Capital Swamp: The DC Resource Thread

Not sure if this will be mostly stuff already on YouTube but: https://silver.afi.com/Browsing/Movies/Details/f-0100003805

first 2 Fugazi shows sold out quick. I got tickets to first. They added a 3rd on Wed Feb 15. I think they're trying to have stuff not already on Youtube. My buddy Jeff Heavy Metal Parking Lot Krulik is involved with this

Fugazi movie shows that is.

Tonight I did 1980s DC rockabilly nostalgia -- saw Tex Rubinowitz & the Bad Boys at the Birchmere. Pricy ticket but fun show. Great band. I previewed it for City Paper

Chris R*chards is going big on hardcore nostalgia rather than rockabilly, with a big feature article on circa 1985 Annapolis band The Hated.

Other news:

Joe Lally has openings for bass guitar lessons that he teaches

Dc government is going to move dc government workers out of Reeves Bldg at 14th & U and have developers make it mixed use. One proposal would have a Songbyrd club in it; the other would have a Dave Chappelle comedy club. Both plans would have some housing ( no word on how affordable). Dcist and Axios have articles about this

I also saw Hardway Connection down at Lamont’s. Nice set of southern soul plus they have a conga player as well now.

Posted in Fugazi thread about seeing the live clips doc at AFI Silver

May go on the 19th to AFI silver for shorts on dc music with a thing called Fugazi’s barber ; one on the 60s garage rock band the Hangmen; something on Cynthia Connolly got added

Went to short doc thing and was wowed by Director Gama films on dc muralist Miss Chelove. The muralist is from Java Indonesia and came to DC young and got into dc punk, & later graffiti, hiphop, club dance , go-go while retaining her home country roots. Her Mom played gamelan music and worked at VOA and was a Renaissance single mom to 4 kids. Sadly this century, her Mom got hit by a drunk driver in DC & killed. Miss Chelove has done a Bill Warrell DC Space tribute mural in Blagden Alley , and more throughout the area.

Also enjoyed the other shorts. The barber from the gone since the mid 90s Connecticut Ave location was at the screening with his granddaughter director and others.

Hangmen short was cool and interesting. Ones on Cynthia Connolly and Jim Saah were good too ( maybe even if you are bored with early dc punk or know nothing about it). Jeff also showed punk & tomatoes episodes about DC punks going to see Fear on Saturday Night Live in 1981

Beverly Lindsay-Johnson’s “Fat Boy: the Billy Stewart story “ doc about the DC soul singer is showing for Free tonight at 6:30 at Francis Gregory Library in SE. the director will be there . I saw it on local pbs channel and recommend it

More docs on d school dC . I forget the names of the directors for Black Fire, about the 1970s black owned funk and jazz and proto-go-go label , but you can now see it free online https://www.pbs.org/video/black-fire-wzywcz/

Saturday Feb. 25 --DJ Red Mole on WOWD 94.3 & online @ 9 am hosts a discussion of Black owned DC label from 50s & 60s Shrine Records and Bo Diddley's 60s DC studio with guests Beverly Lindsay-Johnson, Grover Massenburg, Richard Harrington, Sandra Bears (of the Jewels)

I previewed upcoming gigs by Sandra Bears( the Jewels) ; Ohio Players; Monobloco; & Arooj Aftab w/ Iyer, & Ismaily for
@wcp
Spring Arts Guide https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/592786/2023-spring-arts-guide/

DC Punk Archives seeking bands to play rooftop

RIP Lou Stovall who made some of the coolest DC protest posters and jazz gig posters in the late 1960s and 1970s some with them Dc based jazz musician artist Lloyd McNeil

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/595903/austin-gets-a-taste-of-go-go-at-sxsw/

a look back at the go-go showcase @ S x SW

Friday night midnight deadline for lottery to be eligible to buy tickets to new “Atlantis” club next to new 930. Not an exact replica as it will hold more people

Also not an exact replica as it probably won't smell like Marlboros and pee.

(And I say that with genuine affection)

Yep...Those were the days....

on a different subject-DC’s Jamal Gray and Nag Champa are @ the Phillips Museum tonight for their first gig since 2021. I wrote for City Paper about what this jazz-funk-hiphop group has been up to. I spoke with Gray also about his dayjob curating events, his WPFW radio show, his role producing the Black Fire doc about his late Dad ‘s Afrocentric label with Plunky Branch , and other projects he’s working on . Plus being a busy parent.

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/597928/jamal-gray-and-nag-champa-art-ensemble-return-with-new-goals/

$11 service fee per ticket will be required if one gets selected for $44 lottery ticket at Atlantis next to 930.

Also saw that Seth H is putting his son in charge of Atlantis

Man does DC need another venue? I trust Hurwitz’ business sense but there seem to be a lot of pop music venues and then some shrinkage lately (Demise of City Winery and Iota, while the State and Howard Theaters seem to have a lot fewer touring groups, etc.)

Oh and the Black Cat’s recent downsizing, too.

What’s the area competition for the Atlantis (same size venue, etc)?

DC9?

Many of the Atlantis acts are also playing 930 while they’re in town so these are de facto second nights.

Union Stage is busy booking lots of acts at the Howard now — TikTok pop and SoundCloud rap and r’n’b . Songbyrd also is booking those acts plus some rock, Latin, African

The Runaway and , Quarry House and Comet getting obscure punk indie . Rhizome with experimental and improv jazz and some punk

930 will have to compete with all of those

The Howard did have (the non-Tik Tok and Soundcloud) Dry Cleaning, too. Saw them in January. I think that was booked by Unuon Stage based on the pre-show slides. I feel like Dry Cleaning though would have been the perfect 930 Club act in the past. I dunno man. Most of my taste is th Rhizome end of things.

Just djs so far , but for those in Caribbean soca and dancehall, the Black Diamond in Silver Spring has opened and the Crossroads 2 in Wheaton

May Tamarindo fest of Afro-Latin pop , reggaeton and more scheduled for RFK grounds suddenly canceled with no explanation

https://dcist.com/story/23/02/23/tamarindo-festival-afro-latin-music-rfk-dc-spring-2023/

My preview of tonight's Jumpin' Jupiter and Oil City Confidential show @ Hank Dietle's. rockabilly and pub rock respectively . https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/598984/jumpin-jupiter-ferry-tales-and-more-best-bets-for-april-13-19/

Tonight's also Arooj Aftab at Strathmore. Big live music night in Rockville

Abaad Behram rocked with Oil City Confidential and looked charismatic there and on screen from the 70s last night in Razz film doc at AFI Silver. He and Razz singer Michael Reidy have that something extra onstage.

Alas, Oul City or Abaad’s other band need a creative booker to put them on a bill with younger acts whose audience I think would like them too

I missed Black Eyes gigs and that Fake Names , Hammered Hills, Owners show.

Lots and lots of dc rock bands at Pie Shop, Pocket, Quarry house , Runaway, dc 9, rhizome, comet , Petworth porch fest

So much happening in area but editor at the Post decided folks would want to read both a Lizzy McAlpine profile in advance by one writer there and a review of the gig several days later by another writer there.

Saturday went to so very crowded embassy day for first ever time. Went to South African embassy, wandered grounds of Bolivian one that had a good folk dance squad. Then we headed down to the less crowded Dee Dwyer "Soufeast" photo exhibit party that was at the Phillips @ the Arc on Mississippi Ave Se. Great photos , free veggie and meat pies, and bouncebeat band TOB played in the parking lot while kids drew with chalk or hula hooped. Then we headed up to Hill Center and saw amazing Indonesian gamelan and more singer Peni Candra Rini with a big band in a small room there before a small crowd of 30 or so.

I always miss the embassy days!

So crowded.

June 9 free Dawn Richard show at African American Museum , registration required

https://nmaahc.si.edu/events/nmaahc-live-afrofuturism-concert-dawn-richard

Rhizome is booked through August. Continues to be wait and see when DC will decide to take the property and put some types of housing there

Thanks for the heads up on the dawn richard

*Birthday Girl on Friday May 12 @ 6 pm @ Carpe Librum popup bookstore , 5221 Wisconsin Ave (Mabel Canty & Bella Mackaye band) Brendan C and Alex M daughters

Oh no , seeing on Facebook that Shawn Vitale ( Gus Sound) has died. He was soundman at dc space, 930 Club, Fort Reno & some work at Hank Dietles. Everyone always seemed to have kind words for him. There’s a Fugazi show in archives where Ian thanks him. I read he grew up in District Heights, Md

Aw, I did not know him personally but I remember him. Peace.

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/605092/remembering-beloved-sound-engineer-shawn-gus-vitale/

a tearjerker tribute re a great guy-- Gus Vitale. Some beautiful quotes in there .

Sixty-two years ago, Sandra Bears was a teenager at Roosevelt High School singing in glee club with Margie Clarke, Grace Ruffin, and Carrie Mingo. Bears, Ruffin, and Mingo also sang together at Trinity AME Zion Church on 16th Street NW, while Clarke attended another church. The four high school harmonizers would eventually become known as the Jewels, have their song “Opportunity” reach No. 64 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1964

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/listings/items/sandra-bears/

My full preview of her today Thursday May 18 lunchtime gig at Montpelier Arts Center Mansion in Laurel on the link

That just announced Black Cat 30th anniversary weekend is going to sell out quick tomorrow morning I bet. I wish they could add 2 more nights

Yowza. I will miss that but I think I was at maybe a 25th anniversary show. The only act I remember was Tuscadero.

Update! It was actually a 20th anniversary and it was like 10 years ago and Ted Leo was there too.

Was out of town so I missed Africa on the Avenue with drummer Trae Crudup (who also plays with Luke Stewart, Mark Cisneros, r'n'b bands ) playing in Cheick Hamale Diabate's band

Above gig was poorly promoted too alas

last night Sunday May 28 was the soft opening for the Atlantis Club with Trouble Funk playing. Wasn't there but from photos I see on Facebook it has a big balcony level inside so it has a 450 capacity versus smaller 199 capacity original. Also has a rooftop area (with a fake 9/F street sign and wall with pasted flyers)

They're putting up a lifesize statue of Dave Grohl to be dedicated Tuesday May 30 in the morning with the DC Mayor there.

No indication yet that their engineer for 30 years Shawn Gus Vitale will get any plaque or permanent tribute, but IMP tells me there will be a June 14 memorial service for him for friends and family @ the 930