We know D.C. Get our free newsletter to stay in the know.
The local Stacy Brooks Band is not breaking any new ground with its Chicago-style electric blues, but thanks to Brooks’ booming vocals, her group displays a timeless vitality. Brooks, a D.C. native who moved to Germany with her Army-stationed father and returned to the area in 1988, has been singing onstage since age 5, when she opened for her mother’s gospel group. With her band on two albums and live since 2007, Brooks’ voice has ignited originals like “My Name is Stacy” and standards including “Rock Me Baby,” “Black Drawers,” and “Downhome Blues.” While those latter numbers might be blues clichés, Brooks infuses lyrics like “I want you to rock me baby, like my back ain’t got no bone” with a sexiness that would impress its co-writer, B.B. King. The Stacy Brooks Band performs at 6 p.m. at Westminster Church, 400 I St. SW. $5. Free for children under 16. (202) 484-7700. (Steve Kiviat)
MUSIC
Eternally wry power-popper Nick Lowe, with his band in tow, performs with opener Tift Merritt at 7:30 p.m. at the Birchmere, 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria. (703) 549-7500. $45.
All-female outfit Be’la Dona are one of the area’s more in-demand “grown and sexy” go-go groups, but they call their particular style “sensual crank.” Whoa. They perform for free tonight at 6 p.m. on the Kennedy Center’s Millenium Stage, 2700 F St. NW. (202) 467-4600.
READINGS
The Dark Room Collective—-a group of highly influential black poets founded in 1987—-is on a reunion tour, and it stops tonight at Lutheran Church of the Reformation. Tisa Bryant, Thomas Sayers Ellis, Major Jackson, John Keene, Tracy K. Smith, Sharan Strange, Natasha Trethewey, and Kevin Young will read, and Meta DuEwa Jones will moderate a conversation. At 6:30 p.m. at Lutheran Church of the Reformation, 212 East Capitol Street NE. $15.