Tonight: Marc Masters on High Bias at Rhizome

Search for “cassette tape revival,” and you’ll find dozens of news reports—some corny, some skeptical—about the scrappy audio format’s surge in popularity at record stores and on merch tables. The cassette’s six-decade saga is worthy of a deep dive, though, and music journalist Marc Masters lovingly embraces the task in High Bias: The Distorted History of the Cassette Tape. The D.C.-area native, who moved to a Phoenix ’burb a few years ago, is stopping here as part of his book tour. His goal is to make sure “these events are like celebrations of the cassette tape as much—or more—than being about the book itself,” he says. His writing has appeared in publications that stretch back to the cassette’s heyday (the Washington Post, Rolling Stone, The Wire, and elsewhere), and his first book, No Wave, chronicled the ’70s New York music and art scene of the same name. Masters’ D.C. event is at Rhizome, a Northwest nonprofit and DIY space where he’s been a regular over the years. In addition to a discussion with filmmaker Jeff Krulik (Heavy Metal Parking Lot, Led Zeppelin Played Here), there will be music from Nice Breeze (two of the band members played with Masters in the band Plums years ago) and Canandaigua (led by musician/filmmaker/artist Raul Zahir De Leon). Surely someone will tape it? The book talk begins at 7 p.m. on Oct. 26, with bands to follow, at Rhizome, 6950 Maple St. NW. rhizomedc.org. Free. —Joe Warminsky

Saturday: The Shreking Ball at Union Stage

Want to celebrate Halloweekend Shrek-style? This Saturday, Union Stage’s Shreking Ball: A Green Tie Affair returns to Southwest. The aptly named DJ Farquaad and DJ Puss in Boots will be playing some Shrek-based tunes—and the bar will be serving special swamp-themed cocktails. Costumes are encouraged, and the best dressed will win Shrek-themed prizes and a pair of tickets to a Union Stage show of their choosing. As Jake Diamond, one of the organizers, explains, Shreking Ball is a celebration of not just the beloved DreamWorks movie franchise, but absurdity too. “Life is so serious, and to have a space and time where you can just scream ‘All Star’ with friends while in Shrek costumes is something I think everyone needs.” The Shreking Ball starts at 10:30 p.m. on Oct. 28 at Union Stage, 740 Water St. SW. unionstage.com. $10. —Hannah Docter-Loeb 

Ends Sunday: LYRICS TO GO at VisArts

LYRICS TO GO, an exhibition at VisArts in Rockville, featuring text-based artworks by Ebon Heath and Tahir Hemphill, was curated by the VisArts 2023 mentor Dr. Fahamu Pecou, an Atlanta-based artist known for dynamic self-portraits. The exhibition celebrates the 50th anniversary of hip-hop with artworks atypical for exhibitions on the culture. This exhibition doesn’t focus on the four pillars of hip-hop: rapping, breaking, graffiti, and DJing. Instead, LYRICS TO GO expands the conversation on hip-hop by using sculpture and technology to investigate rap music, as Pecou’s goal was to think beyond what a hip-hop exhibition could be. Employing visual art in an exhibition about hip-hop, Heath and Hemphill conceptually use language to transform words into artistic objects. Heath, a trained graphic designer and art director, originally created packaging for hip-hop music, creating a relationship between the visual and the music. He uses his expertise with hip-hop and text to create two-dimensional sculptures that fabricate the sentiments of classic hip-hop songs. The use of lyrics generates word clouds, which are not meant to be read, but felt. They are made of wood and acrylic to resemble metal in silver and gold. Hemphill, creator of Rap Research Lab, a community-based creative technology studio, makes art that visualizes rap lyrics, revealing indirect patterns and trends in hip-hop music. Trained as an engineer, he uses his industrial know-how to create one-dimensional representations of individual MC’s lyrics, and then casts them into three-dimensional objects using 3D printing. He also created “The Hip-Hop Word Count,” a database containing more than 50,000 rap songs, to investigate the complexity of the words used by MCs and turn them into visualizations. LYRICS TO GO is on view through Oct. 29 at VisArts, 155 Gibbs St., Rockville. Friday, noon to 8 p.m.; Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, noon to 4 p.m. visartscenter.org. Free. —Shantay Robinson

Sunday: El Alfa at EagleBank Arena

Dominican performer El Alfa can rap in a conversational or lilting tone but what he’s best known for is spitting cartoon-esque, rapid-fire rhymes like a bully taunting a kid on the playground. El Alfa is no bully though and not a novelty act either. The 32-year-old, born Emanuel Herrera Batista, is an energetic, often comedic, sometimes profane lyricist whose vocal agility in Spanish has impressed listeners on both his solo efforts and collaborations with the likes of Bad Bunny, Cardi B, and Kali Uchis. He’s known as the “King of Dembow,” and “Legend of Dembow” for his intonation over the Dominican genre’s speedy beats with roots in dancehall reggae. Thanks to working with clever producers such as Chael Produciendo, El Alfa occasionally varies from his favorite fast beats per minute pace, and displays his wordplay, his horror movie-like chanting, and his playful rendition of the title “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” on slightly slower tempoed songs that musically draw elements from all over the Caribbean and Latin America. El Alfa packed Madison Square Garden last week, so expect a large crowd here—ready to enjoy his joyful loquaciousness. El Alfa plays at 8 p.m. on Oct. 29 at EagleBank Arena, 4500 Patriot Cir., Fairfax. eaglebankarena.com. $35–$195.99. —Steve Kiviat

Ongoing: Reflection Unknown by Fred Zafran at Multiple Exposures Gallery

Fred Zafran acknowledges that his current one-person exhibit at Multiple Exposures Gallery is an “unusual” one. It’s an “allegory of doubt and inquiry,” he says, in which the works should be “considered symbolically or metaphorically.” Not surprisingly, Zafran’s photographs—a mixture of natural scenes and portraits of anonymous figures—are pensive and moody. In fact, Zafran’s works are intensely personal to the point of opacity, with brief titles like “Beckoning,” “Deepening,” and “Far Beyond,” explaining little. Fortunately, their visual vocabulary makes many of Zafran’s photographs compelling. One image of sky reflected in water is pleasingly multilayered, with a water surface splotchy with algae yet coexisting with a dreamy cloud-and-branch-dappled sky. In another, fog swirling within a brambly forest tricks the eye into wondering whether one is looking straight ahead or straight down; in a third, lily pads in bright sunlight take on an unusual, ghostly yet reflective sheen, sharply contrasting with an impenetrably inky aquatic backdrop. If one image successfully marries the natural and the human worlds, it’s “Presence,” in which a man sits, trancelike, on a park bench as tendrils of water dance from a nearby fountain; the image presents a concise embodiment of the yin-yang of motion and stasis. Reflection Unknown runs through Nov. 19 at Multiple Exposures Gallery at the Torpedo Factory Art Center, 105 N Union St., Alexandria. Daily, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. multipleexposuresgallery.com. Free. —Louis Jacobson

It’s also Halloween weekend and if you want more events in keeping with the holiday, check out our Spooky Best Bets for October 27-31, courtesy of Colleen Kennedy.