By Patrick Pho
‘Red Neon, Blue Night’
courtesy of ‘M.V. Jantzen’
According to the Going Out Gurus, there will be no Free Night of Theatre for the Washington, DC area. This year the city was dropped from 2010 slate of cities that will give away free tickets to local productions. According to program organizers, there will be no free tickets in the DC area due to, “limited staffing.” The Free Night website does have Annapolis and Baltimore listed in this year’s free performance offerings.
By Brittany
Photo Courtesy of Re/Route Productions
Re/Route Productions specializes in bringing performers from around the world to perform in Washington, DC. Tomorrow, they are presenting Brazil’s DJ Tudo at LIV Nightclub. Plus, dear readers, We Love DC has two pairs of tickets to give away!
This is the first-ever tour of North America for DJ Tudo (real name: Alfredo Bello) and his stop in DC is one of only three cities he will be visiting. That said, he is hardly an underground artist on his home continent – his performance in New York is at Lincoln Center, after all, and his recent record, Nos quintais do Mundo (“In the Backyards of the World”), features collaborations with well-known artists like Mad Professor – so this is a opportunity to catch him on the ascent to international superstar dj status.
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By Ben H. Rome
Dear Lemon Lima; photo courtesy filmmakers and National Geographic Museum
The National Geographic Society kicks off its All Roads Film Festival on Tuesday, Sept 28, launching a jam-packed fall programming schedule. The six-day event will screen nearly 30 films, an outdoor photography exhibit, a Basement Bhangra Dance Party, and a panel of indigenous filmmakers discussing their art and careers.
All Roads Film Festival Director Francene Blythe is especially excited about this year’s theme, “Inspiring Stories Connecting Cultures.” “Whether the stories are comic or tragic, they will resonate with audiences because they involve characters and stories that are relatable and told with charm, wit and wisdom.” There promises to be something for everyone to enjoy. Continue reading
By Rebecca
‘an entity’
courtesy of ‘romana klee’
Andy Keller, known to many as the “Bag Monster” is bringing his 500 – 700 plastic bag suit and plastic bag display to DC today. If you caught Andy when he visited DC on September 6th, then you already know that Keller’s suit represents the amount of plastic bags the average American uses in a year and the rest of his display, 45,000 plastic bags, a single person’s lifetime consumption of bags. Keller’s goal is to educate communities about the harms of single-use bags, and while DC’s bag tax has helped diminish bag consumption, we’ve still got a ways to go.
If you spot the bag monster, send us a tweet @welovedc with his location.
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’s giveaway contest is so good, I’d enter it myself if they would let me! Today we are giving away a pair of tickets to see Brit-pop legends, James perform at 9:30 Club on Monday, September 27th.
Not only is it incredibly rare to catch James live stateside (even though DC is lucky enough to get them twice in two years) but their new album “The Morning After The Night Before” is also their best work in years. I have been listening to the new one non-stop since it dropped last week and I am stunned at how “peak of their powers” James sounds after all these years. Everyone knows James from their big early 90’s hit “Laid”, but I’m here to tell you that as great as that song is, James have produced a deep catalog of even more stunning music over the years. Tim Booth and the band are without a doubt some of the best live Brit-pop performers I’ve ever seen and this concert is one of my most anticipated of 2010.
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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By Rebecca
‘Roller Girls’
courtesy of ‘Edward Hoover’
On Saturday, October 2nd, the DC Rollergirls kick off their 2010 season with the Cherry Blossom Bombshells taking on the DC Demoncats at 4pm. For those of you who haven’t yet experienced some girl-on-girl rollerderby action, what the heck are you waiting for?!!
There’s campy player names (Miso Knotty, Ridin Dirty, Ovary Action, Marion Barracuda, etc.,) full-contact rules, high levels of athleticism, intense amounts of strategic action, the possibility of being tackled by a rollergirl if you stand near the sidelines and, the kicker, no beer lines (FYI: it’s cash only). Oh, the matches are kid friendly as well, so bring the little tikes with you!
courtesy of No Age.
While most of DC’s indie-music listeners were reliving past glories watching Superchunk over at 9:30 Club on Friday night, a decent-sized and enthusiastic crowd were dancing the night away to the two of indie-rock’s new breed: junk-techno technicians Holy Fuck and noise-pop purveyors No Age. This show was one of the more interesting stylistic pairings in recent memory with both bands offering radically different sounds while occupying the same altitude of on-the-rise status.
Both Holy Fuck and No Age are touring in support of their third albums, which technically makes them both indie upper class-men, but their noise aesthetic and DIY approach to everything has possibly held them back from tapping the meteoric-rise success model that is being employed by their more pop-oriented peers. In other words, No Age and Holy Fuck are relying less on internet buzz and more on old fashioned word-of-mouth to garner a fan base. Something that No Age should be receiving in spades if they continue to perform at the level they did on Friday night.
By Patrick Pho
Jeff Talbott, MacKenzie Meehan, Kathleen McElfresh, Jennifer Mendenhall and Harry A. Winter in Circle Mirror Transformation at The Studio Theatre. (Photo: Carol Pratt)
Finding humor in the mundane lives of others has been one of the key reasons why shows like The Office and Community are hits. A show about the 9-5 of a workplace is something we can all relate to. Community created a small-town, village feel within the student body of a community college. Annie Baker’s Circle Mirror Transformation plays along similar lines except for one key difference: characters.
While Steve Carrell and Joel McHale play larger than life characters on their respective shows, the ensemble cast of Circle Mirror Transformation wouldn’t draw a glance if they were next to you on a Metro car or in line with you at Safeway.
By Rebecca
‘Georgetown v. Villanova basketball – 2’
courtesy of ‘Aaron Webb’
FoxNews has published a list of the Top 15 Most Dangerous College Mascots and the slobbering, cute furball pictured above (aka: Georgetown’s “Jack The Bulldog) has made the list. Fortunately, he’s in good company with fellow bulldog comrade, the University of Georgia’s smushball “Uga.” What actually qualifies Jack and Uga for the list is unknown as the news agency didn’t outline the criteria or list methodology.
Personally, I can think of a lot of other “mascots” that are more dangerous than the animals on this list; they generally tend to involve college students dressed up as mascots. Human decision making, especially college student decision making, is a hell of a thing.
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’s prize is two tickets to catch legendary, political singer/songwriter Billy Bragg in concert at 9:30 Club on Sunday September 19th.
Billy Bragg needs little introduction. His 30-year career writing and performing punk-tinged alt-rock and folk music full of conscience-challenging political observations and honest love songs has made him a legend in the UK and an underground hero in the United States. Known in the UK for his far-left political leanings and never one to censor himself when discussing his take on the current state of world politics, Bragg’s shows in the nation’s capital have a reputation for stirring the audience’s political passions as much as they entertain.
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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‘Opera Hits a Home Run’
courtesy of ‘Kevin H.’
Opera — it’s not just for the Kennedy Center.
This Sunday, the Washington Nationals have teamed up with the Washington National Opera to host the third-annual Target Free Opera in the Outfield live from Nationals Park with a simulcast of Verdi’s dramatic opera “A Masked Ball (Un Ballo in Maschera).”
The show begins at 2:00 p.m. and gates open at noon.
Admission is free and free tickets are available pending a reservation made online with the Washington National Opera. All reservations for seating must be received by 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, September 15 for the Sunday event.
Otherwise, guests may show up on the day of the event to enjoy an afternoon at the opera from a seat on the Nationals Park outfield grass.
It has been too long since The Charlatans UK have played in DC. Too long since I have seen one of my all-time favorite bands. That is what I was thinking as I made my way up the stairs at the Black Cat on Thursday night. When I got upstairs, the Black Cat was seriously empty, so empty in fact that I was beginning to worry that The Charlatans’ forthcoming performance might suffer from the lack of energy in the room. As I easily took position right in front of the stage, I began to wonder, has it been so long since The Charlatans played DC that people have forgotten them? Slowly but surely dedicated fans of The Charlatans and Brit-pop enthusiasts began to fill in around me, but every time I glanced toward the back of the room, all I could see was emptiness. Where are all the people?
Thankfully, by the time Tim Burgess and company took the stage, the crowd had swelled to at least give the illusion that the room was as full as these Mancunian candidates for longest-running Brit-pop band deserve. The Charlatans may be at a point in their career where they don’t really care who shows up anymore though. Thursday’s wonderful show proved that be the turn-out large or small, they are putting on a great show either way.
At home in the UK, The Charlatans are still stadium-filling, festival favorites. In the US, where they never really ‘broke through’ like genre colleagues Blur or Oasis, The Charlatans have always been a specialty club act. I’ve seen them rock the 9:30 Club to adoring crowds several times. Their current tour comes after back-to-back canceled tours, and two albums that did not receive major release in the United States; in other words a 4-year absence from U.S. pop-consciousness that judging from Thursday’s turn-out may have finally marginalized them to being purely a nostalgia act.
Of course, any fan of The Charlatans that is reading this is probably cursing at the computer screen right now. I know I would be, because the case for The Charlatans’ originality and vitality as a group is especially strong when considering their new album “Who We Touch”, which drops in the US today. The new album ushers in yet another series of slight stylistic shifts that show off the versatility and enduring-nature of The Charlatans as a group. The new album is thankfully receiving major distribution in the U.S. and the band has finally physically made it to our shores to play some shows in support of it. Whether people show up for them or not remains to be seen. In DC on Thursday, a medium-sized crowd showed for what I am calling “the best show of 2010 that almost nobody went to”.
By Brittany
“Emergency & I” sounds like home. Released in 1999 on local label DeSoto, it is the essential album of one of the essential bands of Washington, DC, The Dismemberment Plan and, along with other records by the Plan, would go in my desert island jukebox for the music itself, even if it were not the case that everything that mattered to me in high school happened with these songs as the soundtrack.
In January 2011, “Emergency & I” will see it’s first-ever release on vinyl – indeed a two-LP gatefold fancy thing, completely remastered, and including several rare tracks not previously on the album. As was reported by the WaPo Click Track blog the release, now on Barsurk, will also feature “an oral history of the album.”
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‘h’
courtesy of ‘Mary Hockenbery (reddirtrose)’
This Saturday, the Rock and Roll Hotel is presenting “H Street Festival Stages” in conjunction with the H Street Festival in NE.
Live local music will run from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. as part of the urban outdoor festival.
In addition to continual afternoon concert lineups, the H Street Festival includes: an urban sports & boxing ring to get out the post-work week aggression, “green street” exhibits, a speed chess challenge, all-day parades, and more.
There will be a free bike valet and free shuttle bus service from Gallery Place and Eastern Market.
Gates open at noon, admission is free, and the weather’s looking to be sunny with a high of 79 degrees — it can’t get any better than that.
By Rebecca
‘delicious meatpies selling next door’
courtesy of ‘LaTur’
Today from 11am-5:30pm, Stacy London of TLC’s “What Not To Wear” fame is hosting a fashion crawl around DC to promote the launch of Style For Hire (SFH). SFH recruits London-esque stylists who can help us everyday folk edit, add to and transform our wardrobes into expressions of our personal and unique sense of style.
The fashion crawl will be happening all over DC, so check the schedule to see when SFH and Stacy London will be headed near you. Also, bring an orphan garment that needs a little embellishment, and SFH will help you give it a whole new life.
By Ben H. Rome
‘Kogod Courtyard’
courtesy of ‘BrianMKA’
So now that the tourists are (mostly) gone, time to get out and hit our various museums and their great programs and exhibitions! There’s a lot going on this month at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) and we’re going to run down the list for you. Programs are free and open to the public unless otherwise indicated; the SAAM is located in Penn Quarter at 8th and G Streets, NW. Note that some programs are at the Renwick Gallery at 17th and Pennsylvania and are noted accordingly.
Intersections/Intersecciones (Sept. 10, 6:30 p.m.)
Artists Kathy Vargas, María Martínez-Cañas, and Martina López discuss the intersection of Latino culture and gender identity in their work. Moderated by Muriel Hasbun, associate professor of fine art photography at the Corcoran College of Art + Design. No tickets required; seating available in McEvoy Auditorium on a first-come, first-served basis.
Art à la Cart (Sept. 12, Noon – 3 p.m.)
Travel throughout the galleries to find interactive carts where kids can handle brushes, palettes, bison hide, bottle caps, and quilt squares. Ages 7-12. Pick up your Art à la Cart map and passport at information desks located in the F Street and G Street lobbies.
Coverage of Day One
Coverage of Day Two
The All Tomorrow’s Parties music marathon continued into day three on Sunday. The line-up for the third day of ATP NY is always hand-picked by an invited curator. In years past the curators of ATP NY have been My Bloody Valentine and The Flaming Lips. Being a DJ, I think this is one of the most unique and cool festival traditions ever; the curator basically gets to program their own music festival, sharing and sometimes inflicting their eclectic tastes with/on the world. This year ATP invited Jim Jarmusch to curate day three of ATP NY. Jarmusch is known as an guiding light in indie film making with films like “Mystery Train” and “Dead Man”, but he also has strong musical connections that make him an inspired choice to curate. Jarmusch’s films are chock full of great music and he has employed a host of great musicians as actors over the years ranging from Joe Strummer to GZA. Perhaps the most interesting and little known Jim Jarmusch music factoid is that the man himself was in a No Wave band in the early 80’s called The Del-Byzanteens. He even did a secret jam with No Age in a hotel room at ATP NY 2009.
Jarmusch did not disappoint as curator. His hand-picked programming featured a wide-range of styles including hip-hop, lo-fi, heavy psych, hardcore punk, blues, and doom metal. Attending ATP on Sunday was like living inside Jim Jarmusch’s iPod for a day. I spent most of the day hanging out at the second stage, which is set up in a large dining hall where one could imagine wedding receptions and bar mitzvah parties taking place for the last 50 years. ATP transforms this room into a bunker nightclub by blocking all outside light with blackout curtains which adds a weird London Blitz vibe to the place too. Second stage makes for a very odd setting to see live music performed and watching a day full of guitar freak-outs and psychedelic melt-downs there seemed like a perfect fit. Adding to the surreal nature of my second stage day, I kept seeing Jim Jarmusch everywhere!*
Coverage of Day One
Coverage of Day Three
Saturday in the Catskills ushered in a chilly preview of fall weather along with Day Two of All Tomorrow’s Parties. On deck were two stages full of bands hand-picked by the All Tomorrow’s Parties staff to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of their festival series (which began in the UK with the Bowlie Weekender curated by Belle & Sebastian in 1999). In addition to the two stages full of premium indie rock, there were also trivia games, a cinema organized by the Criterion Collection, a book club, a film discussion with Thurston Moore and Jim Jarmusch, and various other fun distractions peppered through-out the Kutshers Resort.
Kutshers is an aged relic of the Borscht Belt and serves as the perfect spot for ATP NY every year. Imagine the hotel from Dirty Dancing gone the way of The Shining and you get a good idea of what this sprawling complex looks and feels like. The years of wear and tear show on every surface in the place, including in the Starlight Ballroom (main stage) and the Dining Room (second stage). The whole place feels like ATP found this former Class-A resort in a thrift shop somewhere. It has got the perfect level of funkiness and seclusion to make the whole ATP weekend feel like you are one of the castaways in an indie-music version of LOST. I staked my camp in the Starlight Ballroom all-day on Saturday to take in an unbelievably cool array of quality acts.
Midnight Spin at The Velvet Lounge / Photo by Rachel Levitin
Radio ready and always friendly on stage and off, Brooklyn’s finest band of rockers are back in the District for the weekend. Midnight Spin never fails to disappoint a crowd. In fact, they invoke quite the contrary response. From shooting music videos in Manhattan to touring the country in a teeny tiny van together, these guys live and breathe rock ‘n roll.
They’re in the process of finishing up material for their first full-length album, but their current EP “Through the Mojo Wire” contains five incredibly contagious rock songs with a pop hook touch.
Two members of Midnight Spin, lead singer and guitar player Mike Corbett and drummer Danny Scull, are from the greater D.C. metropolitan area (i.e. Maryland) and try to bring their band back home for the parents to see them play every few months.
Their parent’s gain is the District’s reward.
Midnight Spin has two shows lined up on Friday and Saturday: a late-night headlining slot at the Rock and Roll Hotel and an afternoon delight at the Bullpen in Navy Yard.
Here are the details: Continue reading
Coverage of Day Two
Coverage of Day Three
Once a year the music geek Illuminati meet in their secret headquarters tucked deep in the Catskill Mountains of New York to revel in an orgy of booze, obscure band t-shirts, and unbelievable live music performances by the best-of-the-best in underground music past and present. They call their yearly gathering All Tomorrow’s Parties New York (ATP NY); this weekend the Catskills played host to the third such meeting of the music-minded with a phenomenal three day festival that is really unlike any other. Only at ATP NY could I be dancing at 2AM on a Sunday in a microscopic hotel lounge to the live DJ skills of Kool Herc (the undisputed father of Hip-Hop), spot Jim Jarmusch and GZA of the Wu-Tang Clan across the room, and get high-fived by a group of complete strangers because I am wearing a t-shirt for the obscure noise-rock band The God Bullies. For a music geek the trip to ATP NY is a pilgrimage that must be made at least once before you die. This weekend was my second time attending this spectacular celebration of live music and the international music-geek community.* It was one of the most pleasant and enjoyable weekends of live music I’ve ever had.
Each year ATP NY opens with an evening of full album sets as part of their Don’t Look Back series.** This year’s festival opened with the ridiculous Friday night line-up of The Scientists, Mudhoney, Iggy & The Stooges, and Sleep. Each would perform at the highest level and raise the bar for the band to follow. After watching the legendary Australian post-punk rockers The Scientists play their first ever US-show, Mudhoney time-warp us all back to the dirty and dangerous Grunge emergence, and The Stooges whip the crowd into a sweaty inferno fueled by their own mashed human bodies, Sleep emerged to crush us with two-hours of ultra-heavy stoner-doom metal. How any of us survived the first night to continue rocking for another two full-schedule days is a miracle.
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