GOOD MORNING: Good morning!

ABOUT LAST NIGHT: I saw the Folger’s lean—-indeed, lean!—-take on Henry VIII, and I’d spare you my opinion since usually one doesn’t want to weigh in after his critic has, but it turns out I agree with Trey Graham here: weak-sauce Shakespeare, but what an impressive, lavish, slyly innovative production.

Theeeeeeeeeennnnnnnnn I stopped by Red Door and caught sets by doomy post-rockers Mirrorgate—-who brought with them an actual mirror gate! see above—-and Skeleton$, both from New York.

AND I BOUGHT: And I bought the latest Sockets Records LP, a self-titled 12-inch by Big Gold Belt, from the label’s Sean Peoples, who put on the show. Want a tease? Sockets put up this remix of Big Gold Belt’s “Do Not Disturb.” Perfect for your morning dojo workout.

SO THIS WEEKEND: Yeah, there’s a rally. I will be covering it along with a handful of other WCPers. Here is our primer! Here’s WaPo‘s obscene amount of pre-rally coverage. Then there’s TBD’s even more obscene amount of pre-rally coverage, and here’s the latest nugget, which is veering dangerously into meta territory. Also yesterday, TBD told you where to find tampons near the national mall, you know, just in case—-at which point, my colleague Emily Kaiser declared herself sick of this shit. Her advice? “We’ll play it smart and just tell you to stop being an idiot and plan ahead.”

Then on Sunday! I guess you could dispense candy. OR you could hit up the Yeah Gates Halloween Spooktacular, which doubles as a record release party for two of the bands on the label, America Hearts and Foul Swoops. The Cheniers, who released a 7-inch on Windian this year that you should cop, are also playing. Earlier this week, All Our Noise posted a pretty lurvely session with America Hearts:

It’s Howard Homecoming! More on this in today’s Weekend Music Roundup.

The West End Cinema opens today, which brings the state of D.C. independent movie houses from pathetic to almost acceptable. Among the films there: Howl, which Tricia reviewed this week, and Budrus, which we caught over the summer, when it screened as part of Silverdocs.

SOME LINKS: Jeff Krulik talks to Click Track re: historical NoVa rock & roll. Geoff Himes reviews These United States‘ latest record in WaPo (his opinion’s a tad more positive than ours). And, um, DC Theatre Scene reviewed a lot of theater, in all likelihood! (Go check for me and report back.)

HAVE A GOOD WEEKEND: Have a good weekend!