We know D.C. Get our free newsletter to stay in the know.
Over the past decade, D.C. transformed into a Bob Mould town, as the Hüsker Dü frontman took up residency here, performed regular DJ gigs at the 9:30 Club, and released the album District Line, featuring “stories of [his] simple life in a complicated town.” Meanwhile his former bandmate, Grant Hart, turned into a recluse of sorts: He disbanded his post-Hüsker Dü band, Nova Mob, and began creating paintings he said “aren’t meant for public consumption.” Then in 2009, Hart released his first solo album in a decade, Hot Wax. The opening track doles out couplet after couplet of catchy quips seemingly directed at Mould (“You’re a reflection of the moon of the water/but you’re not the moon”); the piano-pop “Barbara” invites a Beatles comparison beyond the tumultuous nature of Hart and Mould’s McCartney-Lennon-esque writing partnership. Despite a reunion at a benefit concert in 2004, the former collaborators still take jabs at each other in the press—so nostalgic fans itching to yell out requests from the Hüsker Dü catalog probably need not attend.
GRANT HART PERFORMS WITH THE VENABLES AT 9 P.M. AT THE BLACK CAT BACKSTAGE, 1811 14TH ST. NW. $12. (202) 667-7960.