Category Archives: Entertainment

Entertainment, Music, We Love Music
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We Love Music: The Sword @ 9:30 Club 12/6/10

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I invited Martin Silbiger, the resident heavy metal expert over at Pinna Storm, to cover this show with me. The words are his, the photos are mine. Enjoy!

As a metal connoisseur, I’m always looking out for the perfect show to recommend to my open-minded, indie-rockin’, metal-curious friends. These recommendations can be dangerous, though. A band could be too cheesy, too evil, too grim and frostbitten, too noisy, or too serious. Metal singers make things even tougher; growly vocals are an instant turn-off for most people.

So, when I heard The Sword were coming to the 9:30 Club, I knew this would be the perfect opportunity to enlist new members for our metal army. The Sword play “retro metal” which would fit well on the radio alongside Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. The vocals are clean; the songs are rooted in sci-fi. But most importantly, this band knows how to write a killer riff that any music-lover can appreciate. Monday night’s show was a constant barrage of excellent guitar licks, played flawlessly and cranked up loud.

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

(l to r) Scot McKenzie as Mickey, Matt Dewberry as Sweets, Dylan Myers as Skinny, and Danny Gavigan (back) as Potts in Mojo at The Studio 2ndStage. Photo credit: Scott Suchman.

Frenetically fueled by pill-popped speed, The Studio 2ndStage’s production of British playwright Jez Butterworth’s Mojo hits the right tempo for a journey to rock-n-rolla gangland. These petty mobsters are simmering with ineptitude and obscenity while wielding cutlass and cake. In a 1950’s Britain fast overrun by squealing girls obsessed with rockstars, they are grasping at a chance to make it big. Unfortunately for them, it’s just not going to work out.

Butterworth’s play won the 1995 Olivier Award, and the frantic rhythm of the language is the real star here. Director Christopher Gallu has his ensemble cast embracing that jittery, junkie cadence with total commitment. While the accents may not always be spot on, the underlying backbone of the language is a joy – interjections and overlapping dialogue combined with playful postering that can turn to danger on a dime.

It feels like the love child of Guy Ritchie and David Mamet.

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Entertainment, Fun & Games, Music, We Love Music
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The Winning Ticket: George Clinton & Parliament/Funkadelic

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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 raffling off a pair of tickets to see George Clinton & Parliament/Funkadelic invade the 9:30 Club on Saturday, December 11th. George and his band of renegades live to get funky; they have been cranking out their intergalactic P-funk for 4 decades! Their concerts are epic marathon jam sessions that simply must be seen to fully comprehend. Experiencing at least one performance by these ambassadors of funk should be on every music fan’s bucket list. All you P-Funk virgins out there – here’s your chance to find out what Parliament/Funkadelic is all about! To the funk veterans who may be reading this – you already know, so win those tickets!

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 also available through Ticketfly.

For the rules of this giveaway…
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Downtown, Entertainment, Special Events, The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: The Nutcracker

Students of The Washington School of Ballet in Septime Webre's The Nutcracker. Photo by Stephen Baranovics (2009).

I’ve always thought of The Nutcracker as the gateway drug for ballet. It hooks you when you’re young, all candy confection and delicacy, with just enough undercurrent of budding sensuality and danger to appeal. Once smitten by the Sugar Plum Fairy and her tasty treats, it’s only a matter of time before The Red Shoes are dancing you unwillingly to the train tracks, or the Black Swan is bewitching you to your doom.

Okay, that’s a bit much! But I was reared on the filmed version of Baryshnikov’s magical American Ballet Theatre production, before I knew the sad backstory of Gelsey Kirkland, before my beloved ballet teacher damned my dreams of being a baby ballerina with the exasperated sigh, “She simply has no turnout.” I can still hum Tchaikovsky’s score almost in entirety. So yes, even a lovely children’s dream ballet like The Nutcracker can bring me to tears.

Septime Webre’s version for the Washington Ballet and its school, playing at the Warner Theater now through December 26, is a local holiday tradition that I experienced for the first time this year. The audience was a mix of nostalgic adults like me, and children brought to experience that heady gateway drug. The visual aspect of the production is perfect – the traditional story of Clara and her Nutcracker Prince, their battle against the wicked Rat King and their trip to the fairy kingdom, lovingly portrayed against the backdrop of Victorian Washington with relatively uncomplicated choreography well executed by a multigenerational cast of talented dancers. It’s a great introduction to the joys of ballet.

Except for one flaw. A flaw that breaks my heart, for what is says about the future of live performance and an art form that struggles to survive in economic distress.

Taped music. Continue reading →

Entertainment, Music, We Love Music
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We Love Music: Peter Hook presents “Unknown Pleasures” @ 9:30 Club 12/1/10

Last Wednesday Peter Hook and his nearly anonymous but capable backing band performed a complete set of Joy Division songs (including the full album “Unknown Pleasures”) at the 9:30 Club. This was one of the more unusual concerts of 2010; the music performed is over 30 years old and its original singer Ian Curtis has been dead nearly as long. Peter Hook was a co-founder and the bass player of Joy Division; so he has as much right to perform these songs as the other surviving members do; which they have been doing to a lesser extent in encores with their band Bad Lieutenant. But Hook was proposing an entire set performing basically as Joy Division. Who exactly would be singing these songs? And how the heck would they come close to matching Ian Curtis’ singular voice? Leading up to it, the whole prospect of this Peter Hook show felt audacious and just plain weird.

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Entertainment, Music, The Features, We Love Music
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We Love Music: The TFDI Tour featuring Tony Lucca, Jay Nash, and Matt Duke


Photo by Rachel Levitin

Wednesday night’s performance by Tony Lucca, Jay Nash, and Matt Duke on the Virginia stop of their TFDI Tour at Jammin’ Java was an example of the theory that less is more. The stage was set with three microphones, three guitars, and three of the most talented one-man bands I’ve ever seen live.

When combined, the TFDI (aka “Totally F*ckin’ Doin’ It) Team of Lucca, Nash, and Duke produce a sound comparable to Crosby, Stills, and Nash with a touch of The Band on guitar and some Motown soul in their vocals. The harmonies produced by both their instruments and their vocal chords were enough to pique any music theory majors’ interest and leave an Average Joe listener’s jaw dropped all at the same time.

And to think – this musical tour de force started out as a side project for a trio of guys looking for something creative to dabble with in their spare time.

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Adventures, Entertainment, Essential DC, Fun & Games, Life in the Capital, People, Special Events, The Features
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Holiday Decorations At The Four Seasons

Flights of Fancy, courtesy of kevin allen

If you’re looking to get into the holiday spirit and be inspired by gingerbread amazement, you’ll find no better place to go then the Four Seasons Hotel in Georgetown.

On display until December 12, the hotel’s lobby is festooned with 10 holiday-theme trees and vignettes, created by Washington’s best interior designers and children/teenagers living with cancer, that celebrate the fashions of the holiday season. There’s also an amazing gingerbread replica of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception that took Executive Pastry Chef, Charles Froke 70 hours to design, create and decorate.

According to Painting and decorating London, all of the display’s decorations have their own unique theme that has been executed to perfection. No expense has been spared for the ornaments, lights, tinsel, etc., and the result is a rich collection that explores out-of-the-box ideas for decorating and celebrating the holiday season. May I suggest that when you head over, you grab a holiday drink (alcoholic or non) at the hotel’s bar to take with you as you enjoy these holiday delights. Continue reading →

Entertainment, Fun & Games, Music
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The Winning Ticket: The Walkmen

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 The Walkmen perform at the 9:30 Club on Friday, December 3rd. These St. Albans Prep alums are always a hot ticket when they return to DC and their show this week is no different. This show is SOLD OUT, my friends. Let the comments chaos begin!

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.

For the rules of this giveaway…
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Adventures, Entertainment, Essential DC, Fun & Games, Life in the Capital, Special Events, The District, The Features
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Gingertown 2010

courtesy of Timothy So

Last night, I had the extreme pleasure of participating in Gingertown, one of DC’s best kept holiday events. Begun in 2006, Gingertown is the brainchild of locally based David M. Schwarz Architects (DMSA) and brings together leading DC architects, designers, and architectural firms with other building enthusiasts (aka: the non-professionals) to create a town made of completely of gingerbread and candy goodness.

Gingertown is an entirely free event with DMSA and other event sponsors providing all the building materials, food and beverages. Teams sign up beforehand and are assigned town plots with free reign to design and construct their portion of Gingertown during the 3 hour event.

Each year, a new master plan and theme is created; this year, builders tackled the North Pole, transforming the layout into a magical town of gingerbread, jelly beans, Twizzlers, Nerds, candy canes, buttercream frosting, etc. Like previous years, the 2010 town map included communal and civic-minded centers, green spaces, city hall, a concert hall, a library, a toy store and a strong pedestrian culture. Continue reading →

Entertainment, Music, We Love Music
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We Love Music: Kaskade @ Fur Nightclub 11/27/10


courtesy of MSO.

Guest reviewer Patrick Palafox attended the Kaskade show at Fur on Saturday. Here are some of his thoughts about it.*

I discovered why Kaskade calls himself that. His set was an endless shower of sound that poured with the strength of Niagara Falls. Before heading to the show, I did some intense research to find out which country each DJ on DJ Magazine’s Top 100 DJs of 2010 list is from. I found that only seven of the DJs are from the US. Kaskade, ranked number 35 out of 100 for the world, but is number one among DJs representing the home of the brave. At first I thought that this DJ list was about as useful as T-Rex arms, but then I discovered that this information is actually something you can use should you find yourself in a group conversation about DJs. You might hook up, because your knowledge is so vast. You’re welcome for that tip; now onto Kaskade’s set.

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Entertainment, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: Every Tongue Confess


Phylicia Rashad as Mother Sister and Jonathan Peck as Blacksmith. Photo by Joan Marcus.

It was like I was on a pilgrimage.

As I walked up the long, winding ramp that leads into the new Kogod Cradle at Arena Stage I couldn’t help but wonder if the journey to our seats was part of the overall experience of seeing a show there.

The 200 seat / 3,400 sq. ft. space was designed for “building the canon of American work and cultivating the next generation of writers.” The woven walls, oval shape, and intimate dimensions of the space make it worthy of being called a “cradle.” When you are inside it, you don’t feel like you are inside a stage but inside an egg or womb, watching a piece of art grow before your eyes.

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Entertainment, Music, We Love Music
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We Love Music: Richie Hawtin vs. Paul Oakenfold

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all photos by author, except where noted.

Earlier this week DC got a visit from two legendary electronica DJ/producers two nights in a row. On Monday night, perpetual innovator and second-wave Detroit techno demi-god Richie Hawtin set-up shop at U Street Music Hall. On Tuesday night, the world’s most well-known DJ and trance techno titan Paul Oakenfold took over the 9:30 Club. The two concerts delivered epic dance parties and for anyone with a day job sandwiched in-between they offered a sleep-deprived, bass-driven euphoria that was reminiscent of the raves of yore.

The two concerts were fantastic and delivered on everything that they promised; which proved to be two very different things. Oakenfold and Hawtin have each been a major force in the world of electronic music for the past twenty years. The two occupy opposite ends of a huge swath of the electronic dance music spectrum. Oakenfold’s trance is about as mainstream as it gets; he has a huge following around the world and he has produced some of the most recognizable dance tunes of film, television, and radio. Richie Hawtin is a king of the underground, his often challenging music is designed to intellectually engage the listener as much as it is to get their feet moving. Oakenfold’s style is more pop consumable, while Hawtin, although ragingly popular in his own circles, is more of an acquired taste. Their concerts this week were relentless dance parties but also offered a fascinating live example of two very different styles of dance music and its presentation.

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Entertainment, Special Events, The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: The Laramie Project Ten Years Later

Photo courtesy of
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courtesy of ‘rejohnson71’

This past weekend Tectonic Theater Project performed its play cycle on the murder of Matthew Shepard and its effect on the town of Laramie, Wyoming – The Laramie Project and The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later. I was only able to attend the latter on its final night, which deals with the murder’s aftermath through interviews with town residents. It was a moving evening of documentary theater. Though Tectonic does not as yet list future tour performances, the plays are widely produced and I’m sure you will have a chance to see them if you missed this round at Arena Stage.

If not, watch clips online. Maybe while you’re waiting at the airport this week, fire it up. Start a dialogue with the person next to you. Who knows what may happen? You may learn something about the human capacity to alleviate discomfort by forgetting or distorting the past – “the nature of rumor,” as it’s described by a folklorist interviewed in the course of the play.

Matthew Shepard was murdered in 1998. I remember it not only as a murder whose horror was shocking in itself, but as an incident that catapulted hate crime and homophobia to the national news. It’s hard for me to stomach that there are college students in Laramie now who have absolutely no idea it happened, but that’s the truth as documented by Tectonic’s actors as they interviewed on campus while creating The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later. Continue reading →

Entertainment, Fun & Games, Music
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The Winning Ticket: Peter Hook presents “Unknown Pleasures”

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’re giving away a pair of tickets to see Peter Hook and his band Light perform Joy Division’s ‘Unknown Pleasures’ in concert at 9:30 Club on Wednesday, December 1st. Hookie was a member of Joy Division, although not the most famous one, and a founding member of New Order. Quite the musical pedigree! His decision to perform ‘Unknown Pleasures’ is proving divsive among the Joy Division fan community. Does Hookie performing the album long after Ian Curtis’ suicide do his memory justice? Should this great music be forever banned from live performance because its original singer is dead? Will the performance even come close to matching the inflated, romanticized image of Joy Division that most of us are carrying around in our heads? There’s really only one way to find out for yourself…win these tickets!

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. Tickets for this show are also available through Ticketfly. 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.

For the rules of this giveaway…
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Entertainment, Penn Quarter, The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: The Master and Margarita

Paata Tsikurishvili, Irina Tsikurishvili, Sara Taurchini and Katherine Frattini in Synetic Theater's "The Master and Margarita." Photo credit: Graeme B. Shaw.

Synetic Theater is following up on their muscular rendition of King Arthur with something a bit more cerebral. Actually, a lot more cerebral, with not one but two men losing their heads onstage. Joking aside, it’s hard for me to know how to judge The Master and Margarita, playing through December 12 at the Lansburgh Theatre. As the company revisits its 2004 production of the Mikhail Bulgakov novel with a new adaptation by Roland Reed, all the usual elements we’ve come to expect and love from Synetic are in full force – extremely beautiful design, powerful physical visuals, and dramatic intensity. Putting these talents at the service of a densely intellectual story, mostly unfamiliar to American audiences, is the kind of risky undertaking I certainly admire. Yet somehow, I felt like I was watching a diamond – exquisite, but cold.

In his director’s notes, Paata Tsikurishvili says “we have chosen to embrace the absurdist elements of his story and highlight the Master’s (and Bulgakov’s) own artistic and religious struggle.” Esoteric struggles work in literary terms – but do they translate well to physical action and is the audience able to connect?

On the surface we have ninety minutes of stunning production visuals, especially the work of Anastasia Rurikov Simes, whose set and costumes are an eerie evocation of a surreal Soviet Union – like watching propaganda posters come to life through the prism of The Red Shoes. Continue reading →

Entertainment, Music, We Love Music
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We Love Music: Cannibal Corpse @ Rock & Roll Hotel 11/21/10

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all photos by author.

As soon as this show ended and my friend and I found each other amidst the human debris of the mosh pit, I asked him, “Why do we always under-estimate these metal shows? We always have a great time!” to which he replied, “Because we want to be intellectual metal snobs but deep down inside we just love fucking metal.”

Fair enough.

Cannibal Corpse are intensity personified. Cannibal Corpse are ridiculous, grotesque, and beyond offensive. Cannibal Corpse are a big, bloated, sack of swollen body parts; or rather they sing about such things on a regular basis. Cannibal Corpse are one of the longest running and most prolific Death Metal outfits in America. You could call them kings of their corner of the music underground; sporting titles well-fought with halberd and mace, guitar and kick-drum. Their subject matter is absurd and their music is brutal. For me their show on Sunday night at Rock & Roll Hotel started out as a lark; a trip down teen nostalgia lane. At its end I found myself drenched in sweat with a big bloody smile on my face as my innards slowly settled back into place after the aural pounding that Cannibal Corpse had delivered unto them.

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Entertainment, Music, The Features, We Love Music
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We Love Music: Trans-Siberian Orchestra – Winter Tour 2010


Photo by Rachel Levitin

The Washington Post once compared watching Trans-Siberian Orchestra to watching the spacecraft at the end of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” touchdown for 2.5 hours.

The Independent of London pointed out that TSO concerts unleash enough pyrotechnics to barbecue an entire school of blue whales.

The Chicago Tribune, then, gracefully reminded us that deep down inside the hard rocking, laser-light extravaganza of a show TSO performs during their annual Winter Tour is to celebrate the holiday season – and more specifically Christmas.

“Why a Christmas concert that revels in the excess of the ’90s and sports the hair of the ’80s while overdosing on the musical pretensions of the ’70s?,” the Tribune asked TSO creator and composer Paul O’Neill.

“Because the rest of the year, there’s blood in the streets,” O’Neill said, “and Christmas is the one time when you pick up a phone and call someone who hasn’t seen you in years and even if that person has caller ID, they will pick up.”

All Christmas sentiments aside, TSO is one of those bands that is good any time of year due to the fact that they are – in a word – awesome.

Why are they awesome? Three reasons: production quality, fan base, and musicianship. Continue reading →

Entertainment, Interviews, Music, We Love Music
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Q&A with Paul Oakenfold

Paul Oakenfold
photo courtesy of MSOPR.

Paul Oakenfold is arguably the biggest dance music DJ and producer in the world. The closest thing to a household name that the hardcore dance world is likely to ever produce, Oakenfold has been a major force in electronic dance music for twenty years. Rising from a basement bar in Covent Garden at the end of the 80’s with an arsenal of Acid House and cross-genre Ibiza DJ stylings he went on to conquer the London nightclub scene and then the world. They simply do not make DJs bigger than Paul Oakenfold.

Oakenfold is bringing his Facelift Tour to the 9:30 Club on Tuesday November 23. He took some time out of his busy schedule to talk with me about his career and the current landscape of dance music.

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Entertainment, Music, We Love Music
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We Love Music: Simian Mobile Disco @ U Street Music Hall 11/17/10

Simian Mobile Disco
Photo courtesy of Motormouthmedia.

I love U Street Music Hall.

and

I love Simian Mobile Disco.

The two combined for one of the most fun nights of electronic dance music that I have had in Washington DC since the heydey of 90’s techno at Trax or Capital Ballroom/Nation. It was so much fun, I can hardly believe that it took place in our city. No offense DC, but on the pure electronic party front you’ve been lacking for years.* Simian Mobile Disco’s ‘Delicatessen’ party at U Street Music Hall rivaled some of the best European dance parties and Sahara Tent raves I have experienced. I imagine that bringing real ‘experience’ dance parties like this one to DC is exactly why Jesse Tittsworth and Will Eastman built their electronic music mecca in the first place.

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Entertainment, Fun & Games, Music, We Love Music
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The Winning Ticket: Paul Oakenfold

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 Paul Oakenfold, arguably the most well-known DJ in the world, perform at the 9:30 Club on Tuesday, November 23rd. A major force on the electronic music scene for more than twenty-years, Oakenfold has introduced the world to new scenes and sounds in electronic music over and over again. Oakenfold says that the Facelift tour is all about representing the evolving nature of dance music and to make his point he is bringing along two hot electronic acts as openers, Chuckie and the Nervo Twins, and a sick audio/video set-up that should give Deadmau5 a run for his money.

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. Tickets for this show are also available through Ticketfly 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.

For the rules of this giveaway…
Continue reading →