn’t know what to make of the whole thing when I left. I still don’t.
Two mothers. One Jewish, one Muslim. One Israeli, one Palestinian. And their son, all of the above, or none of any of it. Questions arose at the talkback with Anton Goodman, Jewish Agency Shaliach, and Ari Roth, artistic director of Theater J, that still whirl in my head: Is it a play appropriating a beloved piece of Palestinian literature, as one member of the talkback accused? Is it a play attempting to own a dual narrative, to both celebrate and mourn at the same time, as Goodman believed? A play that makes soldiers unable to be strong for their country, as a mother in the audience feared?
What I can tell you about Return to Haifa… is that you will leave with many questions. Continue reading
The Magician Shares His Secrets
courtesy of Stephen Fasano.
Last year, Stephen Fasano shocked the world of electronic music with the announcement that he was leaving his Belgian DJ duo Aeroplane to start a solo project. This was particularly surprising because Aeroplane had just completed a successful U.S. tour in support of their latest album “We Can’t Fly”. One of the stops on Aeroplane’s 2010 tour was to serve as the opening night performance at DC’s new underground dance mecca, U Street Music Hall. Now ten months after U Street Music Hall opened and six months after leaving Aeroplane, Stephen Fasano is returning to the club to introduce his solo music persona, The Magician! Stephen took some time to answer some of my questions about his career, his decision to leave Aeroplane, and his taste in music.
By Patrick Pho
2010 WATCH Award Nominations Announced
Here’s an awards story that isn’t about mean ol’ Ricky Gervais.
While people were busy wondering if The Social Network will win the Oscars, people gathered at the The Birchmere in Alexandria last night to hear the nominations for this year’s WATCH Awards. For over 11 years the Washington Area Theatre Community Honors has recognized the best in local community theatre. We here at We Love DC typically cover the professional shows within the Helen Hayes realm but as I said earlier this fall, you can find quality entertainment from many different venues here in the DC area and the WATCH Awards highlight some of the best productions and local theatre companies out there- some of which I suspect you may not know about.
We Love Music: Das Racist @ Rock and Roll Hotel, 1/14/11
Photo courtesy of Das Racist
Das Racist went viral last year with their track “Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell“. It would be easy to write them off as a novelty act, but anyone who dug a little deeper would find a rap group spitting intelligent, unique, stream-of-consciousness verses that demand your full attention. Last year, they put out two mixtapes for free online, completely bypassing any sort of physical distribution. They’ve garnered praise from critics at Pitchfork and NYTimes. So, do they give away their music for free, just to promote their live show? I had this in mind when I went to Rock and Roll Hotel last Friday to check out their sold-out show. Unfortunately, their show didn’t impress me as much as their mixtapes have.
By Alexia
We Love Music: The Ghost Of A Sabertooth Tiger @ Iota Club & Cafe 1/11/11
All photos by Santiago Gamboa.
Guest reviewer Alexia Kauffman attended the show at Iota on Tuesday. Here are some of her thoughts about it.*
The blustery wind and threatening snow didn’t discourage the crowd from assembling at Arlington’s Iota Club & Cafe on Tuesday night for the unusual pairing of NYC’s The Ghost Of A Saber Tooth Tiger and solo experimental vocalist Julianna Barwick. The GOASTT is Sean Lennon’s latest musical project, a collaboration with his model girlfriend Charlotte Kemp Muhl. They are on their first US tour in support of their debut album, “Acoustic Sessions”. Fresh from appearing on the Jimmy Fallon show in New York last week, the GOASTT seemed at home on Iota’s small, Christmas-light-adorned stage.
We Love Music: Jucifer @ Black Cat 1/11/11
Something happened at Black Cat on Tuesday night that I was completely unprepared for.
I thought I was set. I took one look at Jucifer and their wall of speakers, and I knew it was my kind of music. I’ve seen drone-metal bands like Sunn O))) before. I listened to Jucifer’s latest album and knew I’d enjoy that sort of American black metal in person. I brought my nice earplugs, designed for drummers who play for hours straight. But, my God, I was not expecting to have such an amazing metal night.
This band Jucifer already intimidated me with their wall of white speakers. Even their first note was super-loud, enough to make me desperately shove in my earplugs and cease any coherent conversation with my friends who had invited me. Once their set began, I was completely enthralled with the noise they created.
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By Rebecca
Matchbox Rockville
If you enjoy the dining experience at Matchbox’s Capitol Hill and Chinatown locales, then the newly opened Rockville location will be to your liking as well. Situated a 5 minute walk from the Twinbrook Metro Station on the Red Line, along Rockville Pike, this latest addition to the Matchbox franchise is vast.
Despite a seating capacity of about 300 seats inside and an additional 130 outside, the restaurant stays close to its architectural roots with open fire pits on the patios, straw textured walls, brushed metal, brick facades and wooden beams from two old barn doors. Matchbox also features two hand-built pizza ovens from master artisan, Pat Manly, that greet diners at the reception area and two full bars with counter tops carved from an old tree to previously stood on the property. The layout, design components and varied lighting provide both group/family friendly settings and intimate spots for couples. Continue reading
By Jenn Larsen
We Love Arts: Marcus; Or the Secret of Sweet
(l to r) Lance Coadie Williams, J. Mal McCree, and Nickolas Vaughan in "Marcus; or the Secret of Sweet" at The Studio Theatre. Directed by Timothy Douglas. Photo: Scott Suchman.
Rain patters down plastic sheeting, as a man all in ghostly white speaks to a sleeping boy. He needs a message delivered to the living, on the eve of a dangerous storm that will change them all.
It’s this eerie image that begins the final play in Tarrell Alvin McCraney’s Brother/Sister Plays, described by him as “inspired by Yoruba life and traditions, steeped in Southern rhythms and cadences, and seamed shut with the fire of urban music and dance.” If you’ve seen the other two in the cycle – The Brothers Size (2008) and In the Red and Brown Water (2010), you’ll probably know who the man in white is and what he needs. I hadn’t seen either, but that didn’t impact my enjoyment of Marcus; Or the Secret of Sweet.
Playing now through February 13 at the Studio Theatre, the play is set in fictional San Pere, Louisiana on the eve of Hurricane Katrina, and though the storm is never mentioned by name its presence saturates everything. Teenager Marcus Eshu (a vibrant J. Mal McCree) is trying hard to discover the meaning of his dream’s message and untangle his own sexuality without alienating his best friends. Above all – stay out of danger, avoid his mother’s wrath and become a man in the process.
He’ll have to work fast, as that rain approaches. Continue reading
We Love Music: Anamanaguchi @ Black Cat 1/9/11
Late on a Sunday night, there’s a stark contrast between the cold, deserted DC streets and the cave of 8-bit fantasy I’ve emerged from. Anamanaguchi assaulted the packed Backstage at the Black Cat with strobe lights, pixellated animation, and their unique brand of electronic power-pop.
The last time I caught Anamanaguchi (for the 8-bit Alliance Tour last summer), the room wasn’t even at half capacity. However, the band has clearly gotten some buzz lately from their work on the soundtrack for Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game. I found the Backstage nearly full when I arrived, which is a rarity for any Sunday night. The young, slightly geeky crowd was ready to rock out to video-game-inspired bleeps and bloops.
The Winning Ticket: The B-52’s
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!
Up for grabs this week – a pair of tickets to see The B-52’s turn the 9:30 Club into the Love Shack on Wednesday, January 19th. Let’s face it, if their up-beat mutant-pop doesn’t at least cause you to crack a smile or tap a toe then you either take yourself way to seriously, you’re lacking a soul, or possibly both! Win tickets to see one of the all-time greatest, good-time bands and dance this mess around!
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…
Continue reading