Let us take a moment to discuss a frequently maligned band. After their amelodic left turn of a sophomore album, Vivian Girls returned this year with Share the Joy, which is varied and energetic and most importantly full of earworms. It’s also a pretty nice marriage of its member’s side-projects, The Babies and La Series (who in fact have released better albums than their main gig’s in 2011). They’re also cool: They were the weirdest thing in a bar full of douchebags when the Bruise Cruise stopped by Nassau shithole Senor Frogs back in February, and still delivered a killer set. Way after they were well-known, they played a relatively obscure D.C. DIY space. Stuff like that. With Widowspeak at 8:30 p.m. at Rock & Roll Hotel.
MORE MUSIC
Classical folks: The BSO is previewing its season tonight at Strathmore. Copland! Debussy! Strauss! But most importantly: Marin Alsop, the orchestra’s charismatic leader. I went to one of these preview shows a few years back, and the tone was cool and conversational. Excerpts of pieces for the attention-deficit; smart explanations from Alsop. I’ll be back there tonight. 8 p.m. at Strathmore.
FILM
The short film may seem like an archaic form, an early-20th-century relic typified on one hand by arty experiments like Manhatta and Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis and on the other by slapsticky series like The Three Stooges and Our Gang. But the Internet has made shorts relevant again, and growing attention to the form gives the DC Shorts Film Festival a little extra rub in its eighth year. The festival groups films into 90-minute screenings during its opening weekend, tallies votes for the best of the shorts, and then shows the winners on Sept. 17 and 18 at the Atlas Performing Arts Center. Between those bookends, all of the movies are rescreened, which means you have plenty of opportunities to take in the 145 films submitted from 23 countries. Not surprisingly, comedies dominate the docket—though eye-gouges, bowl haircuts, and lovable l’il scamps will probably be in short supply. (Chris Porter) MORE ON WCP”S COVERAGE HERE.
Photo by Darrow Montgomery