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SATURDAY
Infinite Loop’s debut EP, First Contact, was sweetly generic and pleasantly digestible. But those days seem to be behind the band, and its latest is plump not with flows-on cuts but with straight-up testosterone: Battle hymns rumble and extra-digital downloads get blended into eerie-sounding loops with serious messages about using spiritual weaponry to fight both bling-bling culture and Armaggedon. It’s all set against a hard-core sci-fi backdrop. And it makes D.C.’s own 8-year-old hiphop collective sound even more like Wu-Tang. But the similarities don’t end there. Infinite Loop has had as many as 18 MCs and DJs, and everybody seems to be involved in something else. Within the collective are six entirely separate hiphop entities (bands Organnic Symmetry, Last Resort, and Thirteen Degrees East, and solo acts RBI, Platted Mind, and Grizzly Bear), all of whom are managed by A Tribe Called Quest’s Jarobi. On Infinite Loop’s latest, each artist offers up limber rhymes while skillfully defining distinct territory. In short, Loop has mastered the art of mike-passing. With plenty of adrenaline to spare, Infinite Loop is looking to translate its unflinching devotion during tonight’s show. It all goes down with Poem-cees and Team Demolition along for the ride at 9 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 27, at the 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW. $8. (202) 393-0930. (Ayesha Morris)