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Hey, D.C.! We’re giving To Do This Week to you early so you can make your plans for the long Memorial Day weekend. This weekend, you can hear a filth filmmaker discuss his life, check out the 10-year anniversary tour of an iconic pop album, and see a jazzy vibraphone player live. See the latest in arts news and reviews and ticket sales at the end of this newsletter. —Kayla Randall
FRIDAY
John WatersJohn Waters made his first underground films in the 1960s and became a hero of the midnight movie circuit in the early 1970s. With movies like Pink Flamingos and Multiple Maniacs, Waters carved out a niche as a proto-punk filmmaker, and although the limits of good taste have loosened since he made his early films, images from those movies (violent, sexual, scatological, you name it) still inspire shock. Years before the birth of the blockbuster, Waters left a high-water mark of surreal filth that has yet to be matched. Read more>>> John Waters speaks at 7 p.m. at Politics and Prose, 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Free. (202) 364-1919. politics-prose.com. (Will Lennon)
Indie dream pop band No Vacation performs at Union Stage. 6:30 p.m. at 740 Water St. SW. $15–$30.
The Filene Center at Wolf Trap welcomes The Avett Brothers for three nights of Americana roots rock performances. 7:30 p.m. at 1551 Trap Road, Vienna. $45.
Electronic artist Paco Osuna performs at Flash. 8 p.m. at 645 Florida Ave. NW. $10–$20.
SATURDAY
Passion PitTen years after the debut of Manners, Passion Pit’s Michael Angelakos has never felt better. With its saccharine sweet synths and euphoric electro-pop, Manners quickly established Passion Pit as an indie-pop mainstay—but at the expense of Angelakos’ mental health. In 2009, the creation of Manners was informed by a bipolar diagnosis, suicidal ideations, and a five-week stay in a mental health clinic for the Passion Pit frontman … So, it came as quite a shock to almost everyone when he announced a 10-year anniversary tour for Manners, the album that marked such a tumultuous time in his life. Read more>>> Passion Pit perform at 8 p.m. at The Anthem, 901 Wharf St. SW. $40–$119. (202) 888-0020. theanthemdc.com. (Casey Embert)
Politics and Prose at Union Market hosts writers Indran Amirthanayagam and Dan Vera to discuss the work of poets Walt Whitman, Pablo Neruda, and Allen Ginsberg, in partnership with the Walt Whitman 200 Festival celebrating the 200th anniversary of Whitman’s birth. 1 p.m. at 1270 5th St. NE. Free.
Country artist and guitar whiz Daniel Donato performs at Songbyrd Music House. 8 p.m. at 2477 18th St. NW. $12.
Local go-go group Junkyard Band performs at The Fillmore Silver Spring. 8 p.m. at 8656 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. $25.
SUNDAY
Roy AyersRoy Ayers is the man who put the “vibe” in vibraphone. If he had merely contributed “Searching” and “Everybody Loves the Sunshine” to the canon, it still would have been enough to secure his place in musical history. But those two hits merely foreshadowed Ayers’ real contribution. He transformed his instrument from a fairly aggressive lead into a textural background ingredient—like a brighter, cleaner Fender Rhodes. Read more>>> Roy Ayers performs at 8 p.m. at City Winery, 1350 Okie St. NE. $45–$55. (202) 250-2531. citywinery.com. (Michael J. West)
Suns Cinema screens 1955 crime drama Bad Day at Black Rock, which stars Spencer Tracy as a war veteran who arrives in an unfriendly small town where he’s met with disdain at every turn. 7 p.m. at 3107 Mount Pleasant St. NW. $8.
Smooth jazz saxophonist Walter Beasley performs at The Birchmere. 7:30 p.m. at 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria. $45.
Nigerian Afro-fusion artist Burna Boy perform at Echostage. 10 p.m. at 2135 Queens Chapel Road NE. $30.
MONDAY
Kari FauxSince breaking through with the ringtone menace of “No Small Talk” in 2014, Kari Faux has been an artist to watch. In the years since, the Little Rock, Arkansas, product has traversed the soul-funk-rap-R&B spectrum, distilling a few years out West into an album called Lost En Los Angeles, collaborating with Childish Gambino, and contributing to the Zeitgeist-riding soundtrack of HBO’s Insecure. The rapper-singer-songwriter has always spoken her truth, but perhaps never as strongly as on her latest effort, CRY 4 HELP. The EP condenses a lifetime into five syrupy explorations of past traumas, as Faux bounces from high to low, self-medicating with liquor and smoke along the way. Read more>>> Kari Faux performs at 8 p.m. at Songbyrd Music House, 2477 18th St. NW. $15–$17. (202) 450-2917. songbyrddc.com. (Chris Kelly)
The National Portrait Gallery presents an in memoriam portrait recognizing the life and legacy of acclaimed architect I.M. Pei, who died earlier this month. 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. at 8th and F Streets NW. Free.
The National Museum of American History continues its run of More Doctors Smoke Camels: A Close Reading of Historical Advertising, an exhibition examining tobacco advertisements that used the influence of doctors. 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at 14th Street and Constitution Avenue NW. Free.
The Kennedy Center Millennium Stage hosts a Latin dance performance featuring participants in DCPS’ After School Latin Dance Fund. 6 p.m. at 2700 F St. NW. Free.
TUESDAY
Alien“In space no one can hear you scream.” That’s the famous tagline for Alien, the sci-fi horror classic which celebrates its 40th anniversary this month, and follows the crew of spacecraft Nostromo as they attempt to navigate their ship back to Earth. Their journey is delayed when they detect a distress signal from an alien vessel, and things don’t get much better from there. Running at nearly two hours, one thing that makes Alien so brilliant is its careful pacing. Read more>>> The film screens at 8 p.m. at the Marie Reed Soccer Field, 2201 18th St. NW. Free. (202) 997-0783. admodc.org/movies. (Ella Feldman)
NBA lockout drama High Flying Bird screens at AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center. 7:15 p.m. at 8633 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. $8–$13.
Author Amanda Montell discusses her book Wordslut, about the way in which we use gendered language, at Solid State Books. 7 p.m. at 600 H St. NE. Free.
English indie rock group Circa Waves performs at DC9. 8 p.m. at 1940 9th St. NW. $15.
WEDNESDAY
All The President’s MenAll The President’s Men is more than a movie. It is a template that has been copy-pasted and tweaked to create a dozen other award-bait “journalism movies” that pale in comparison to the original. It is an adaptation of a book by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein chronicling how their investigation into a break-in at an office complex unraveled the most famous scandal in American history. Most importantly, it is the definitive version of a chapter in American history mythologized on film. The investigation, the scandal, the book, and the movie, (all of which happened within the span of a few of years) are hopelessly entangled. It was Robert Redford who convinced Woodward to rethink the book as a thriller about journalists instead of a story about the fall of Nixon, and screenwriter William Goldman studied the Washington Post’s staff to accurately depict a newsroom. Read more>>> The film screens at 7 p.m. at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center, 8633 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. $8–$13. (301) 495-6700. afi.com/silver. (Will Lennon)
Senegalese Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Youssou NDOUR performs at The Music Center at Strathmore. 8 p.m. at 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda. $38–$87.
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, an Australian pop-rock band, perform at U Street Music Hall. 7 p.m. at 1115 U St. NW. $18.
The National Zoo presents Celebrating Smokey, a new outdoor exhibition dedicated to the legacy of Smokey Bear the wildfire-fighting character and the “real” Smokey who lived at the zoo. 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 3001 Connecticut Ave. NW. Free.
THURSDAY
Omar ApolloFirst generation Mexican-American songwriter and soulster Omar Velasco, widely known under his Omar Apollo moniker, stepped into the limelight of success and has put in the work to sustain it. Pulling deeply from his Mexican heritage, Apollo’s sound is reflective of modern R&B and Mexican soul. Mexican soul singers Pedro Infante, Vicente Fernández, and Estela Núñez were didactic influences during his formative years, which has helped him develop his current musical regime. Read more>>> Omar Apollo performs at 7 p.m. at U Street Music Hall, 1115 U St. NW. $20. (202) 588-1889. ustreetmusichall.com. (Mikala Williams)
Australian dance-pop queen Betty Who performs at 9:30 Club. 7 p.m. at 815 V St. NW. $26.
Pearl Street Warehouse presents a free psych night featuring two-piece psychedelic rock band Blue Footed Boobies. 8 p.m. at 33 Pearl St. SW. Free.
The Kennedy Center Opera House hosts Ballet Across America with performances from Dance Theatre of Harlem and Miami City Ballet. 7:30 p.m. at 2700 F St. NW. $29–$119.
NEWS & REVIEWS YOU CAN USE
Film: Booksmart flips the script on the raunchy teen movie formula.
Theater: Arena Stage’s Jubilee teaches lesser-known piece of black history.
Theater: Signature Theatre brings Zora Neale Hurston‘s stories to life in Spunk.
Theater: Olney Theatre Center’s Mary Stuart echoes down the centuries.
Music: With GoGoTix, Malachai Johns wants to connect more people to the world of go-go.
OFFICE OF FUTURE PLANNING
Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. for folk-bluegrass fusion singer Tyler Childers, performing at The Anthem on Dec. 13. 8 p.m. at 901 Wharf St. SW. $36–$76.
Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. for folk duo Penny & Sparrow, performing at Union Stage on Sept. 20. 8 p.m. at 740 Water St. SW. $20–$60.
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