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Thursday: Belle and Sebastian at the Anthem
Don’t forget this show highlighted in last week’s City Lights: After Belle and Sebastian’s Sarah Martin graduated from university, she took a job in a local bookshop. “My mum was like, ‘Yeah, but what are you really going to do?’” Martin tells City Paper. “I was like, ‘No, this is fine because I’m joining this band and I want to do something that won’t be too difficult to give up.’ She was like, ‘That’s the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard.’” Her mum needn’t have worried. —Christina Smart
Saturday: The Villains Ball at the AutoShop
Put those Mickey Mouse ears and Superman shields back in the attic—far away from the wicked peripheries of the antiheroes and bad guys running rampant at DC’s Villains Ball. Here’s the time to embrace the characters often overshadowed by their hero counterparts, because even villains need time away from their diabolical plans. This year’s home base will morph out of the AutoShop and into a safe haven for those deemed enemies across all fandom dimensions. Last year’s inaugural ball saw popular anime, comic book, sci-fi, and Disney villains that blurred enemy lines into a circle of its very own. Cruella De Vil was in rare and various forms: donned in floor-length Dalmatian scarves, white petticoats, and lace masks. Majin Buu (from the Dragon Ball manga series) made it to the function in a bright pink suit and even brighter feathers—a similar pink hue to the feathers pinned in Marie Antoinette’s hair. This Ball allows fandom enthusiasts to put themselves in the shoes of their favorite villain, where Roquois Clarke, event organizer and co-founder of Plus Ultra Entertainment, says people often find common ground with the bad guys. “People can realistically empathize with them in certain situations, and it kind of creates that love for them.” The evening will celebrate the villains’ stories with like-minded foes—from lightsaber battles from martial arts group Urban Force to acro-pole dancing inspired by the villainous Golden Woman of Netflix’s Love, Death & Robots. And one lucky attendee will be crowned Villain of the Year. The Villains Ball starts at 8 p.m. on May 4 at the AutoShop, 416 Morse St. NE. villainsball.plusultraentertainment.com. $135–$235. —Heidi Perez-Moreno
Saturday and Sunday: Jazz Greats at Takoma Station
Some wonderful music has transpired at Takoma Station since it brought live jazz back to its stage a few years ago. Yet, some wonderful music has also bypassed the Upper Northwest tavern because it doesn’t have the space for the grand piano that many of the top 88ers insist upon. That changes this weekend—if only for the weekend. A concert grand piano is coming to the Station’s floor (taking up what’s usually table space) especially for the use of two jazz grand masters. Benito Gonzalez, a wizard of the keys who was based in D.C. during the 2000s before moving on to New York, takes the piano bench on Saturday night as the head of a trio. The next night, “Bishop” Allyn Johnson, a D.C. lifer and one of our fair city’s best and most accomplished jazz talents, does the same. If the names aren’t enough to whet your appetite, consider: It’s expensive to rent a grand piano, and it will displace something like a fifth of Takoma Station’s customer capacity. But the powers that be have decided that these two musicians are so good, they have to make that sacrifice. Benito Gonzalez and the Allyn Johnson trio perform at 7 p.m. on May 4 and 6 p.m. on May 5, respectively, at Takoma Station, 6916 4th St. NW. jkproductions.org. $20–$25. —Michael J. West
Sunday: La Perla at Rhizome
La Perla, a woman-led trio made up of Bogotá-based musicians Karen Forero, Giovanna Mogollón, and Diana Sanmiguel, have made it their life’s mission to master the intricate beats shaped by the traditional sounds along Colombia’s Caribbean coastline. So when they began playing in 2014, their vocal and percussion styles blended magic—so much so that they’ve been dubbed the “three Colombian drum witches.” The trio built this reputation through years of playing gaitas and hand drums, and mastering folk singing styles. Their music fuses many of the high-energy and fast-paced rhythms found in traditional Colombian cumbia, bullerengue, and vallenato genres. Critics have deemed their work as reinventing Colombian music. They’ve released one EP—Paren La Bulla—and several singles including a feminist hymn on the struggles women in Latin America face. (It was featured on the Netflix show Siempre bruja, aka Always a Witch, in 2018.) This weekend’s performance at Rhizome DC will be their first in the DMV where they’ll be joined by Taxi Vision, a Queens-based six-piece that blend Ecuadorian, Brazilian, and Italian musical influences. La Perla play at 5 p.m. on May 5 at Rhizome, 6950 Maple St. NW. rhizomedc.org. $15-$25. — Heidi Perez-Moreno
Monday: Babehoven and Grocer at DC9
Babehoven are a duo that specializes in pleasant sounds with well-delivered, well-sung vocals that’ll get you swaying back and forth with someone special. Their newest, Water’s Here in You, is a bit more fleshed-out than 2022’s Light Moving Time. The group are getting more sonically adventurous without losing their sound. It’s nice they’re playing in a room as intimate as DC9. It’ll be interesting to hear songs like “Millennia” and “Chariot” in this setting. They’re the kind of tracks that sound fantastic on headphones and may reveal more in a live setting. The opening band, Grocer, are a trio steeped in catharsis, delivering guitar-based angst that’s part math rock, part grunge, part post-punk. With three different singers providing three distinct types of delivery, there are a lot of Sonic Youth vibes (which is a good thing). Their recent 9-song LP, Bless Me, does a fine job illustrating the unique styles of each singer while showcasing the unity of sound. There’s no weak link and the production they achieved at Cash4Gold Studios in their hometown of Philadelphia is quite good, especially on “Blue Goose” and “Subtext.” It’ll serve as a good calling card for both the band and the studio. This is a bill with acts that have a lot of similarities (both are guitar-based, both have women singers (sometimes), both are up-and-comers in the rock scene and have potential to land on large-scale festival bills in 2025 and beyond), but the Venn diagram between their sounds doesn’t have a ton of overlap. That’s great and far too rare. Babehoven, Grocer, and Aunt Katrina play at 8 p.m. on May 6 at DC9, 1940 9th Street NW. dc9.club $18–$20. —Brandon Wetherbee
Friday, Sunday, Monday, Wednesday: Last Year at Marienbad at AFI Silver
However you feel about this enigmatic, divisive masterpiece, its reach is so pervasive that I swear you can see its influence in last year’s Super Mario Bros. Movie. But the delirious visual dazzle of director Alain Resnais’ 1961 drama, Last Year at Marienbad, has not always been easy to access. Old-timers may remember catching the film in a snowy UHF broadcast on Annandale’s Channel 56, or in a muddy 16mm print at Sidwell Friends’ summer cinema series. Thanks to the AFI’s Recent Restorations, cinephiles can see a 4K upgrade made from the original negative. The plot, such as it is, revolves around art-house power couple Giorgio Albertazzi and Delphine Seyrig, who play unnamed, impeccably dressed guests at an ornate chateau where they may or may not have met the year before. This central mystery—whether these people even know each other—is never solved. If anything, reality becomes less certain as the pair individually and together navigate an intricate baroque architecture. It’s a 94-minute cinematic game with no straightforward rules, and detractors may sympathize with critic Pauline Kael, who famously dismissed its influence as “creeping Marienbadism.” But what keeps viewers glued to their seats is Sacha Vierny’s exquisite black-and-white cinematography, tracking shots taking in every decadent detail of this uncanny palace (played by a number of different palaces around Munich), and capturing Seyrig’s classical facial structure and jet-black hair illuminated like she’s a glamorous vision of Ernie Bushmiller’s Nancy. You may not know what it all means, even after repeat viewings, but it’s so gorgeous it will sweep you away, and maybe that’s the ultimate significance of its peerless, mystifying aesthetic. Last Year at Marienbad screens May 3, 5, 6, and 8 at AFI Silver, 8633 Colesville Rd., Silver Spring. silver.afi.com. $13. —Pat Padua
Now open: Brilliant Exiles: American Women in Paris, 1900–1939, at the National Portrait Gallery
We’re all too familiar with the literary men of the Lost Generation, but we know less about that same generation of American women artists who found themselves in Paris during the early 20th century. These painters, performers, writers, and fashion designers are the stars of the National Portrait Gallery’s latest exhibition, Brilliant Exiles: American Women in Paris, 1900–1939. Through photographs, paintings, sculptures, drawings, and biographies, discover the stories of 60 women who explored their authentic identities away from America’s restrictive culture. After fleeing discrimination based on class, gender, race, and sexual identity, the women pursued their ambitions in Paris and built cultural landmarks, influenced modernist movements, and created bold feminist legacies. Brilliant Exiles opens with Edward Steichen’s “In Exaltation of Flowers,” a sprawling three-panel portrayal of three It Girls—Katharine Nash Rhoades, Marion H. Beckett, and Mercedes de Cordoba—each represented by a flower whose attributes reflect their personalities. But we learn that these women were more than mere muses: Beckett studied postimpressionist art, Rhoades helped establish and run the Freer Gallery of Art (now the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art), and Cordoba worked as a fashion illustrator and correspondent before pursuing an acting career. Many of the women featured in Brilliant Exiles received more attention for their beauty than for their talent or intelligence, but that didn’t stop them from reclaiming their identities through their art. You’ll see portraits of Isadora Duncan, the mother of modern dance, dancing barefoot and scantily clad; Natalie Barney, an out and open lesbian who hosted a literary salon where other queer women could gather safely; and Josephine Baker, a beloved Black performer who satirized colonial stereotypes of African culture. Each story is compelling, heartbreaking, and empowering in equal measures. I highly recommend the accompanying podcast from curator Robyn Asleson. As you wander, ask yourself: What were they running away from? What would they think of the progress we have (or haven’t) made? The National Portrait Gallery’s Brilliant Exiles: American Women in Paris, 1900–1939, is on view through Feb. 23, 2025. npg.si.edu. Free. —Samantha Ostwald
