Tone at the Rock and Roll Hotel

D.C.’s own Tone will bring their brand of propulsive soundscapes to the Rock and Roll Hotel tonight for what guarantees to be an evening of dynamic instrumental music.

Formed in 1991, the band has released five albums on Dischord, Independent Project, and Neurot Recordings. From the fall of 2004 through the spring of 2006, Tone collaborated with Bowen McCauley Dance Company, which led to numerous performances at the Kennedy Center, a festival appearance in Aachen, Germany, and a set of intense new works.

When I first saw Tone in the 1990s, I thought I was hearing a cross between a beefed up version of Pink Floyd’s “Interstellar Overdrive” and some cool movie soundtrack I had somehow never heard before. Since then, while the band’s lineup grew to two drummers, a bassist, and four or five guitarists, and then slimmed-down to three guitars, bass, and drums, they still deliver an intense sonic punch.

Also on tonight’s bill: King Giant, Gifts from Enola, and Dark Sea Dream.

Rock and Roll Hotel, 1353 H Street, NE.

$10.00 admission. Doors at 8:30.

Monteverdi at the National Cathedral

The Folger Consort, a nationally renowned chamber music ensemble who perform music from the 12th through the 18th century, begin the new year with a concert featuring music written 400 years ago: Claudio Monteverdi’s Vespers of the Blessed Virgin, published in Venice in 1610.

Although the Consort most often perform locally in the intimate confines of the Folger Shakespeare Library’s Elizabethan Theater, this weekend they continue their tradition of staging at least one concert series in the vast expanse of the National Cathedral. According to the Consort, the “resonant reaches of Washington National Cathedral provide a magnificent venue for the timeless masterpiece,” 1610 Vespers, one of the towering masterpieces of the Baroque era.

With this work, Monteverdi, a master of both old and avant-garde style, composed a work both retrospective and startlingly new—the grand Psalm settings are meditations on the age-old Gregorian chants, and the “sacred songs” are Monteverdi’s bold introduction of the latest theatrical style to liturgical music. Unlike most modern performances of the Vespers, the Folger Consort’s period version, without a conductor, features one-on-a-part virtuoso instrumentalists and vocal soloists who also serve as the choir.

The concerts will be held on Friday, January 8 and Saturday, January 9 at 8:00 p.m.

Folger Consort, 1610 Vespers

As You Like It (or Not)

Last Wednesday I saw the Shakespeare Theatre Company production of As You Like It. I didn’t. The acting is good, the writing is Shakespeare, and the sets are appealing. The problem is with the director’s “madcap” concept.

The play starts with a clever and well-executed live recreation of a silent movie clip, setting the scene for the beginning of the action. The scene then shifts to a conventional theater stage, with décor and costumes implying puritan England. Things work well like this until the main characters all flee tyranny and end up in the forest of Arden, which has somehow been relocated to the East Coast of North America. The same stage magic that merged two continents also transformed time, placing the continuing action just prior to the American Revolution.

That transition was jarring and a little disorienting. But the tie in with a search for freedom made it somewhat palatable. Unfortunately it didn’t stop there. Suddenly years and sets began to change at a dizzying pace. The play skipped merrily through almost 200 years in two hours which seemed like an eternity.

But wait, there’s more: the movie theme resurfaced. With each scene change various camera crews, gaffers, etc., swarmed the stage, then faded into the wings.

I kept waiting for the director to tie it all together, but when the spectacle was over, I was merely confused and disappointed.

NOTE: Today's review was written by the man in the good seats, Eric H.

Holiday Films for Atypical Tastes

Film companies usually release their best films (or the films they consider most likely to get award nominations) during this time of the year, so it's surprising that there are relatively few really good movies playing right now. Still, if you're looking for a night out, I've recently seen three films (all playing in town) that I can recommend: Up in the Air, The Road, and Red Cliff. But be warned, none of these are traditional holiday feel good fare.

Up in the Air, the new film by Jason Reitman, director of Juno and Thank You for Smoking, is the best of the bunch with George Clooney playing Ryan Bingham, a professional corporate downsizer who's hired by companies to fire their employees. While this idea has the potential to be a first rate downer or a tear-jerker, it is neither. It's a funny, witty, complex film that looks at the value of connections between people - what we want, what we're willing to reveal, and the choices we make to protect ourselves. The scenes involving the layoffs are handled respectfully and never for laughs, giving us insight into the emotional armor that Bingham has built up over the years. All said, it's a very funny, moving film with one of Clooney's most emotionally charged performances.

On the surface, The Road, drawn from Cormac MacCarthy's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, is one grim tale, but beneath this struggle of a father and his young son to survive a holocaust that destroyed all animals, plants, and most humans, is a beautiful look at the love between a father and his son. Viggo Mortensen gives an intense performance as "the man" trying to prepare his son for the world and teach him right from wrong in an environment riddled with cannibals, cold, hunger, and violence. And as can happen, it's the son that ends up teaching the father. The film asks us to consider the very nature of humanity and manages to find it in an unbelievable bleak environment.

Red Cliff, John Woo's film about the Battle of Red Cliffs (208 A.D.) toward the end of China’s Han Dynasty, is highest grossing film ever in China and some other Asian countries. The most expensive Asian-financed film ever made, Red Cliff  is a visual tour-de-force, featuring a cast of thousands, court intrigue, sweeping battle scenes, slo-mo fight scenes, and a detailed look at battlefield tactics and strategy. Beautiful in its scope and execution, particularly in the climatic naval battle, the movie is an old-style epic with new style CGI effects—two warriors battle, in part for the love of a woman, leaving thousands dead in their wake. The 148-minute version that's playing in the U.S. now was edited down by Woo from his original 2-part, 5 hour film released in China.

National Geographic Sale and Terra Cotta Warriors open this week

This Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (November 20 - 22), National Geographic is bringing truckloads of books, maps, globes, toys, clothing, luggage, travel accessories, DVDS and more to its warehouse sale at the Washington, DC armory. This almost-annual sale gives bargain hunters a chance to pick up some cool holiday gifts at up to 90% off. 


I try not to miss this sale. But be warned - the crowds can be huge during peak times (Saturday morning and afternoon), so plan ahead. And everything's pretty picked over by Sunday although there will still be plenty of books available.


Hours: Friday 10 -6; Saturday and Sunday 9 - 5

Metro: Stadium Armory on the Orange and Blue lines. Plenty of parking nearby.

Also, this Thursday, National Geographic's "Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China's First Emperor," a traveling exhibition featuring the largest number of terra cotta figures ever to travel to the United States, opens at the National Geographic Museum. The exhibition, which includes 15 terra cotta figures from the tomb of China's First Emperor, Qin Shihuangdi, who ruled from 221-210 B.C., will run through March 31, 2010. This is the final stop for the warriors, on a four-city U.S. tour.

If you've been to National Geo before, you know the exhibition space has been rather 'confined.' For this exhibit, they've enlarged the space to give the crowds and the warriors a little room to breathe (and move).

You will definitely need to buy advance tickets, which have been on sale since March. Ticket prices are $12 for adults; $10 for seniors, students, military personnel and National Geographic members; and $6 for children ages 2-12.

Hours: daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., with extended hours on Wednesdays until 9 p.m. Closed on Dec. 25. 

Location: 17th & M Streets NW, Washington, DC 20036

For more information, visit www.warriorsdc.org.

Dr. Parnassus previews at AFI, November 14

As part of this year's EU Film Festival, the American Film Institute has a real treat for filmgoers – a surprise premiere of Terry Gilliam's latest flight of fantasy, "The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus." There will be one showing at 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, November 15. 

The film's gotten a lot of press over the past year for being the last film starring Heath Ledger. The production had just taken a break after filming the real world scenes in London when Ledger returned home to New York for the last time. Director Gilliam, known as much for his oft-troubled productions as for his brilliant imagination and his work with Monty Python, then enlisted Johnny Depp to fill in for Ledger in the fantasy sequences. When Depp's schedule wouldn't allow him the time to complete the project, Gilliam asked Colin Farrell and Jude Law to help out. Tom Waits plays Mr. Nick, the devil, with Christopher Plummer as Dr. Parnassus. The reviews from Europe have been mixed, but I can't imagine this screening won't sell out - get your tickets now or plan to wait until Christmas when it opens nationally.

Dr. Parnassus at AFI

"Before the Frost," a trip through America with the Black Crowes

"Man, this is a great rock and roll album!"


Now that's not something you hear people say much these days. But the latest Black Crowes CD, Before the Frost, is one of the best rock and roll albums I've heard in a while, which means it has lots of guitars, good melodies, and driving rhythms. 


The band recorded this album of new material in front of a live audience in Levon Helm's barn in Woodstock, New York. That they were recording where Helm, former drummer and singer for The Band, lives and works, may have influenced the Crowes. When they first appeared in the early 1990s, they were considered a modern version of the Faces. But lately, the band's sound has moved closer to some great American bands like The Band and Creedence Clearwater Revival. On the opener, "Good Morning Captain," I swear I hear Helm singing along. 


To me, this is their best album since the early 1990s and definitely better than anything they've put out since 2000. The band is maturing, mixing in elements of bluegrass and country with their more traditional blues rock sound. Now it's fiddles and mandolins along with slide guitars and blues harp. And for the most part, they're keeping their songs tight—they've managed to reign in their desire to "jam til you drop" during these live shows. I don't care how long Chris Robinson grows his beard and how ratty his blue jeans get, this ain't 1975 and songs don't need to be eight minutes long. 


When you buy Before the Frost, it comes with a passcode that will allow you to download another new album, Until the Freeze, something of a more a traditional American roots album. But it's roots music in the way the Stones played country — with a lot of respect for the traditions of the music but a good dose of rock 'n' roll energy and a bit of bluster.


So let's see—that's about $12.00 for a two-hour trip through americana with the Black Crowes. Sounds like a no-brainer.