Our daily roundup of chaste ways to entertain yourself
At some point between when Fort Reno announced its schedule and when I sat down to write this pick, Valley Tours, which is opening tonight’s season kickoff, established a Google-able online presence. The summer concert series has been a local punk institution for probably as long as the genre has existed, and it hasn’t started caring about what’s on your Bandcamp page yet. To be eligible to perform, all you need is, ostensibly, a physical demo and a local ZIP code—although making music in the vein of the District’s post-hardcore tradition certainly helps, too. That aesthetic applies to most of tonight’s bill, but not Valley Tours. Still, the band’s erudite, synth-tickled, ambiguously accented indie pop manages to keep with one occasional Fort Reno tradition: These kids are still in high school. With Beasts of No Nation and Railsplitter. 7:15 p.m. at Fort Reno.
MUSIC
Arty hardcore heroes Fucked Up—-whose new album David Comes to Life is about as sublime a product as you’d expect from a band led by a dude named Pink Eyes—-play with Nashville garage-rock up-and-comers JEFF the Brotherhood. 8:30 p.m. at Rock ‘n’ Roll Hotel.
Locals The Cornel West Theory are on the cusp of releasing a second full-length of dystopic agitprop hip-hop, which means their appearance tonight at D.C.’s most establishmentarian venue should be nicely jarring. 6 p.m. at the Kennedy Center’s Millenium Stage. Free.
Mopey Canadian pop dude Sloan is in Vienna! Whoa. 8 p.m. at Jammin’ Java.
BOOKS
Eleanor Henderson‘s debut novel Ten Thousand Saints is about New York City’s youth culture in the 1980s. 7 p.m. at Politics & Prose. Free.
FILM
Silverdocs reshows the best films from the annual documentary film festival; full list here. Recommended: The Redemption of General Butt Naked (11:30 a.m.), Fire in Babylon (2 p.m.), Don’t Look Back (the D.A. Pennebaker classic, 6 p.m.), Our School (6:15 p.m.), Family Instinct (8 p.m.), Hot Coffee (8:30 p.m.), Donor Unknown (8:45 p.m.). At the AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring.
ART
1HR Magazine, in which arts crew The Parley leads the fast and furious assembly of a zine in one night, at 7 p.m. at Hole in the Sky. Free, but RSVP.
THEATER
The third installment Zeitgeist DC, Goethe-Institut’s readings series featuring new works by leading European playwrights, features Ewald Palmetshofer’s hamlet is dead. no gravity. 7 p.m. at Goethe-Institut.
NON-IRONIC YACHT-ROCK FANS
Kenny Loggins plays his hits. 7:30 p.m. at the Birchmere.