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FRIDAY & SATURDAY
At a recent sludge-rock performance, I was approached by a gentleman from a local band. He had obviously been drinking. He fumbled in his pockets for what seemed the length of Bonham’s “Moby Dick” solo. After this struggle, he proudly pulled out a “flier” for his band. It was, in actuality, a bar napkin with a crude Sharpie drawing of a nekkid lady in an, er, “inviting” position. At the top, the words “EAT IT BITCH” were scrawled. At the bottom was the name of his band—VOG. No date, no venue information, just pure rock genius. Despite never having heard a single note of VOG’s music, this is my new favorite local band. This weekend, VOG and an army of other local doom-metal bands bring you the 20 Buck Spin—so named after a Pentagram song, in a bow to those forefathers of doom. Many of our regional superstars have been collected on a new comp titled Doom Capital—you can nod your head intimidatingly along to tunes by such festival participants as War Injun, Unorthodox, and Nitroseed. But the belle of this black ball is surely Internal Void (pictured), which has made some heavy classics in its time and even backed up Pentagram founder Bobby Liebling on that band’s latest release, the superlative Show ’Em How. As much as I appreciate VOG’s guerrilla napkin-marketing approach, I hope that the success of the fest will not only lead to a renewed interest in an important part of the D.C. music scene, but will also enable the bands to purchase actual paper on which to scrawl their promotional dirty pictures. The fest opens Friday, Oct. 22, with Internal Void, Unorthodox, Wretched, and Valkyrie at 9 p.m. at the Warehouse Next Door, 1017 7th St. NW, $10, (202) 783-3933, and continues Saturday, Oct. 23, with Dragon Green, 5ive, Rebreather, Beaten Back to Pure, Nitroseed, War Injun, the Wayward, and VOG at 5 p.m. $15. (Passes for both days are $20.) (David Dunlap Jr.)