We know D.C. Get our free newsletter to stay in the know.
Chain & the Gang is the latest musical endeavor of local punk icon and VBS TV personality Ian Svenonius. This month the band releases its new album, Music’s Not for Everyone, in which the well-coiffed, well-dressed front man explores familiar themes—it wouldn’t be a Svenonius project without revolutionary rhetoric and a large serving of irony—but with new focus. The 2009 effort Down With Liberty…Up With Chains! was a characteristically audacious debut wherein, despite decades of provocations, Svenonius incisively critiqued the culture around him with pronouncements ranging from grand (“Reparations”) to scene-specific (“Interview With the Chain Gang”). And while it’s strange to see such an outsized personality as Svenonius playing second banana, having Chain & the Gang open for Deerhoof—a mercurial entity, if there ever was one—is a truly inspired pairing, one in which the headliners have their work cut out for them.
CHAIN & THE GANG PLAY WITH DEERHOOF AND BEN BUTLER & MOUSEPAD AT 7 P.M. AT THE 9:30 CLUB, 815 V ST. NW. $15. (202) 265-0930.