Since releasing its excellent album There Is Nothing To Fear last year, The North Country has refined and reworked its folk/indie/country sound through several lineup changes, but the end product, frontman Andrew Grossman’s vibrant songwriting, hasn’t changed. At every show, he charges ecstatically into each chord, singing songs that channel an existentially barren yet strangely hopeful approach to living and working as an artist in today’s D.C. The music shifts, often dramatically, from grand and epochal to soft and tender—an outcome driven more by melodic passion than strict calculation. Read more >>> The North Country performs with My Son Bison and Sean Barna at 10 p.m. at Comet Ping Pong, 5037 Connecticut Ave. NW. $12. (202) 364-0404. cometpingpong.com. (Quinn Myers)
EAT THIS
New District regulations allow distilleries to stay open later. Jos. A. Magnus & Co. is one of the first to take advantage of the new rules. Beginning this weekend, the Ivy City gin, vodka, and bourbon distillery will be open from 4:30 p.m. to midnight on Fridays, noon to midnight on Saturdays, and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sundays. (Previously, the distillery had to close by 9 p.m.) Stop by the facility’s Murray Hill Club tasting room to try cocktails made with spirits produced mere feet away. Jos. A. Magnus & Co., 2052 W. Virginia Ave. NE. (202) 450-3518. josephmagnus.com. (Jessica Sidman)
OH AND ALSO
Friday: Folk icons The Indigo Girls perform at the Lincoln Theatre with blues artist Toshi Reagon. 6:30 p.m. at 1215 U St. NW. $55.
Friday: Dance to your favorite ’80s new wave hits at the Black Cat’s regular New Order Dance Party with DJs Missguided, Killa K, and Steve EP. 9:30 p.m. at 1811 14th St. NW. $10.
Friday: Jane Comfort & Company premieres a new abstract, evening-length dance piece, based around the ways humans interact with each other in urban environments, at American Dance Institute. 8 p.m. at 1570 East Jefferson St., Rockville. $15–$30.
Saturday: Live shows by New Orleans–based jam band Galactic aren’t so much concerts as they are a mini NOLA experience. The quintet’s lineup doesn’t include a regular vocalist, so members often outsource that responsibility to big-name talents like Macy Gray and Mavis Staples. Its members project a brassy party vibe, elevating whoever is around it with its pep and table-dancing swing sound that dares you to stand still. Read more >>> Galactic performs with The Bright Light Social Hour at 8 p.m. at 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW. $30. (202) 265-0930. 930.com. (Allison Kowalski)
Saturday: Bowen McCauley Dance celebrates its 20th anniversary with a performance at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater featuring the world premiere of Ars Amatoria, adapted from the work of Ovid. 7 p.m. at 2700 F St. NW. $40–$45.
Saturday: Singer-songwriter Pete Yorn plays an intimate show at the Howard Theatre in support of his latest album, Arranging Time. 8 p.m. at 620 T St. NW. $35.
Sunday: When his son was killed in the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, Israeli novelist David Grossman crafted Falling Out of Time, a lyrical novel about a character simply called Walking Man, who is so grief-stricken by the loss of his child that he begins to walk widening circles around his town, moving constantly to keep the ache of loss from consuming him entirely. Beginning this week at Theater J, Derek Goldman, artistic director of Georgetown University’s Davis Performing Arts Center, presents his staged adaptation of Grossman’s novel. Read more >>> The play runs March 17 to April 17 at Theater J, 1529 16th St. NW. $15–$67. (202) 777-3210. theaterj.org. (Caroline Jones)
Sunday: The National Gallery of Art screens Ella Maillart—Double Journey, Antonio Bigini and Mariann Lewinsky‘s documentary about photographer Maillart’s 1939 journey by car from Switzerland to Afghanistan. Bigini will discuss the work following the screening. 4 p.m. at 6th Street and Constitution Avenue NW. Free.
Sunday: Close out the weekend at The Hamilton, where acoustic duo Jackopierce performs with Natalie York. 7:30 p.m. at 600 F St. NW. $22.25–$28.25.
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Photo by Mikhail Bezruchko.