Friday October 2 * doors at 6:30, show at 7 * $20-30 * TICKETS

Eli Winter is a composer, self-taught guitarist, essayist, and Houston native. His music synthesizes aspects of folk, rock, jazz, and devotional music, maintaining a waggish disregard for genre constraints emblematic of Chicago, his adopted hometown. His new album, A Trick of the Light, is an elegantly crafted and vibrant collection that finds the bandleader at the height of his powers. His trio features Chicago improvisers Sam Wagster of Fruit Bats (pedal steel guitar) and Tyler Damon of Circuit des Yeux (drums).

Co-founded by Elsa Saade (musician/puppeteer) and Tracy Chahwan (cartoonist/illustrator), This Time's Quartet is a visionary carousel quartet that brings together four dynamic artists in an immersive, multi-sensory experience where poetry, music, live illustration and puppetry converge. This time, for our Mini East Coast tour, the quartet will feature: Erik Ruin (shadow puppeteer and paper-cut artist),  Huda Asfour (oud and voice), Elsa Saade, and Tracy Chahwan.

Kajwan Ziaoddini started performing Santour in 1998. He earned his master’s degree in Iranian classical music at the University of Tehran. As a musician, he has collaborated with several Iranian ensembles such as Eghbal, Ravian, and Hamnavazan, and has contributed to five albums: From the Saba’s Rose Garden, Hashtrud, Delkesh, Goshayesh, and Nowbang. Kajwan is a faculty of the music department at the University of Kurdistan, Iran, and currently is a PhD student in ethnomusicology at the University of Maryland.

First Saturday of the month * 10am-noon * to REGISTER, please email rhizomepuppetlab@gmail.com

Rhizome Puppet Lab is committed to the performance side of puppetry. It supports the development of works in progress. You can present work for feedback or direct others in the lab to improvise or puzzle out specific scenes. You may use the group to figure out how your show might work. Anyone may lead a lab about any aspect of performance.

Puppet Lab’s purpose is to be a hub for all those interested in puppet theater who would benefit from: boosting creative power; honing puppet-manipulation skills; cross-pollinating ideas; receiving feedback about works in progress; building puppet community. Types of labs have included shadows, Laban, suspense, metaphor, music, voice, Clown, character development, props, table top, humanette, hand puppets, and much more. Open to all levels of experience.

Saturday October 3 * 1pm * in the backyard * $15-25 * REGISTER

Itching to get creative? Come dye with me! This class will cover making and dyeing with indigo, including the basics of shibori (Japanese tie-dye). You'll learn how to:-make an indigo vat-dye with indigo for long-lasting color-tie up the cloth for a variety of beautiful patterns-care for your indigo-dyed itemsEach participant will receive 1 bandana to dye with. All other materials provided. You may bring a few additional items to dye from home. Small to medium sized items with 50% or more natural fiber content work best.. In addition, wear clothing that you don't mind getting stained. Bring an apron if you wish, and rubber gloves if you have them. Instructor: Sophie Kanter: www.thebluesti.com/

Saturday October 3 * 7pm * $15 * TICKETS

Ripping Headaches Promotions presents...

Leila Abdul-Rauf (Oakland, CA. 20 Buck Spin)
Multi-instrumentalist and composer Leila Abdul-Rauf enters a world all of her own weaving brass, piano and various other textures into filmic soundscapes that echo the sounds of memories faded through time. Songs are not so much composed as captured from dreams. Time and space are distilled down to the remains of distant memories and hidden emotions, melded into a symphony of ethereal melancholy.

Vaelastrasz (VA. Out of Season)

Form & Void (DC) -- Industrial and EBM playing at the edges of noise and rhythm.

Sunday October 4 & bi-weekly * 11am * $5-10 suggested * REGISTER

How do different traditions across history and geography think about how we should live our lives? Join this community for a casual, biweekly discussion group dedicated to exploring the practical philosophies and lived wisdom of the world’s major spiritual traditions. Over the first 12 weeks, we’ll look at foundational ideas from Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Taoism, Stoicism, Shinto, Yoruba, Animism, Christianity, Islam, and some modern faiths.

This is less of a learning seminar and more of a conversational space. There are no right or wrong answers, and you don’t need any background in religious studies to participate. Come as you are, ready to chat about the ideas that jump out at you, what resonates with your own perspective, and how these philosophies might map onto our lives.

Check out the working syllabus and readings: tinyurl.com/explorefaiths

Sunday October 4 * doors at 2, show at 2:30 * $15-25 * TICKETS

Killick Hinds lives in Athens, Georgia. His music is Appalachian Trance Metal made on unusual stringed instruments with an emphasis on unquantifiable rhythms, intuitive intonation, and shamanistic ROYGBIV. The primary sonic influences on Killick are animals, wind, water, fire, electrical hum, and silence. Pop-culture mashups and ancient and obscure forms infuse his music; the effect more closely resembles speech patterns and emotionally-drawn architecture than it does conventional Western music. After 41 years of playing he loves it all more than ever. 

John C.L. Jansen is a composer, guitarist, audio engineer, instrument builder, and music theory teacher currently living in Takoma Park, Maryland.

Nocturnal Creatures Troupe presents: The Unsolved Mystery of Ms. Patsy Climb. A multimedia musical puppet production exploring the lives of a humanoid bat, mysterious spider and cranky mouse. Provocative parody of everyday experiences of street performers in the French Quarter of New Orleans, the characters they encounter, as they strive to strike a record deal and make it big. Will they eat free Hotdogs for life? Will Detective Bark bust the case wide open and earn the title “Good Boy?” Tune in and find out! 

Sunday October 4 * 7PM * $15-25 * TICKETS

The Scientific Americans (Morgan Evans-Weiler and Flandrew Fleisenberg) have maintained a continuous longitudinal study of acoustic phenomena since 2008. Their methodology centers on the excitation of resonant bodies—specifically violin and percussion—through non-standard kinetic input. By prioritizing sustained frequencies and harmonic friction over traditional prosody, they generate acoustic drones that serve as real-time stress tests for metaphysical and epistemological models.

Nectar Gnome is Jenny Moon Tucker and Meg Ragan. An exploration and experiment in weaving sound through the realms. Saxophone, strings, tones and percussive textures sourced though a variety of mysterious objects, build ecstatic stories. Through play they will coax voices out of the aether. Based in Stevenson, MD they help facilitate Changing Ferns Farm, a space for growing food, medicine and healing.

Layne Garrett (guitar) and Nate Scheible (drums). Based in Washington DC, NS and LG have played together in many configurations including the art-rock band DRAWN and various ad hoc ensembles. As a duo, their music is rooted largely in free improvisation, exploring timbre, repetition, intuition, physicality, and abstraction. Nate has released music on Outside Time and Warm Winters Ltd; former affiliations include Mock Identity, Scarcity of Tanks, and Self Destruct Button. Layne plays in Weed Tree and other projects.

Wednesday October 7 * doors at 6:30, music at 7:30 * $15 * TICKETS 

Mary Chicken Soup And Rice (MCSR) is the immersive rock-and-roll theater of LA-based musician, playwright, and filmmaker Matthew Dunehoo. A channeled trickster spirit in smeared face paint and tattered suits, MCSR delivers purgatorial theatrics, part psychedelic séance, part manic episode, part communal ritual, driven by live electric guitar, squawking vocals, and alien choir backtracks. The sound swings between shimmering ethereal highs and zombie-gutter beats, landing somewhere between Eno, Siouxsie, Bowie, Cocteau Twins, Love and Rockets, Carole King, and Sesame Street.

Gaspers is a four-piece band hailing from Frederick, MD. Formed in the winter of 2022, they collaborated to create a unique sound that blends their influences of punk, alternative, indie, post-punk, and goth.

Youth In Government - Hailing from the Washington, D.C. metro area, Youth in Government craft expansive space rock that blends the psychedelic textures of the 1970s with the atmospheric haze of shoegaze and the emotional sweep of post-rock. Equal parts cosmic and cathartic, the duo channels shimmering guitars, immersive soundscapes, and driving rhythms into songs that feel both nostalgic and forward-looking. Chris Mathews-Larsen (guitar/vocals) and Trae Tomko (drums/vocals/sampler) performed and co-produced the entirety of the band’s debut album.

Thursday October 8 * doors at 6, music at 7 * $15-25 * TICKETS

Coco Smith is a singer/songwriter creating workshop music in NYC. Her album, the folk-rock You Won’t Get My Message but You’ll Hear It, was released via VHS Sounds in June.

Flo Petite makes music for degenerates, dog lovers and anyone prone to an existential crisis. Based out of Washington DC, they’ve spent the last few years creating hodge-podge indie-pop sounds between toting around to house shows and touring out of their moms car. Next up : releasing a song more than every three years. Stay tuned!

Ethan McNeal is a singer/songwriter from Maryland making tunes, jams, and jellies.

Aiden Cramp is a singer/songwriter from Oklahoma

Friday October 9 * doors at 7, show at 7:30 * $10-20 * TICKETS

Emotional World - Members of DC bands Flasher, Kid Claws, and Big Hush formed Emotional World in 2018 as an exercise in anything-goes songwriting. Often blending noisy and angular guitars with dreamy landscapes, Owen Wuerker, Emilie Toler, Emma Baker, and Cyd Birch feel most at home combining the introspective and explosive.

New Passengers play a jangling and melodic style of indie garage rock that pulls threads from the Dunedin sound as well as stalwarts such as The Byrds and Robyn Hitchcock. Their songs weave shimmering guitars, tight rhythms, vocal harmonies, and wry lyricism into a sound equally at home in a dive bar or on a sunny afternoon in the park.

Hushing is Nalinee Darmrong, Robert Austin, Mike Dugan and Jorge Rubiera who have been in Owl & Crows, Measles Mumps Rubella, Thee Snuff Project, The Downhome Southernaires and more. Their rhythms are loud, their guitars are noisy, and their vocals are dreamy. This is their first show!

Saturday & Sunday October 10 & 11 * 9:30 am - 5:30 pm * $125 - $225 (scholarships available) * REGISTER (you can also email us to register without paying large processing fees - info at rhizomedc.org) * deadline to register: October 7

(option to register for one day only - email us)

Calling all writers who need time and space and no distractions! Whether you are just starting a project, thick in the middle of it, or needing to finish it, come spend two days with other writers at Rhizome DC. You will have your own table and space to throw papers and books on the floor, and lots of quiet. Space will be shared but not tight (if you’ve been to Rhizome, imagine two people in each room, each with their own table). Coffee, tea, snacks, and vegetarian lunch provided. Phones will be squirreled away by Rhizome’s own squirrels. For an extra fee, we won’t give you the wifi password. (Just kidding; we won’t give it to you for free.)

Featuring:
-an inspiring space (old house, big windows, beautiful art) - tables outside if weather is nice!
-delicious vittles you don’t have to plan yourself
-supportive sharing and strategizing as desired
-two days of focused work

The Rhizome Writers Collective knows how hard it is to enter that writerly trance/get sh*t done. We’re here to facilitate the magic!

We have space for 6 people.

2nd Saturday of the month * online at noon Eastern * to REGISTER, please email rhizomepuppetlab@gmail.com

Rhizome Puppet Lab is committed to the performance side of puppetry. It supports the development of works in progress. You can present work for feedback or direct others in the lab to improvise or puzzle out specific scenes. You may use the group to figure out how your show might work. Anyone may lead a lab about any aspect of performance.

Puppet Lab’s purpose is to be a hub for all those interested in puppet theater who would benefit from: boosting creative power; honing puppet-manipulation skills; cross-pollinating ideas; receiving feedback about works in progress; building puppet community. Types of labs have included shadows, Laban, suspense, metaphor, music, voice, Clown, character development, props, table top, humanette, hand puppets, and much more. Open to all levels of experience.

Saturday October 10 * 3-5pm * OFFSITE at 738 Van Buren St NW (backyard) * RSVP

Join neighbors of all ages for a community art build as we create creepy creatures, spooky surprises, and one-of-a-kind art for the 10th Annual Spookyville: Haunted Alley that takes place on October 30.

Join us on Saturday, October 10 from 3:00–5:00 PM in the backyard of 738 Van Buren Street, NW, as we transform everyday materials like cardboard, fabric, scrap wood, wire, mesh, bottles, and more into delightfully spooky creations that will be unveiled at Spookyville. Inspired by Rhizome DC’s spirit of creativity, reuse, and community-making, we’ll spend the afternoon making a little Halloween magic together.

Bring any leftover materials you'd like to donate (cardboard, fabric, scrap wood, wire, mesh, bottles, and more), and any maker supplies you’d like to use or share (scissors, paint, paintbrushes, glue guns, hot glue sticks, and more). Create creepy creatures, spooky surprises, and one-of-a-kind art with your neighbors and enjoy pizza and drinks from La Mia Italia. Return for the 10th Annual Spookyville: Haunted Alley on October 30 and see your creations brought to life as part of the festivities.

Saturday October 10 * 7pm * $10-20 * TICKETS

Theodora Danylevich is a DC Poet who also teaches Writing and Disability Studies at Georgetown. Some of her poetry has appeared in Vanitas and Phoebe. She’s into short forms, collaborations, and endless homophonic translations of aged epic poems. She occasionally sings and writes for Jacky Cougar and the Vampyres from Africa. 

Casey Smith (he/him) is a human born in Pasadena, CA in 1965 ,CE. He taught  for nearly 20 years at the deceased Corcoran College of Art + Design alongside Doug Lang, Beth Joselow, Bernard Welt, Nan Fry, and other inspiring educators. He is a Virgo, and his favorite color is light navy blue. He is now the Executive Director of the Frederick Book Arts Center. His poems have appeared in print and online here and there.

Tom Mandel is the author/co-author of more than 20 books/chapbooks including Realism, Letters of the Law, To the Cognoscenti, and The Grand Piano, a ten-volume experiment in collaborative autobiography by San Francisco Language Poets. Mandel’s writing has been published in newspapers, literary journals and anthologies around the world, including the influential In the American Tree and The Norton Anthology of Post-Modern Verse (First Edition). Mandel has taught at the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois and San Francisco State University, where he was Director of SFSU Poetry Center. He has also been a consultant to UNESCO and a technology entrepreneur. Tom Mandel grew up in Chicago and was educated in its jazz and blues clubs and on the University of Chicago’s Committee on Social Thought. He lived in New York, Paris, and San Francisco before moving to the Washington DC area.

Monday October 12 * doors at 6:30, music at 7:00 * $20-30 * TICKETS

Hans Tammen (guitar/electronics), Marcus Cummins (soprano sax) with Jamal Moore (reeds, percussion, electronics) opening.

HANS TAMMEN is just another worker in rhythms, frequencies and intensities. He likes to set sounds in motion, and then sit back to watch the movements unfold. Using textures, timbre and dynamics as primary elements, his music is continuously shifting, with different layers floating into the foreground while others disappear. He plays electronics, synthesizers and guitars, and writes for and conducts large ensembles. 

British saxophonist MARCUS CUMMINS has been associated with the UK free and improvised music scene since the early 90’s. He has worked extensively as a solo artist, in duo’s and larger bands but is perhaps best known internationally for his involvement in Trevor Watts’ ‘Celebration Band’. Born in London he joined the afro – jazz band ‘The Hamptons’. Cummins then studied music formally at Leeds City College of Music and Dartington College of Arts. 

JAMAL R. MOORE is a native of Baltimore Maryland who is a multi-instrumentalist, composer/performer, and educator. His background includes The California Institute of The Arts (M.F.A. 2012), Berklee College of Music (B.M 2005), Eubie Blake Jazz Orchestra (2000) under the direction of Christopher Calloway Brooks, and historically acclaimed Frederick Douglass Sr. High School.

Tuesday October 13 * doors at 7, music at 7:30 * $10-20 *TICKETS

Autobahn is a three piece band from New York: Findlay Fullarton, Liam Barton, and Louisa Tantillo.

Semi Trucks is a 4 piece band from Los Angeles California, a blistering unfiltered transmission of pop melancholia. Laden with jagged guitar textures in congruence with charming, emotionally bare lyricism, this project fronted by Brendan Sepe (formerly of The Pesos) brims with the spirit of spontaneous creation. Their most recent record Georgia Overdrive—released on Dean Spunt’s Post Present Medium—is at times a raw, intimate affair and at others an all out, unfettered, full speed ahead ride.

Wednesday October 14 * doors at 6:30, show at 7 * in the backyard, weather permitting * $15-25 * TICKETS

Join us as Ex Lamp (James June Schneider) projects onto the side of the house during sets of music by iiisa and the debut of a duo project by Heather Stebbins and Rachel Beetz. Not to be missed!

Merging field recordings, poemsongs, and familial voices from their home in Costa Rica,iiisa builds memory portals for the kindling of transformation. With a “pliable and fearless voice” (I Care If You Listen), they deftly guide the listener through ephemeral vignettes. 

Heather Stebbins is a DC-based composer and multi-instrumentalist whose work explores the porous boundary between memory and emotion. She foregrounds cello, synthesizer, and an array of other electronics, creating music that is imbued with patience, unfolding slowly over the course of multi-movement suites. Her new album, On Separation, was released by Outside Time in May.

Composer, flutist, and improviser Rachel Beetz explores presence through sound and listening. Her works recreate physical atmospheres based on her deep listening adventures in the wild, exploring hidden worlds of nature and machines. Combining experimental field recordings and electronically modified flutes, her works examine community, environmentalism, and women’s work through sound, textiles, and lighting. 

Ex Lamp (James June Schneider) (Washington, D.C.) has been performing video either solo or as a band member since 2002 when he played with AE (with ½ of plunderphonic pioneers Stock, Hausen and Walkman). Tonight he will project a new piece (visuals only), H2O and Back. 

2nd & 4th Wednesdays * online at 8pm Eastern * Free / donations appreciated * RSVP

A weekly guided dream-sharing hangout…. Welcome to the theater of your dreams—an inexhaustible source of images and stories that can provide entertainment and insight, and that requires no cable service and no subscription—just attentiveness and an open mind. Participants will share dreams, using a gentle, non-intrusive method for unlocking the metaphors that structure dreams (derived from the long-tested method of Dr. Montague Ullman). We’ll also talk about techniques for recalling and recording dreams, as needed.

Please click through for more details.

Friday October 16 * doors at 6:30, show at 7 * $15-20 * TICKETS

The Blackout presents...

The Wedding Funeral - Hailing From the New Jersey Pine Barrens, Darren Deicide and Ethel Lynn Oxide make their Washington D.C. debut with their “chillingly captivating” style of gothic-americana to a world bereft of genuine darkness and raw cynicism. Like campfire tales and psychological thrillers, they unsettle, tease, and disturb their audiences. Using homemade vernacular instruments including musical saw and cigar box guitar, The Wedding Funeral “fuse deep, dark bat-cave creepiness onto their acoustic guitar picking and open-throat howls.”

RjVj is the duo of Rob J Girardi and Veronica Jay Clay. Ethereal symphonic gaze - spawned from post-punk, goth, electronic & classical music, storytelling, films, the cosmos & nature - creating a duality of hope & pain. Rob's howling guitar drones into shimmering arpeggios, Veronica's haunting vocals & synth strings wax & wane with the pulsing bass & drums - setting an otherworldly scene.

Donna Lynch is a three-time Bram Stoker Award-nominated, Elgin Award-nominated, and Shirley Jackson Award-nominated dark fiction writer, poet, spoken word artist, and the singer and co-founder—along with her husband, artist and musician Steven Archer—of the electronic/ post-goth rock band Ego Likeness (Metropolis Records). Her written works include Isabel Burning, Red Horses, Driving Through the Desert; and the poetry collections In My Mouth, Twenty-Six, Book of Keys, Ladies & Other Vicious Creatures, Daughters of Lilith, Witches, Choking Back the Devil, and Girls From the County.

Saturday October 17 * 11:30am * $15 suggested * REGISTER

Want to crochet, but don't know where to start? Started a project, but now you're stuck? Crochet 101 Back to Basics is the perfect class for you! We will learn how to hold a crochet hook and yarn, how to read a basic pattern, and how to start a project in single crochet. 

No experience necessary! Supplies provided.

Pay what you like, recommended $15. Crochet 101 is led by Annie with Swamp Rose Studios. Class every third Saturday of the month, topics rotate monthly. Questions and comments: swamp.rose.studio@proton.me

Saturday October 17 *  doors at 6:30, music at 7:00 * $20-30 * TICKETS 

Rhytmith Tales: William Hooker (drums, spoken word) and On Ka’a Davis (acoustic & electric guitars).

“Recognized as an iconoclast, and one of the most innovative musicians and drummers of his generation, William knows no genre bounds and ceaselessly searches for new forms of music, always with the intent to inspire.” - THE WIRE

William Hooker has created works that range from jazz and "new" music to experimental genres. He has released over 80 CDs as a leader. His latest album is Convergence: Live In China with guitarist David King. Mr. Hooker has performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Atrium at Lincoln Center, Wadsworth Atheneum, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Walker Art Center,MTV, The Kitchen, Roulette, Real Art Ways.

A long time resident artist and activist of New York's Lower East Side (LES), On Ka’a Davis has been a constant contributor to its edgy creative esthetic. On performs principally as a guitarist, exploring music through the worlds of classical guitar, creative improvisation, 'jazzes', and is interpretive of roots-cultural models and 21st century thoro-composed models. On also performs on electric violin, keyboards, and sings.

Sunday October 18 * 11am-2pm * $0-10 sliding scale * REGISTER

Study Hall is a series of salons for people to discuss anything they’d have talked about in the cafeteria (and if you’re someone who really did study, time to share what you learned). Topics can be anything you would’ve talked about during your free time in between classes, including things you would’ve said in the school cafeteria but not to the dean. Everyone is encouraged to present something at a Study Hall.

At the beginning of the event, you will sign up to present a topic. (You can also add yourself to the agenda before the event HERE.) Presentations do not have a specified time limit, and can go on until other attendees begin raising questions and transition into a Q&A format. You do not need to be an expert, and you do not need to have all the answers, proposing an interesting question and prompt for discussion is also encouraged!

Sunday October 18 * 3pm * RSVP

Death Cafes are opportunities for people to enjoy refreshments together and discuss the topic of death. The objective is to “increase awareness of death with a view to helping people make the most of their (finite) lives.” There are Death Cafes all over the country. What's on your mind about death and dying? Contact Death Cafe Facilitators Margaret Branch at margaret603@gmail.com or Monica Lynch at mlynch19@comcast.net.. Death Cafes are NOT therapy, grief support, or counseling sessions. Cost: Free (small donation for the space encouraged)

Sunday October 18 * doors at 6:30, music at 7:00 * $20-$30 * TICKETS 

María Grand (tenor+soprano saxophone, vocals, compositions), Gervis Myles (upright bass), Shakoor Hakeem (percussion), Eliza Salem (drums).

“I feel like I’ve found a place of sincerity in what I’m trying to say. It doesn’t really matter anymore whether technically it’s perfect; I feel that we bring something to the audience of our souls, and that’s important to me. I’m inspired by artists like Matana Roberts. This ensemble is a lot of free improvisation; poems; stories; songs we play and songs we play upside down; and whatever the moment calls. I’m done waiting for later. When we play, we’re in this together, now. I want to honor the elders who made it possible for me, a woman from Switzerland, to look in and be able to show up on stage with my saxophone, my voice, whatever context my life is in, and give back. I’m thankful for every chance I get to sit with an audience and make something together.” - Maria Grand

Monday October 19 * doors at 7, show at 7:30 * $10-20 * TICKETS 

UMD at Rhizome: Despite being a mere fifteen-minute drive from each other, the University of Maryland's School of Music and Rhizome can feel worlds apart. No more! This bill presents the most experimental student and faculty voices from UMD performing music for string quartet, percussion, and piano by Julia Wolfe, Catherine Fields, Steve Reich (Part I of his canonic Drumming), John Pablo Rojas, and the O.G. musical radical Ludwig van Beethoven. Hosted by musicologist Will Robin.

The Atria Quartet formed in 2025 as the University of Maryland School of Music's fellowship string quartet and serves as the school's flagship chamber string ensemble. The members are Mari Jo Downing (MM'27) and Gaby Echiverri (MM'27) on violin, Nicholas Wilbur on viola (DMA'27), and John Pablo Rojas (MM'27) on cello. 

The University of Maryland Percussion Quartet comprises William Brown (DMA), Kayden Smutz (MM), Ryder Haines (MM), and Trent Bowman (BM). Based at the University of Maryland, the quartet performs regularly in a variety of university ensembles while also maintaining active careers with orchestras, classical music festivals, and chamber ensembles. 

Jonathan Bisesi is currently the Director of the Percussion Studio at the University of Maryland where he teaches private lessons, directs the UMD Percussion Ensemble, teaches courses in Percussion History and Literature, Percussion Pedagogy and the UMD Percussion Department Studio Class.

Catherine Fields is a Northern Virginia-based composer and pianist whose music spans wind band, orchestra, voice, piano, and chamber ensemble.

Tuesday October 20 * doors at 7, music at 7:30 * $15-25 * TICKETS

Jason Calhoun is a sound artist who lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has played in various projects including Hour, ylayali, Obody, and Paper Armies; his current solo work is a continuation of his project naps. He has released music with Patient Sounds Intl., Dear Life Records, Lily Tapes & Discs, Florabelle, Gertrude Tapes and Bridgetown Records and his newest album, the ambient electronic revelations of divine love,was released in August.

DAN is a DMV based artist and educator making installations and live performances that combine sound and furniture. Their recent research explores the intimacies of the Monobloc chair, the most manufactured and distributed chair in industrial history. 

Dogs is the digital punk, ambient, clarinet, and vaporwave project of Isaac from Sterling, Virginia.

Wednesday October 21 * doors at 7, show at 7:30 * $20-30 * TICKETS

“Raphael Rogiński Plays John Coltrane and Langston Hughes” is a solo program by one of Poland’s most important contemporary guitarists and composers, blending reinterpretations of John Coltrane’s works with musical reflections on the poetry of Langston Hughes. The concert is a fully solo performance by Rogiński on electric guitar – no overdubs, no effects – characterized by his distinctive fusion of blues, jazz, and traditional music from around the world. The program combines Coltrane reinterpretations with original improvisations and musical responses to Hughes’s poetry, creating a deeply spiritual and contemplative live experience.

Sarah Hughes is a performing and visual artist. She has 26 years of experience playing the alto saxophone and also doubles on the soprano saxophone, flute, and clarinet. She received training in classical saxophone performance from Dale Underwood at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in music education in 2008. In 2015, Hughes earned a master’s degree in jazz saxophone performance from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. Hughes’ music is intuitive and genre-liberated while displaying an unquestionable command of her instrument and musical vocabulary. Her improvisations and compositions are infused with knowledge of both traditional and contemporary approaches and combine a love for “The Greats” with a drive to innovate.

Raphael Rogiński's tour is supported by the Polish Cultural Institute New York.

Thursday October 22 * 7pm * $15 * TICKETS 

João Castro Pinto (Lisbon, 1977) has been active since the late 1990s as a composer / performer of experimental music, as well as a sound and intermedia artist. His production comprehends the domains of soundscape composition, intermedia art, sound design, live electronics improvisation (solo and with instrumentalists), electroacoustic / acousmatic music and radio art.

Guillermo Pizarro uses field recordings, tapes, harsh noise, synths and ambient textures to achieve his cinematic storytelling through sound. He also runs Flag Day Recordings, a US label focused on promoting experimental music, harsh noise, ambient and soundtracks. Starting in 2024, Flag Day has added a production branch via Vitória Régia Studios focused on mastering, mixing and film scoring.

Zottoh is the solo project of Santiago Soto, centered on electric guitar feedback, drones, and noise. Through amplification systems and spatial arrangements, the project explores feedback, resonance, and the physical relationship between sound, instrument, and environment.

Friday October 23 * 7pm * $15 * TICKETS 

Join us for Basement Cabaret's 10th show - a celebration of tarot and traditions of intuitive reading expressed in comedy, storytelling, burlesque, and film.

Featuring...

SUE BRACEY
JOHN CARROLL + JOE RANDAZZO + MEREDITH GARAGIOLA
LILAH DJ + ISAAC FIELDS
TX WATSON + SHANNON GRAY
SKYE MARINDA + VIOLET GRAY
JOAN Q + JOANNA HARRIS + GIN JARELLE
MILES KEOGH + GUS NORDHIELM

Basement Cabaret is a periodic variety show bringing acts of different disciplines and backgrounds together on one stage. Each show is held in a different location in DC. We exist to support the development of weird, risky, personal work by DMV artists.

Saturday October 24 * 12:30pm * $50 * REGISTER

Learn the process of linocut printmaking over the course of a 4-hour workshop, including image transfer, carving, inking, and pressing. Students will carve a 4x6" post card sized block and leave the class with their block and several impressions, as well as an instructional zine about linocut printing. Students will be able to compare soft rubber blocks to pre-carved battleship gray linoleum provided by the instructor, and if time allows will be able to practice using a simple roller type press.

Saturday October 24 * doors at 6:30, show at 7 * $20-30 * TICKETS

Secret Planet presents…

Peni Candra Rini is a renowned Javanese singer, educator, and composer fusing Javanese sufi poetry with contemporary composition for Indonesian and Western instruments. She is a master of several traditional forms (primarily gamelan) and is regarded as one of Indonesia’s most daring young composers, one of only a handful of female composers in the country. In October 2026 Kronos will release an album of her string quartets on the Phenotypic label, some of which they have performed on NPR’s Tiny Desk series. Shahzad Ismaily is a Brooklyn-based musician, composer, engineer and founder of Figure 8 Recording. Born to Pakistani immigrant parents, he grew up in a wholly bicultural household. Exploring improvisation, tonal shifts and rhythmic movement, the Grammy nominated artist is often referred to as the “Musician’s favorite Musician”. Over the last thirty years he has played electric bass, drums, percussion, guitar, synthesizers and all manner of sound-makers procured in life’s travels. Andy McGraw is Professor and Chair of Music at the University of Richmond in Virginia. He is the author of Radical Traditions: Reimagining Culture in Balinese Experimental Music (Oxford 2013) and Music as Ethics (Oxford 2023). He has co-edited two volumes on Indonesian music: Performing Indonesia, with Sumarsam (Smithsonian 2014) and Sounding Out the State of Indonesian Music, with Chris Miller (Cornell 2022). In Richmond he facilitates community gamelan and stringband ensembles and runs a music program in the Virginia prison system. 

Kirin McElwain is a cellist and composer working in the realms of experimental, contemporary classical, and improvised music. Weaving together classical and Baroque influences with an affinity for sub-bass and harsh electronic textures, her music explores themes of desire, shame, perfection, and belonging. Alex Koi is a composer, vocalist and improvising musician. Combining her diverse influences in Jazz and improvised music, the avant-garde and electronic, her work has been called “primal and futuristic at the same time” [Current Magazine] and “impossibly beautiful” [Stereo Stickman]. The duo's upcoming album "Wake" is slated for Spring 2027 release, a co-led  project for voice, cello, and modular synthesizer.

Sunday October 25 * noon-4pm * $5-10 suggested * RSVP

The DC Modular Society is a group focused on learning, teaching, and performing electronic music with modular synths. DCMS meetups are open to all with an interest in electronic music, modular and other hardware synths, and hybrid systems for creating and performing music. We encourage and support building a diverse and inclusive community—if you’re wondering if you belong—the answer is yes! No equipment is necessary to attend meetups, but feel free to bring gear if you like. Mixer and PA system provided. We frequently do informal demos of synths and electronic music techniques.

Wednesday October 28 * 7pm * $15-25 * TICKETS

Secret Planet presents...

Invisible Circle is the solo project of Dave Kadden. A former member of CSC Funk Band, Chat Logs, Drunk Foreigner Band, and many more, in Invisible Circle droney keyboards, echoed oboe, and chanted vocals are used to create a meditative state in both the audience and performer. Invisible Circle has self released 2 cassettes and a split record with Frank Hurricaine, as well as a full length LP on Gold Bolus Records. Invisible Circle has toured extensively through the US, South America, and in Japan.

Trigal

Michael R Bernstein

Sunday November 1 * 2pm * pay what you like * RSVP

Join DMV-based noise + dark ambient outfit THⱯT CLOUD for an open rehearsal/recording session in support of their upcoming release, Failed Populations. The band will dismantle songs ranging from 60s Pop, Disco, Synth Pop/Electronica + Kosmiche Musick in their ongoing ARCHIVAL RECLAMATION series.

THⱯT CLOUD
JS Adams / Mike Bryan / Cristopher Mathews-Larsen / Chris Videll
Electronics / Plunderphonics / Samplers / Handi Vari-speed Tape Recorders / Prepared Vinyl + A/V Record Players / Percussion / Guitar / Bass / Prepared Guitar / Euphonium

Wednesday November 4 * doors at 7, show at 7:30 * $20 advance / $25 day of show * TICKETS

Ak’chamel - “For 15 years the trio of Ak’chamel has built a solid reputation as a compelling stage project. Wearing nightmarish costumes and engaging in hallucinatory “rituals”, their singular sound comprising desert-scorched psychedelia, post-apocalyptic shamanism, and lo-fi ritual-folk is as unique as the physical theater of their live performances.”

Ecology Homestones - A/V noise project from Philadelphia.

Thursday November 5 * 7pm * $10-20 * TICKETS

Witness trees are living beings who have experienced incredible historical events beyond the lifespan of any living person. Over the course of two years, Daniel Bachman interviewed 16 of these remarkable trees in Virginia using a biodata sonifcation device built by Philadelphia artist/engineer @electricityforprogress tying their lived experience to Virginia’s deep histories of settler colonialism, brutalizing racial hierarchy, extractive capitalism, and subsequent outcomes of contemporary climate breakdown. The result is a nearly two hour long album, and full length documentary film, that takes the participant through these intersections of history, power, people, and place. From the eroding beaches of the Chesapeake Bay and its former dynastic plantation grounds, through the Civil War battlefields, old growth groves, and river bottoms of the Piedmont, to the peaks of the Shenandoah Blue Ridge and Appalachian Mountains, the trees speak for themselves.

Daniel Bachman is an artist, musician, and independent scholar primarily interested in the folk histories of Virginia. Bachman has released fourteen full length records since 2011, and toured extensively internationally and throughout the US, garnering wide acclaim. In recent years Bachman has abandoned a rigorous touring schedule to explore multimedia projects centered on Virginia’s long history of settler colonialism and how it relates to contemporary climate breakdown.

Friday November 6 * doors at 7, music at 7:30 * OFFSITE at Tonal Park *  $20-30 * TICKETS

Transparent Productions presents…

Phillip Golub (piano), Lesley Mok (drums).

On the heels of debut releases as bandleaders in 2024 described respectively as “an exquisite and stimulating work” (The Living Collection – All About Jazz) and “possess[ing] a grounding, mesmeric magic” (Abiding Memory – DownBeat Magazine), drummer LESLEY MOK and pianist PHILLIP GOLUB joined forces as dream brigade. Their self-titled debut album, released March 14, 2025 on New York creative music imprint Infrequent Seams, is an immersive and captivating collection of improvisations that has earned wide international acclaim. Strikingly, it also features the duo’s highly personal interpretations of two jazz standards. On dream brigade, Mok and Golub break away from the rigorously composed constructions of their recent individual projects to allow their voices as improvisers and instrumentalists to speak for themselves.

First Saturday of the month * 10am-noon * to REGISTER, please email rhizomepuppetlab@gmail.com

Rhizome Puppet Lab is committed to the performance side of puppetry. It supports the development of works in progress. You can present work for feedback or direct others in the lab to improvise or puzzle out specific scenes. You may use the group to figure out how your show might work. Anyone may lead a lab about any aspect of performance.

Puppet Lab’s purpose is to be a hub for all those interested in puppet theater who would benefit from: boosting creative power; honing puppet-manipulation skills; cross-pollinating ideas; receiving feedback about works in progress; building puppet community. Types of labs have included shadows, Laban, suspense, metaphor, music, voice, Clown, character development, props, table top, humanette, hand puppets, and much more. Open to all levels of experience.

Saturday November 7 * doors at 7:30, show at 8 * $10-20 * TICKETS

Nervous Verbs
It would be reductive to say that the latest Nervous Verbs album Moments of Riot is just another installment in singer-songwriter Mike Montgomery’s deep discography. From his quarter-century in the formidable post-rock trio Ampline, to his decade-plus run co-leading R. Ring with Kelley Deal, through countless production credits at his Candyland Recording Studio, and finally arriving at the debut of his most personal project, Nervous Verbs’ Pony Coughing in early 2025, Montgomery has consistently conjured inventive, emotionally resonant songs. And while Moments of Riot shares some of the aural intimacy found in his recent work, this understated collection suspires with a tragic beauty borne out of hospitals, bereavement and, ultimately, hope.

Crowd Scene
Crowd Scene are an MV (no-one in the band lives in D) based post-psychedelic pre-rock group that asks the question “what if?” Fresh off a grueling two date European tour, they are happy to be back playing to a hometown crowd.

Sunday November 8 * 12pm * $10-30 sliding scale * REGISTER

“Making Art Through Grief” is for those wanting to create art about and in the midst of their own grief in an open studio setting. With death awareness and compassion being foundational to Collaborative Catharsis, please feel open to showing up to create in whatever way you need; whether by laughing at memories as you work on a zine, sitting in silence while collaging, or asking questions with your fellow participants about death, dying, and everything in between

Lillie J. Harris is an INELDA-trained End-of-Life doula and cartoonist who will lead the session and ensure that participants feel supported throughout their art-making process.

Various materials such as watercolor, acrylic paint, color pencils, and pastels will be provided. Participants are also free to bring their own materials so long as they can be used while indoors. Absolutely ALL skill-levels and abilities are encouraged!

Sunday November 8 * 3pm sharp! * Free / donations * RSVP

An Island and One Night / Une île et une nuit is a fictional film made collectively over two years by the people of the Quartier Libre des Lentillères, 8 hectares of self-organized land in Dijon, France, that has been occupied and recultivated since 2010, in resistance to a concrete "ecocity" project that still threatens them today. In the middle of the city, these fallow spaces and abandoned houses have been transformed into a self-managed, multi-purpose district, where collective housing, market gardening, self-construction, festive and cultural events, etc. intermingle. It's a place of struggle and solidarity of all kinds, as well as a veritable reserve of biodiversity. This film uses the prism of the imaginary to talk about reality, what we're looking for, and what we're fighting against every day. 

The film is typically screened only when accompanied by residents of the Quartier Libre who participated in its creation. In this case, it will be introduced by a friend of the Quartier and organizer with the Punch Up Collective in Ottawa who has been given permission to share the project. The creators hope through these screenings to share their experience of struggle, self-organization, and the invention of forms of collective life geared towards a good life for all. 

Sunday November 8 * doors at 6:30, music at 7 * $20-30 * TICKETS

Transparent Productions presents....

Byron Asher and Tomas Majcherski (reeds), Matt Booth (bass), and Doug Garrison (drums).

Sonic Chambers Quartet is a highly collaborative project based between New Orleans and New York City that blurs the lines between spontaneity and composition. Their performances are musical journeys that traverse extreme ranges of harmonies and densities in pursuit of catharsis. The group began performing in 2023 and is co-led by New Orleans-based clarinetist and saxophonist Byron Asher and New York City-based saxophonist and clarinetist Tomas Majcherski. The multi-instrumentalists and composers have known each other and performed together for over 10 years. In addition to their shared experiences as musicians, their friendship is deepened by strikingly similar life paths prior to meeting – including past work in avant garde theater and formal studies in philosophy and religion. Their music is richly informed by these experiences, grounding the collaboration in dialogues around improvisation and composition, performance, art and collectivity.

Tuesday November 10 * doors at 7, show at 7:30 * $10-20 * TICKETS

New Orthodox is pedal steel/voice. The band's ethos leans heavily into minimalist repetition, sonic experimentation, and lyrical insights that give way to live performances and recordings that utilize space and silence to imitate the human experience. The music is both intimate and grand, charged and claustrophobic. 

Red Sunflower is a DC-based instrumental trio formed by brothers Kiyan Saifi (guitar) and Teymour Saifi (bass), with Jaden Shahin on drums. The band explores noise, textural improvisation, and experimental rock. Drawing on the energy of punk and free music, Red Sunflower favors intensity and unpredictability over convention.

Alma Laprida & Mike Kuhl 

Drummer, recording at/st and educator Mike Kuhl hails from the musically diverse city of Baltimore. Kuhl has dedicated his life to the world of drumming and sound, opening up his artistry to a mul/tude of projects. A graduate from Towson University and the University of Maryland, Kuhl has performed locally and throughout the globe.Kuhl is currently the jazz drum professor at Towson University. Complementing his musiclife, Kuhl enjoys studying the martial arts of Chi Gong and Bagua kung fu.

Alma Laprida (San Miguel, Argentina) is a musician and multi-disciplinary artist whose creative pursuits encompass composition, improvisation, performance, installation, instrument building and radiophonic pieces. In 2021, after a decade of creative work and life in Buenos Aires, Alma relocated to Maryland, USA, and is very active in the DC artistic scene.

Thursday November 12 * doors at 7pm * $15 * TICKETS

Red Brick Presents...

Red Brick Weekend 2026
Celebrating 5 Years of Red Brick Presents

Thursday Preshow with...

Racecourse (Santa Cruz, CA)
@racecoursemusic

Squished between shifts at the carwash, physics papers, and soccer games, Racecourse was formed in the winter of 2022. The indie rock quintet (Reya Langen, Graeme Stage, Jackson Pruett, Ben Chung, and Joaquin Jorgenson) huddled together through muddy Santa Cruz winters in Jackson’s bedroom and Graeme’s garage. Working with tape machines and laptops, they completed their debut record, July, December, in a cabin by the Yuba River in the winter of 2025. Now living in New York, Racecourse moves forward.

Sware (first show)

2nd Saturday of the month * online at noon Eastern * to REGISTER, please email rhizomepuppetlab@gmail.com

Rhizome Puppet Lab is committed to the performance side of puppetry. It supports the development of works in progress. You can present work for feedback or direct others in the lab to improvise or puzzle out specific scenes. You may use the group to figure out how your show might work. Anyone may lead a lab about any aspect of performance.

Puppet Lab’s purpose is to be a hub for all those interested in puppet theater who would benefit from: boosting creative power; honing puppet-manipulation skills; cross-pollinating ideas; receiving feedback about works in progress; building puppet community. Types of labs have included shadows, Laban, suspense, metaphor, music, voice, Clown, character development, props, table top, humanette, hand puppets, and much more. Open to all levels of experience.

Saturday November 14 * 1pm * $10 * TICKETS

Red Brick Presents...

Red Brick Weekend 2026
Celebrating 5 Years of Red Brick Presents

Saturday Matinee Show with...

Violetville (first show)
mems Massie, Spring Silver, Lean Tee, Dorinda

postdog
postdog are a Maryland based indie/shoegaze/noise pop trio made of best friends. Their music often features androgynous vocals, worn-in production, and guitars that don't sound like guitars. Their single "copy//cat" released in January.

Beam Zillion (Washington, DC)

Sunday November 15 * doors at 6:30, show at 7 * $20 * TICKETS

Old Saw formed in 2021 as a recording project that evolved into a collective of revolving members from various corners of the northeastern United States. They make music with organs, fiddles, tape loops, pedal steel, hurdy-gurdy, banjo, harmonicas, and bells. The band began playing live in 2026 after releasing four LPs via Lobby Art Editions and Worried Songs. Their latest album, The Wringing Cloth was released as a double LP in 2025.

blooming is a guitar and double bass duo based in St Louis who play instrumental music that blends pastoral minimalism, drone and traditional/folk influences. 

Rhea Burdick is an experimental folk musician and instrument maker whose work explores the material culture of music and exploring the outer bounds of tradition. She performs compositions on violin, viola, and her own experimental banjo that use traditional folk songs as a basis for free improvisation. As a trained violin maker she has turned her attention to expanding and innovating on banjo designs to create unique and striking new instruments with a distinct inimitable character. She has self-produced six albums of experimental folk music and with more to come soon.

Friday November 20 * doors at 7, music at 8 * $10-20 * TICKETS 

Sex Faces

Song People

Credit

Saturdays November 21 - December 19 * 1:30pm * $125 * REGISTER

Have you been looking for an artistic outlet for your frustration and anger? Have you thought about writing songs addressing injustice in the world but don’t know where to start? Maybe you’ve got a great idea, but could use some support to complete your vision. This is the workshop for you! Over five sessions we will explore the history and tradition of using music to speak truth to power. 

You will:
- Complete at least one original song. (You don’t have to have any experience and there will be options for those who do not play instruments.)
- Receive weekly songwriting exercises, prompts, and assignments.
- Participate in guided discussions and shareouts
- Receive listening assignments and a playlist
- Be invited to at least one group outing to an open mic
- Be included on the class compilation if desired

This workshop will take place on Saturdays: Nov. 21, 28 Dec. 5, 12, and 19 from 1:30-3 p.m. The cost is $25 per session paid in advance for the full five weeks ($125) guaranteeing a spot or $30 per session at the door.

Saturdays November 21 - December 19 * 3pm * $125 * REGISTER

Have you been thinking about writing your first song? Are you already writing songs but looking for an encouraging community in which to hone your craft? Have you tried other groups but not found likeminded people or a comfortable setting? Then this songwriting circle is for you! Over five sessions we will use guided feedback and a safe and welcoming environment to build confidence while creating great songs.

You will:
- Share songs or songs in progress
- Receive weekly feedback
- Receive weekly songwriting exercises and prompts
- Receive a link to a playlist of songwriting greats
- Be invited to at least one group open mic outing
- Be included on the class compilation if desired

Don’t worry if you’ve never written a song before, are focusing on lyrics only, or have only just started playing an instrument. There will be options to learn more, invitations to collaborate, and tools available to tailor your experience. 

Saturdays: Nov. 21, 28 Dec. 5, 12, and 19 from 3 - 4:30 pm. The cost is $25 per session paid in advance for the full five weeks ($125) guaranteeing a spot or $30 per session at the door. 

Saturday November 21 * doors at 7, music at 7:30 * $25-30 * TICKETS 

Transparent Productions presents … 

Grammy-nominated composer and bassist Stephan Crump with an extraordinary new quartet and body of work inspired by the various nest-building techniques of birds. 

Their new album Passerine arrives October 23rd on Out of Your Head Records.

Stephan Crump is a bassist and composer, collaborator and bandleader, soloist and educator, based in New York City since 1994. He knew this is where he’d make his life and career. Working beyond genre, he has become a crucial component of multiple New York music communities in and beyond jazz. For two decades, Crump recorded and toured as a third of Vijay Iyer’s acclaimed trio, helping to build that band’s global reputation. 

Originally from Sacramento, California, Ches Smith is a drummer, percussionist, and composer based in New York. He has collaborated with a host of artists on many scenes since the early 2000s. He has nine records to his name as a bandleader that feature his writing and ensemble curation, and is a devout student of Haitian Vodou drums, performing in religious and folkloric contexts in New York and Haiti for the last decade.

David Leon is a Cuban-American saxophonist, woodwinds player, composer, and improviser living in Brooklyn, New York. His work is guided by a persistent search for vitality through autonomy, contradiction, hyperbole, and humor. David was a 2025 Jerome Artist Resident at Roulette Intermedium. In 2024, he was named a Music Composition Fellow by the CINTAS Foundation and was commissioned by Roulette to support the creation of A Divine Echo, a hybrid work of chamber music and nonverbal puppet theatre. 

Denver born trumpeter/composer Kenny Warren has been living in Brooklyn since 2006. He has released over a dozen records of his own music which reach across genre but always center some element of improvisation. His latest LP on Out of Your Head Records with his trio Sweet World features Christopher Hoffman on cello and Nathan Ellman-Bell on drums. He is also a long standing member of the Brooklyn brass band institution Slavic Soul Party.

Sunday November 22 * 7pm * $15-25 * TICKETS

Fanoplane is an improvisational project focused on projecting the infinite gifts of the Muse. Fanoplane’s seed was planted in a duo performance by Bob Boilen (synthesizer) and Ted Zook (basscello). In addition to Boilen and Zook, this performance will feature Doug Kallmeyer (bass guitar and electronics), Jerry Busher (drums), Patrick Whitehead (horns), Maya Renfro (violin and voice), Brie Anderson (baritone guitar), Dan Gutstein (spoken word), Sarah Marie Hughes (sax, flute and voice), and Sarah Paz Hyde (violin, handpan, ngoni and voice). Fanoplane’s performances are unscored, unrehearsed and improvised extemporaneously on the spot.

Plark presents so that they don't go off and become accelerationists, a performance of live video and sound, collapsing the time between decision- and image-making. Kaitlyn Paston performs images that interact with prerecorded video and an improvised live score with collaborators Chrystine Rayburn and Lindsey Arturo. The images are made with paper through casting shadow, shaping light, creating shape, and gestures. Input from the instruments connect to an interactive system on Max MSP and influence the superimposition of the live images onto the prerecorded video in a continually evolving edit. The performers respond to each other within the system to co-create a visual experience on the projection screen. The piece explores how we understand through our bodies, seeking a visual language to represent the experience of being a body through the process of ongoing collage.

Saturday November 28 * doors at 6, show at 7 * $10/15 advance, $20 at the door * TICKETS

BIG CITY PRESENTS
CITY SPOTLIGHT: ECHOES OF DOUBT

GO EZKO

OPEN MIC
ARTIST SHOWCASE
CITY CYPHER
LIVE PERFORMANCES
VENDORS

ARTIST SHOWCASE (LIMITED SLOTS) 1ST COME 1ST SERVED

THE COST OF BECOMING

Saturday December 5 * 7pm * $10-20 * TICKETS 

Since its inception in 1995, Pas Musique, the brainchild of Brooklyn-based founder Robert L. Pepper, has evolved through diverse dark electronic, industrial, and experimental incarnations. Pas Musique has collaborated with notable artists such as Faust, Rapoon, Martin Bisi, ZEV, Ron Anderson, Philippe Petit, HATI, and Chester Hawkins. With performances spanning 18 countries and extensive tours across the United States, Pas Musique continues to push sonic boundaries. 

Aphid is the new project of Chester Hawkins (Tucson, AZ) which picks up where his BLUE SAUSAGE INFANT left off when it was killed in 2013: synthetic krautrock rituals for cosmic dervishes and animal-brain levitation.

TL0741 is the solo project of Patrick Gillis, a synth / electronics player based in Virginia, USA. He has collaborated in Northern Machine, The Angus Brainpan, NoMuzic, and Extremities, as well as being an occasional member of The Sloth Ensemble. From 2007 to 2018 he participated in the Sonic Circuits DC music series and annual festival as grant writer and technical coordinator.

Sunday December 6 * 2pm * $25 / scholarships available * REGISTER

This is an in-person workshop on the basics of vocal feminization: raising your pitch, shifting your resonance, and sustaining your trained voice. It'll be interactive, so come prepared to try the exercises in a judgment-free setting. Instructor: Jessica Austin

Scholarships available - please email info@rhizomedc.org

To find out more about me or schedule private lessons, visit my website: https://thetransjessicaaustin.com/

Friday December 11 * doors at 6:30, show at 7 * $20-30 * TICKETS

Cooper Crain (Bitchin Bajas, Separatist Party) and Bill MacKay (Black Duck, Ryley Walker, Nathan Bowles) are cementing their status as a guitar n' keys power duo for the ages, a borderless pursuit of cosmic music in every strain: Folk, rock and jazz, psych, prog, DIY, experimental, programmatic, impressionistic, liturgic, electric...! On their 2nd album STASH, released earlier this summer (2026) on Drag City, the duo rides additional waves from Arabian, Iberian, and soul music that groove in alliance under the expanse of an all-world flag. It reads like a lovingly sharpened and shimmering expansion of their explorations on debut LP Foreign Smokes (2023). BCMC is a new solar development.

JMB Motherfuckers & Co. came together two years ago with a desire to create long improvisational soundscapes akin to music by masters like Neu! and Xhol Caravan (from which they adapted their name). With Geologist (Brian Weitz) on hurdy gurdy, Marc Minsker on bass, guitar, harmonium, and Jim Thomson on percussion, this instrumental trio released their debut album, Music Excitement Action Beauty, last year.