Thursday, May 3
What a difference a hit can make. After some moderate success with the Format,
Nate Ruess ditched that band and made
Fun‘s
Aim and Ignite, a fantastic album that was largely
ignored. With “We Are Young” the band hit the top of the Hot 100, sold
out two nights
at the 9:30 Club, and
scored a spot at
Sweetlife.
7 PM at 9:30 Club, sold out.
Hume split their home between DC and
Baltimore, and it shows–they’ve got a bit of Animal Collective’s
experimental sound, but
they’re a little less out there than many Charm City bands.
Check them out at Black Cat.
8 PM at Black Cat, $10.
Friday, May 4
Despite being one of the most famous hard rock bands of all time, at this point,
Blue Oyster Cult might be best known for Christopher Walken and Will Ferrell’s “More Cowbell” sketch on
Saturday Night Live. The Long Island band will play
“Don’t Fear The Reaper,” hopefully with plenty of cowbell, and other
hits at the Howard
Theatre.
6 and 10 PM at the Howard Theatre, $40.
In the late ’90s,
Korn ruled the music world along with their
nu-metal brethren Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit. The band have been pretty
consistently
releasing music since, and in a last-ditch effort to stay
relevant, employed Skrillex to produce tracks on their latest,
The Path of Totality. See how it’s working for them at the Fillmore tonight.
8 PM at the Fillmore, $45.
Saturday, May 5
Not many singer songwriters hit it too big these days–Jason Mraz and Gavin DeGraw don’t really bring Dylan to mind. Takoma
Park native
Eric Hutchinson‘s doing pretty well for
himself despite being pretty cookie-cutter. He’s toured with some pretty
familiar names, and his
show at 9:30 Club is sold out. Check him out if you need
something straightforward and
upbeat.
8 PM at 9:30 Club, sold out.
In the ’70s and ’80s,
Chaka Khan was
the female funk star. Then the ’90s came, people stopped being funky and started getting grungy, and you might have expected
her to disappear. But Khan kept playing that funky music, earning two Grammys as recently as 2008 for
Funk This. She plays dos Cinco de Mayo shows tonight at the Howard Theatre.
6:30 and 10 PM at the Howard Theatre, $75.
Sunday, May 6
The Torches‘ sound has a bit of Tom Waits in
it. The folksters essentially tell stories instead of sing, with the
help of banjos, harmonicas
and tambourines, so you almost feel like you’re sitting around a
campfire. Check them out at pop-up venue Paperhaus
tonight.
8 PM at Paperhaus, free.
With
Send Me On My Way,
Rusted Root had a pretty big hit in the
mid-’90s. They use percussion from around the world, so you’ll get
African, Latin, and Native
American rhythms during their show. And presumably some really
long drum solos–they are a jam band, ya
know.
7 PM at 9:30 Club, $25.
Monday, May 7
For years, Washington had no hip-hop scene to speak
of. With the breakout of Wale and emergence of emcees like Black Cobain
and Tabi
Bonney,
the DMV has finally
earned some respect. Check out the next wave at the
Future of DMV Hip-Hop show at Jammin’ Java,
where five local rappers will show off their
chops.
7:30 PM at Jammin’ Java, $10.
After a series of postponements, hippie/pot enthusiast/country legend/and all-around-weirdo
Willie Nelson will finally play 9:30 Club.
With more than 60 studio albums under his belt, he’s got a deep pool to
pick from, but expect
classics like “Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be
Cowboys” and tracks taken from his collaborations with Waylon
Jennings.
7 PM at 9:30 Club, sold out.
Tuesday, May 8
With jangly Franz Ferdinand-esque guitars and droning vocals, Black Taxi come off as poppy but edgy. The New York City-based
band play DC9 tonight.
8:30 PM at DC9, $8.
Wednesday, May 9
Fans of pretty, laid-back female singer-songwriters have a tough decision tonight. Both
Ingrid Michaelson and
Feist can and have been featured in rainy-day
rom-com montages. Both shows are sold out–Michaelson wins punk points
for playing
9:30 Club, but the
fact that Feist easily sold out Strathmore is more
impressive.
Feist: 8 PM at Strathmore, sold out.
Michaelson: 7 PM at 9:30 Club, sold out.
On the complete opposite end of the musical spectrum,
Mastodon play hard-hitting metal that music critics like to say they enjoy when they want to show they have varied tastes. They play
the Fillmore tonight.
7:30 PM at the Fillmore, $29.50.
