Friday through Sunday: Umbrella Art Fair at Dock 5
Attending the inaugural Umbrella Art Fair in 2019 gave D.C. art fans a sense of hope. After years living in a city that the sitting president openly loathed, we were tired. Being able to see new works from various visual artists was a good reminder that outside of the day-to-day, this is still a place and an art scene dominated by forward-thinking individuals. Some more tiring current events have occurred in the past five years. Thankfully, Umbrella Art Fair returns for the fifth, and biggest, edition this weekend. After 2023’s then-largest edition, both in terms of square footage and attendance, this year’s version returns to Union Market with more than 100 artists—59 percent of whom are new exhibitors—for three days. In addition to the new folks, some returning hometown heroes include Julia Chon, E$, Rose Jaffe, Juan Pineda, and Aniekan Udofia. While the goal of any festival like this is to sell art to the public, it’s not so cost-prohibitive to be off-putting. Prices range from $300 to a high of $12,000. Speaking of prices, USAN USAN, the producer of the festival, does not take a commission. USAN USAN’s Peter Chang tells us, “Our mission has always been to uplift artists and create economic opportunities for artists, curators, and arts organizations. That’s why we take zero commission from any art sales. All of our featured artists and curators keep 100 percent of their sales. Umbrella is the only art fair with this model.” It’s also one of the few festivals with multiple curators. “We believe that high tides raise all ships,” says Chang. “The more curators, galleries, and arts organizations we collaborate with, the more we can strengthen the arts community. We can achieve so much more together. That’s what Umbrella is all about.” Umbrella Art Fair runs from noon to 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday; noon to 8 p.m. on Sunday at Dock 5, 1309 5th St. NE. umbrellaartfair.com Free. —Brandon Wetherbee
Umbrella Art Fair. Credit: Pierre Edwards
Friday: The Hellp at the Atlantis
On “Colorado,” the most streamed track of the Hellp’s major-label debut album, LL, Noah Dillon raspily sings about the stark contrast between the bright skies of his home state and feeling dejected after letting a lover go: “The sky is looking Colorado/ But I am covеred in gray/ And I was thinkin’ ’bout a lover/ But I couldn’t get hеr to stay.” The song has Dillon’s voice laid over trippy synths and an electric guitar, with an instrumental break that recalls hits from the 2010s electronic pop craze without sounding derivative. With LL, fans and new listeners alike can bask in the trance-inducing production under Dillon’s imperfect but fitting vocals. With fan favorites like the aforementioned “Colorado” (which was previously leaked) and title track, the listener is presented with an album fit for partying and long, nostalgia-induced summer drives. LL can be loud—abrasive at times—but energizing; it’s a strong departure from their earlier soft sound. And they’ve done a lot to get to this point, all before they were even signed. In March, Dillon told The Face: “When I started the band, I had one mission in mind: to move the needle in the underground. We did that by 2019.” While much of the Hellp’s lore is muddled, here is what is known for sure: The band was founded in Los Angeles in 2015. The Hellp’s original lineup was Dillon (singer), Eddie Liaboh (guitarist), with Chandler Ransom Lucy joining as producer-drummer in 2016. Their single from that year, “wingspan,” is miles away from their current sound, which has more soft rock influences. It’s not even available on their Spotify. Liaboh left in 2018. Although aspects of their lore is hearsay—whether or not Frank Ocean’s mood board featured their music video of “Confluence” or if their song “Beacon 002” was played on Ye’s private jet—one thing is for sure: They know how to evolve as artists and have a fun time doing it. The Hellp are currently touring their album and it’d be a shame not to see them. The Hellp play at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 15 at the Atlantis, 2047 9th St. NW. theatlantis.com. Sold out. —Daryl Perry
The Hellp; Credit: Noah Dillon
Saturday: Metropolis at AFI Silver
Will any of us live in a time when Metropolis doesn’t seem prophetic or influential? There’s no Star Wars or Blade Runner without Fritz Lang’s 1927 masterpiece so the influence is pretty much guaranteed. But do we always have to worry about late-stage capitalism and fascism so much that Metropolis feels like a warning and not just science fiction? Just how close to a class war are we? If you haven’t seen the classic, or the version that was restored in 2010 with more than 25 minutes of discovered footage from an Argentinian museum in 2008, you’ve seen what the film has inspired. The best way to sit through a two-and-a-half-hour silent film is in a movie theater. It’s an even better viewing experience when there’s live musical accompaniment. The Anvil Orchestra will be performing during this screening and David Lefever of the Art Deco Society of Washington will introduce the film. Metropolis is in the public domain. You can watch it for free on almost every streaming service, but seeing it in the way it was meant to be seen, with a live music score, should give you an appreciation of one of the greatest films ever made. Metropolis with live musical accompaniment by the Anvil Orchestra screens at 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 16 at AFI Silver, 8633 Colesville Rd., Silver Spring. afisilver.afi.com. $20. —Brandon Wetherbee
Fritz Lang’s Metropolis; courtesy of AFI Silver
Sunday: SASAMI at the 9:30 Club
SASAMI. Credit: Miriam Marlene
Do you like to attend concerts by an artist with a new record on the horizon? Do you need to sing along to have a good time? SASAMI, one of rock music’s best guitarists (and soon to be one of pop music’s best too), has a record coming out in March, Blood on the Silver Screen, that sounds quite a bit different from her 2022 album, Squeeze. Based on the current tour’s set lists, you’re going to hear a lot of an album you’re not supposed to hear until spring 2025. But if you’re a big fan of Squeeze and its dark, metal-ish melodies, sorry, the new stuff isn’t quite the same. In a similar trajectory of St. Vincent, the production is still second-to-none, but the guitars are no longer the center of the SASAMI universe. The six-string shredding is still there, it’s just buried in the mix over a pop sheen. Blood on the Silver Screen’s “Just Be Friends” has modern country pop success potential. Take away a few of the programmed drums, swap in an acoustic guitar, and add in a backup singer and it would fit well on a Carrie Underwood set. “I’ll Be Gone” sounds like Ladytron if they were fronted by Tegan and Sara. One of the singles from the new record, “Honeycrash,” sounds a slightly harder spin on a modern Taylor Swift single. This isn’t a bad thing and if SASAMI gets any level of pop radio success, pop radio will be a much better place. But the new stuff has more in common with modern radio than metal. In fact, nothing on the new record sounds like the first single from Squeeze, “Skin a Rat.” I love, love, love that song. But an artist has no responsibility to stay in one place and based on set lists and new singles, that place is in the past. SASAMI open for Destroy Boys at 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 17 at the 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW. 930.com. Sold out, but secondary market tickets are available. —Brandon Wetherbee
Sunday and Wednesday: Kiss Me, Kate: The Musical at Alamo Drafthouse
Stephanie J. Block and Adrian Dunbar in Kiss Me, Kate: The Musical (2024); courtesy of Trafalgar Productions
Stephanie J. Block is a Broadway legend, perhaps best known for her long association with Wicked’s green goddess Elphaba, though she finally won her Tony for the Cher jukebox musical in 2019. Her voice marries technical perfection and live-wire emotional spontaneity; in every scene, she’s arrestingly intuitive, a marvel to watch. But Block has thus far eschewed the well-trod theater-to-screen pipeline, and the majority of her available performances on YouTube are shaky bootleg recordings with terrible audio quality. The chance to see and hear Block do her thing in crisp surround sound—for a fraction of the cost of an orchestra seat—is reason enough to check out Alamo Drafthouse’s showings of Kiss Me, Kate: The Musical, filmed live for stateside screens during a four-month run at the Barbican in London earlier this year. This production of Cole Porter’s 1948 screwball musical comedy stars Block as Lilli Vanessi, the imperious leading lady of the show-within-a-show’s Taming of the Shrew adaptation, and Adrian Dunbar as Fred Graham, the play’s director and star and Lilli’s ex-husband. American director Bartlett Sher, who has staged a profusion of mid-century musicals at New York’s Lincoln Center over the past decade, crossed the pond to helm this one. The British theater press praised the revival’s intricate staging, winsome ensemble cast, and general unstuffiness despite the periodisms of the source material. If reviews of Dunbar’s baritone were less than laudatory, no matter; again, you’re here for Block, whose “pugilistic coloratura” was highlighted by David Jays in the Guardian and can be seen on D.C. screens for two dates only. Kiss Me, Kate: The Musical screens at 3:30 p.m. on Nov. 17 and 6:45 p.m. on Nov. 20 at Alamo Drafthouse, 500 Rhode Island Ave. NE. drafthouse.com. $16. —Amelia Roth-Dishy
Tuesday and Wednesday: PostClassical Ensemble at the Kennedy Center
PostClassical Ensemble Music Director and Conductor Angel Gil-Ordóñez; Courtesy of PCE
D.C.’s PostClassical Ensemble has demonstrated for more than two decades that there’s more to orchestral music than just performing selections from long-gone European classical music greats. Founded by locally based Spanish conductor Angel Gil-Ordóñez, with music historian Joseph Horowitz serving as executive producer through 2021, the PCE instead participates in programs with guest curators and musicians and has offered the likes of classical Armenian music, Native American music, Indonesian gamelan, and Black American spirituals. For their 21st season opening event, Gil-Ordóñez has brought on Brazilian composer and conductor Flavio Chamis to mark two centuries of Brazil and U.S. diplomatic relations with “Legends of Brazil: A Musical Celebration for 200 Years of Friendship.” The show, put together by Chamis, will feature the Ensemble’s 29 musicians and guests such as Brazilian classical and jazz composer and pianist Andre Mehmari, who will be playing chamber music with violist Tatjana Mead Chamis. The eclectic Mehmari is known for his skill playing both pretty and noisy notes. The PCE will also debut the U.S. premiere of movements from late Brazilian classical composer Francisco Mignone’s “Quadros Amazônicos,” as well as taking on acclaimed Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos’ “Bachianas Brasileiras no. 4,” which melds traditional Brazilian music with Johann Sebastian Bach. To show how Brazilian classical music is also rooted in the country’s folkloric and popular music genres such as samba and bossa nova, D.C.- based singer Elin Melgarejo, best known for being part of Thievery Corporation, will lend her vocals to a mini-set of five songs including compositions by such masters of lush and tuneful songcraft as Baden Powell and Antonio Carlos Jobim. Local jazz percussionist Lucas Ashby will be on hand to help provide distinctive rhythms and to help further prove what Gil-Ordóñez means by PostClassical. The PostClassical Ensemble’s Legends of Brazil: A Musical Celebration of 200 Years starts at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 19 and 20 at the Kennedy Center, 2700 F St. NW. kennedy-center.org. $45–$69. —Steve Kiviat
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