Thursday September 3 * 7pm * $10-20 * TICKETS

Rhizome DC and Filament present the third edition of A Night of Moving Images, a juried showcase of short film and video from the DMV and beyond. The screening will be followed by a conversation with the selected artists. Prints of the films will be screened when possible.

The selected artists are Chris Combs, Connor Parsley, Dwayne LeBlanc, Ellery Bryan, Emanda Womer, Emily Francisco and workshop participants, Jamie Nhi Vuong, Jeremy Moss, Julianna McCormick, Lily Ekimian Ragheb and Ahmed T. Ragheb, Nzingha Kendall, Phil Davis, Veronica Melendez, and Yizhen Zoe Lyu.

We’re also excited to present work by the recipients of our second microgrant. Four local artists received $200 towards the production or completion of a new audiovisual work. The recipients are Jack Gross, Jo Jovel, Osheen Keshishian, and Paul Oh. The runners-up are Amelia Mylvaganam, Andrew Tamburrino, and Gillian Tomlinson.

A Night of Moving Images also marks the launch of Mothlight, a new film zine. Copies of the inaugural issue will be available for purchase at the screening. The issue includes contributions by Rebecca Reynolds, Stephanie Barber, Erik Sutch, and Jeff Krulik. Purchases cover the cost of printing and fund future issues.

Friday September 4 * doors at 7, music at 7:30 * $15-25 * TICKETS

Land - Virginia, Maine, Texas, and Pennsylvania, and scattered bedrooms, streams, lakes, kitchens, and gullies. Harmony and quiet cotton. Songs for the nest behind your eyes. Will Tober guitar, Hadley Whittle guitar, Christian Harper piano, Chris Dahlke viola, Thomas McCloskey bass clarinet.

Dream Feeder is a jazz and creative music trio consisting of Brad Linde (saxophone) Keith Butler Jr. (drums) and Nelson Dougherty (guitar). The group’s repertoire consists of compositions contributed by each member. They create a sound that is gentle, unhurried, and expansive, yet also discordant and mysterious. Dream Feeder released their debut record Everything at Once on July 9th, of 2024 on Bleebop Records.

Keith Butler Jr. (percussion, piano, voice), Abe Mamet (French horn) and Zoë Jorgenson-Speirs (bass, voice) are KAZ. Together, the three vanguards of the East Coast's creative music scenes weave their deep roots in jazz, rock, improvised music, and folk into a soft, lush tapestry of peace and togetherness.

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 September 5 * 1pm * $5 suggested * TICKETS

Live Action Role Play is a combination of improv, theater, physical movement, crafts, and just about any genre of story you can think of! All are welcome to these 2-hour LARPs hosted at Rhizome DC, whether you're completely new to the artform or a seasoned veteran.

On Saturday, September 5 from 1-3 pm we're playing Baltimore! Baltimore! Dinosaur! by Scott Slomiany, a comedic game about a world where dinosaurs rule over an underclass of humans. Human and dinosaur representatives alike are meeting in Baltimore to decide whether humans should receive voting rights, but secrets abound amongst the delegates and all number of mishaps are likely to occur before everything comes to a dramatic conclusion.

Sunday September 6 * 11-12:30pm * $20 suggested * REGISTER

Join us for part two of this granny square class, exploring how to crochet granny squares into a useful tote bag. First, we will review the first class and answer questions. Then, we will learn how to assemble the bags. 

To complete a full bag, you will need 13 granny squares of any size. Crochet hooks and yarn will be provided, but finished granny squares will not. If you don't have enough squares, don't worry! You can still learn and practice with us.

Sunday September 6th 11 AM - 12:30 PM
Price: Pay what you like, recommended $20
Questions? Email swamp.rose.studio@proton.me

Sunday September 6 & 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 September 6 * 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/

Sunday September 6 * 4pm * Masks required & provided * $15-55 * REGISTER

Motormouth presents...

A two-part guided workshop exploring Japanese paper marbling and block printing. Drawing consciousness toward what could have been empty space....

Monday September 7 * noon til dusk * $20 * TICKETS 

Come one come all to another Shivfest at Rhizome! This year’s lineup will feature Bubblegum Octopus, Courage Mother, Druid Stone, Isabella deVarona, Jade Weapon, Pain Response, Peel Off Your Skin, and Potosí. 

Flash tattoos will be offered upstairs by @tattoo_gymnasium (18+ only).
Outdoor vendors, performances, and grilling will take place depending on weather! 
Also, a t-boy swag contest? Hmm…

Join us for another fun-filled Shivfest!!!

Wednesday September 9 * doors at 6:30, movie at 7 * $0-10 suggested * TICKETS 

THE MOVIE is the debut experimental documentary from MoCo natives, Lincoln He and Sabrina Li. Set against the backdrop of a brutally defunct Lakeforest Mall, THE MOVIE follows our protagonists as they believe, doubt, will, and disbelieve all over again. 

He and Li filmed this project over the course of a year. With shared access to the same footage, the two split off to make two parallel but different cuts. The first part, "Let's Go Into the Dark," shows what happens when three friends enter an abandoned mall on the night of a blood worm moon. The second part, "End of Summer, 2026" is everything that happens after. 

Premiering in the DMV Wednesday, September 9th, you doooooooon't want to miss this!!!!!

Free entry, flash drives of THE MOVIE and extended footage selling for $5. Doors at 6:30pm, screening at 7pm. BYOP! (Bring your own popcorn.)

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.

Thursday September 10 * doors at 6:30, music at 7:00 * $20-$30 * TICKETS

Transparent Productions Presents: 

An evening of music with two amazing ensembles led by trumpeters Michael Sarian and Dave Ballou. 

MICHAEL SARIAN’S ESQUINA draws inspiration from Miles Davis’s groundbreaking work with electronics and extended improvisation. Described by Bandcamp Daily as “taking the lessons of Miles Davis’s Bitches Brew and hauling them into the 21st century,” this innovative project features Sarian’s loosely structured compositions and graphic scores, seamlessly integrating themes and sounds from his Armenian heritage and Argentine upbringing.

The “for-tet” is a quartet of musicians from Baltimore, MD and, more recently, Richmond, VA. Members include Dave Ballou (trumpet), John Dieker (bass clarinet), Adam Hopkins (bass), and Mike Kuhl (drums). In the words of trumpeter and instigator DAVE BALLOU: “The “for-tet” is an ensemble of improvisers assembled for a performance on July 3, 2024, at Rhizome in Washington, DC. Although we had performed together before, I wanted to see what we could do with these compositions. But the intention was to perform these pieces with no rehearsal or discussion of the structure. This performance was so memorable because of the group interactions and musical decisions. We understood right away that each piece provides the context, and we create the structure.“

Friday September 11 * 7pm * $10-20 * TICKETS 

Czonka
Washington DC electronic angular energetic percussive looptastic 
ex-Pitchblende and ex-Imperial China
https://czonka.bandcamp.com/

Snack Truck,
a guitar/drums duo from Richmond, has been around for 25+ years. Their sound is a swirling, dynamic mass of controlled chaos. If you saw The Odyssey, Snack Truck is like Scylla and Charybdis: if the whirlpool doesn't get you, the bludgeoning will.
https://rorschachrecords.bandcamp.com/album/spacial-findings-1-7

Cash on the Nail
Washington DC post-hardcore explosive anthemic moon-geology
ex-Weird Babies
https://cashonthenail.bandcamp.com/

2nd Saturday of the month * online at 1130am 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.

2nd Saturday of the month * online at 1130am 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 September 12 * doors at 6:30, music at 7 * $20-$30  * TICKETS

Transparent Production presents: 

A return of Critical Response to Rhizome DC with Jessica Ackerley opening.

The music of JASON KAO HWANG (composer/violin/viola) explores the vibrations and language of his history. His compositions are often narrative landscapes through which sonic beings embark upon extemporaneous, transformational journeys.

ANDERS NILSSON is a New York-based guitarist, composer, improviser. He plays electric guitars, 11-string alto guitar and baĝlama.

MICHAEL T.A. THOMPSON (drums) is an anomaly. T.A.'s palate encompasses an abundance of sound colors. He hears everything and plays with it in a way that's ever inventive and perceptively responsive. Thompson plays as he breathes. You'll always find him in the moment, inspired as well as inspiring.

JESSICA ACKERLEY is a Canadian guitarist, improviser, composer and visual artist based in Honolulu. Ackerley continually develops a hybrid musical language drawing on the influences of Black American Music and avant-garde improvisers, as well as the culture of the thriving New York City rock and noise scenes.

Sunday September 13 * 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 September 13 * doors at 5, music at 6 * $10-20 (proceeds will go to DC Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid (MSMA)) * TICKETS

Serpent Hologram - A Maryland improv electro industrial duo born of the eternal transmutive autophagy of the Ouroboros.

Lye Bath - Emerging from the crypts of Maryland, Lye Bath is a goth-tinged, post-punk band, leaning heavily on punk influences. Their 2026 demo, “Revolution Winter”, is an homage to the “Revolution Summer” movement born within the Washington, D.C. music scene during the mid to late 80s. The sounds heard throughout their four-song demo reflect their admiration and respect toward the bands that paved the way, while making their own unique statement with cold, dead hearts. United by a shared vision, Lye Bath seeks to help build a stronger community, while extending their reach regionally.

Witch's Mirror - Forged in the depths of Washington, D.C.’s heavy music underground in May of 2023, Witch’s Mirror plays brooding, charred doom metal infused with grunge, experimental and hardcore influences. The band is comprised of Kristin Eliason (vocals), Carni Klirs (guitar), Matt Cohen (bass) and Brandon Korch (drums) — longtime friends and veterans of D.C.’s DIY punk community. The band formed over a shared love of slow and heavy music, fascination with the occult, and desire to live in a world free from the imperialist, capitalist and fascist forces threatening our existence.

The Armors - The Armors are a rock ’n’ roll band blending hard-hitting classic rock swagger with mid-’70s glam. Nodding to proto-punk and early emo, their sound is equal parts danceable and snarky. They’re carving their way through the DC scene in dives, record shops, and underground event spaces.

Monday September 14 * doors at 7:30, show at 8 * $10 * TICKETS

Baltimore Avenue - is a four-piece post-punk band hailing from College Park, Maryland. Borrowing influence from Joy Division, Unwound, and Interpol -- the group's dejected and spacey sound morphs refuge in the calamity of amplified guitar shrieks. Transitioning from the eclecticism of their first EP, static, their upcoming freshman album is marked by literary references to the Absurd, the vicissitudes of growth, and their continued dedication to auditory catharsis through noise. This is also their final show.

Berra

Room Corners

Thursday September 17 * doors at 7pm * $15 advance, $18 day of show * TICKETS

Truck Violence's second full length record, The weathervane is my body, is an attempt to answer, an attempt at conciliation through refusal. Karsyn Henderson and Paul Lecours grew up in a French Canadian town of 600 people, graduating in a class of nine. By fifteen they were running a local studio and radio station. At seventeen they relocated to Montreal, joined by Chris Clegg and Thomas Hart, assembled from different corners of the country, and began building Truck Violence. The weathervane is my body, the band's second full-length record and first with San Francisco's The Flenser, is the product of that process. Every element reflects this. The group composition, the recording, the mixing and the visual media were all produced in house without outside intervention. DIY here is not an aesthetic choice or a marketing angle, it is the only honest option available.

OXRUN is a Baltimore-based noise rock quartet. Equal parts chaos and contempt, their sound is a snarling rejection of civility - feedback-laced guitars grind against hammering rhythms while vocals spit bile. Featuring members of KNUB, Gloop, Mass Ego, and Silk Leash."

FANTAZMA is a DC punk band with an eclectic style that touches elements of various hardcore and metal subgenres. Their music speeds through chaotic riffs, tempo changes, heavy breakdowns, and dark atmospheric layers. Subtle nods to their Latin music influence and bilingual, unapologetically political lyrics are integral to their noisy soundscape.

Saturday September 19 * 7pm * $10-20 * TICKETS

Rod Smith is the author of Touché (Wave, 2015), Deed (U. Iowa, 2007), Music or Honesty (Roof, 2003), and The Good House (Spectacular Books, 2001). He edits the journal Aerial, publishes Edge Books, and manages Bridge Street Books in Washington, DC. He has taught at The Iowa Writers' Workshop, The Maryland Institute College of Art, and The Corcoran College of Art + Design. Smith edited The Selected Letters of Robert Creeley (U. Cal Press, 2014) with Kaplan Harris and Peter Baker.

Heather Fuller is the author of perhaps this is a rescue fantasy, Dovecote, Startle Response and Dick Cheney’s Heart and has work included in out of everywhere: linguistically innovative poetry by women, Women in the Avant Garde and #MeToo Poetry Collective. Her essays about writing and culture appear at StartleResponse.com. After three decades working in nonprofits, PR and healthcare in D.C. and Baltimore, she returned to her home state North Carolina, where she works as a cardiac RN and serves with local animal advocacy networks.

Sunday September 20 & 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 September 20 * 1pm * 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 September 20 * 3:30pm * Free / donations * 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

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

Monday September 21 * 7pm * $10-20 * REGISTER

Generations of music makers have imbibed the popular notion that music critics play for the opposing team. But there’s much that performers, composers, and other practitioners stand to learn from what these writers do—and many worlds that open when musicians learn to write effectively and personably about music.

In this workshop, led by violinist, journalist, and music critic Jennifer Gersten, participants will learn strategies for supporting their creative endeavors through writing about music for popular audiences. We will discuss strong examples of writing on music and complete an exercise for building a writing sensibility, which can be applied towards activities such as curating programs, communicating with audiences, applying for grants, and generally developing personal taste. We will also discuss music criticism’s current state of affairs, as well as avenues for beginning a criticism practice as music practitioners.

Tuesday September 22 * doors at 6:30, show at 7 * $15-25 * TICKETS

Jennifer Wei Gersten is a violinist and writer from Queens, New York. A former tenured tutti violinist with Helsingborg Symfoniorkester (Sweden), she instigates solo and collaborative musical projects in avant-garde and improvised performance, usually in the US and Scandinavia. As a violinist, Jennifer is mainly engaged in the creation of idiosyncratic sounds and situations for her instrument. 

Bryan Day is a sound artist, instrument inventor, and conceptual artist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Using scavenged electronics, repurposed mechanical components, and amplified materials, he reimagines them as constructivist sound sculptures. Since the late 1990s, he has built over a hundred sound devices ranging from amplified measuring tapes and hacked radio transceivers to electromechanical installations using magnets, hard drives, and pendulums. His recorded work spans noisy electroacoustic improvisation, droning minimalism, and audio collage. 

Majid Araim is an Iraqi-American multi-instrumentalist, composer, educator, curator, visual artist, researcher and a fixture of the Atlanta improvisation and new music communities. Majid's prolific work as a composer focuses on resonance and dynamics, experimental approaches, and is oriented towards the natural world and reimaginings thereof. 

Layne Garrett is an improvising musician and instrument builder based in Washington DC. He works with prepared guitars, found objects, and self-built instruments. He plays in the improvising duo Weed Tree with drummer Amanda Huron and various other ad hoc collaborations.

Wednesday September 23 * 7pm * $15 * TICKETS

Hunter Brown is a Berlin-based musician and sound artist whose experimental practice investigates the outer limits of synthetic sound production and the act of listening. His work examines how digital representations of sound, the materiality of audio technologies, and computational abstraction shape auditory experience. This practice is often realized through unconventional methods of synthesis and analysis, machine learning, spatial audio techniques, and approaches that engage auditory perception. Improvisation is central to Hunter’s performance practice. He regularly performs with his Improvisation Instrument, a custom system developed in SuperCollider, both as a soloist and in collaborative projects including Technical Reserve and Other Plastics.

Alma Laprida is a musician and multi-disciplinary artist whose creative pursuits encompass composition, improvisation, performance, installation, instrument building and radiophonic pieces. She’s known for her work with the tromba marina, a rare string instrument mostly used between the Middle Ages and the Baroque eras in Europa.

Lustre Chantant is musician, artist and instrument maker Max Hamel and photographer and DIY evangelist Christopher Griffiths. Together they utilize battery-powered amplifiers, discarded shrapnel and obsolete electronics in a sort of séance for the kitchen junk drawer.

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.

Thursday September 24 * doors at 7, music at 7:30 * $15-30 * TICKETS

Outside Time presents...

Nathan Salsburg is one of his generation’s most gifted and idiosyncratic fingerstyle guitarists. Since 2011, when the first of his eight solo albums was released, he has quietly established a style marked by a depth and a complexity wholly his own, drawing on abiding interests in minimalism, rural American vernacular musics, and the work of British folk revivalists like Dick Gaughan, Dolly Collins, and Nic Jones. He’s a frequent collaborator of songwriter-singer Joan Shelley (his wife) and Chicago multi-instrumentalist James Elkington. For three decades Salsburg served as curator of the digital Alan Lomax Archive.

Sam Wenc is a composer, improviser, and interdisciplinary artist working with sound, text, performance and installation. He has released music on Longform Editions, Where to Now, Moone Records, Noumenal Loom, Sweet Wreath, and his own label Lobby Art Editions, amongst others. His work has been supported by Elektronmusikstudion (Stockholm, Sweden), Art OMI (Ghent, NY), Foundation for Contemporary Arts (NYC), Roulette Intermedium (NYC), Casa Del Lago / Cultura UNAM (México), Sonidos Primeros (Peru), Creative Alliance of Philadelphia, Kiosk Gallery (Chicago). He is co-founder of Lobby Art Editions, a record label that highlights and releases works by artists exploring boundaries of genre and media.

Amadou Kouyate (DC) is the 150th generation of the Kouyate lineage and has studied and performed Manding music since the age of three years old. Amadou is a dynamic djembe and koutiro drummer. He also plays the 21-string kora, which he learned first with his father, Djimo Kouyate and other master Diali -- oral historians/musicians -- of Manding tradition in West Africa. Amadou has brought his music to The Kennedy Center, Smithsonian Institution, Bristol Academy and Isle of Wight in England, Tim Festival in Brazil, as well as the Lowell, East-Lansing and Dayton National Folk Festivals. He collaborated with Sweet Honey in The Rock at Carnegie Hall and performed at the Victoria World Rhythm Festival.

Friday September 25 * doors at 7, music at 7:30 * $15-25 * TICKETS

Secret Planet presents…

K8A - Kaethe Hostetter is an American violinist whose music was shaped as much by immersion as by training. Classically trained and forged in the avant-jazz and improvisation scenes of Boston and New York, she spent twelve years living and collaborating in Ethiopia, absorbing its melodic systems, song forms, and everyday musical life. Her debut solo album Impressions of Ethiopia transforms that experience into a solo, ritual-like performance for violin, live looping, and electronics, where Ethiopian songs are re-imagined through psychedelic textures, dub-inflected delay, and extended string techniques. Performed as a one-woman ensemble and often accompanied by projections drawn from Ethiopian textiles and street life, her live shows unfold slowly and hypnotically, expanding the violin into an immersive environment. The result is not fusion but transmission: music that feels ancient and futuristic at once, intimate yet vast, inviting listeners into a space of memory, movement, and altered attention.

Opening set byAndy Betezema. Andy is an Ethiopian guitarist, music producer, arranger, and mixing/mastering engineer now based in the Washington, D.C.–Northern Virginia area. A graduate of Addis Ababa’s Yared School of Music in classical trumpet and the African Jazz School as a jazz guitarist, he spent more than a decade working professionally in Ethiopia, producing, arranging, and mixing recordings for prominent Ethiopian artists. Since relocating to the United States, Bete Zema has continued performing while developing his recording and production work from Alexandria, Virginia. As a guitarist, he remains active in the region’s Ethiopian music community, including performances with Arada Band and other local artists. His music draws on his background in Ethiopian music, jazz, reggae, Afrobeat, and contemporary production.

Saturday September 26 * 7pm * $10-15 * TICKETS 

S-L-U-G WORLDWIDE ENTERPRISES AND TRISTANXWELCH PRESENTS…

BUT AFTER THE GIG ON THE MALL…

FROM RALEIGH NORTH CAROLINA
PLASTIQUE PIGS
Hardcore fucking punk, think no way records type stuff

FROM NEW JERSEY 
OUR WITS 
Catchy math post hardcore 

WITH LOCALS

DRAW BLANK
Fast, punk, messy and fun

DISSIPATE
Young heads disrockin 

September 28 * 7 PM * $10-20 * TICKETS 

Jeff Surak has been a fixture within the experimental community for over 43 years, curating the Sonic Circuits Festival, programming for Rhizome DC, and running his own Zeromoon label. His own work manifests non-linear narratives through lo-fi techniques and archaic technologies. Recent festival appearances include Sofia Underground, Geiger Fest, Blurred Edges, Klanghaus, Jauna Muzika, Untergrün, Experimentik, Ende Tymes, Brutal Assault.

Private Collector is a noise player from West Virginia named James. 

Slacking is a noise player from Pittsburgh, PA named Jim. James and Jim are touring together, playing their noise and smiling.

Tuesday September 29 * 7PM * $20 * TICKETS 

Secret Planet presents a night of disoriented tropical madness with Chúpame El Dedo (Colombia) and Abismo Ónix (Richmond, Virginia)

The name of this Colombian project means, in Spanish, “suck my finger”. One might wonder if that refers to hallucinogens, since this is decidedly the same state of fever dreaming one may enter when putting Chúpame El Dedo’s record on. The duo, made up of The Meridian Brothers’ Eblis Álvarez and Ondatrópica’s Pedro Ojeda, invites the listener on a trip that includes detours into traditional Colombian music, metal, grindcore - and total madness overall--a fusion of the most tropical clichés with the most metal-driven ones. That’s right: the most infernal guttural growl paired with the fiercest timbal strikes; the darkest headbanging with the wildest hip-shaking. Draped in silky satanic robes—one on the machines and the other on the drums—this duo brings to life a noisy, post-savory comedy that could only have been born in Bogotá. A caricature where the usual battle cry of the most furious, long-haired Rock al Parque rocker finally meets its equal in the shout of the devoted dancer. Distorted vocals, metal, and at times even gabber-house–like clichés are mixed with a tropical rhythm section composed of salsa, cumbia, currulao, and reggaeton.

Abismo Ónix is a bachata-metal band from Richmond, Virginia. Torn between his love for Bachata and metal, Andrés Bass founded Abismo Ónix in 2022. Inspired by Aventura fusing Bachata with other genres, Jinjer mixing soft and heavy, and Infant Annihilator's vocal versatility; Abismo Ónix was born. Live members of the band include Andrés Bass (Vocals), Moises Carrillo (Drums/Bongos), Alfonso Santos (Guitar), and Ramm Iyer (Bass)

Wednesday September 30 * doors at 6:30, music at 7:00 * $20-$30 * TICKETS

Transparent Production presents: 

An evening of improvisations with two NYC-based musicians, Gían Pérez and Selendis S. A. Johnson, in performance with (from the DMV) the duo of Nelson Dougherty and Zach Dixon.

GÍAN PÉREZ is a multi-disciplinary artist, improviser, and composer from Puerto Rico, based in Brooklyn, NY, whose work focuses on the elucidation, fermentation, and subversion of form. By extending the guitar to its extremes as a physical material, Pérez denatures the electric guitar beyond its ascribed historical identity, envisioning a language that was never conquered and had been left to govern itself. 

SELENDIS SEBASTIAN ALEXANDER JOHNSON is a vibraphonist and trombonist. Johnson works with a variety of musical styles, and plays and organizes performances of Black-American improvisation based music.

NELSON DOUGHERTY is a Washington, DC-based jazz guitarist, composer, and educator with a career spanning over 20 years. Known for his unique ability to blend diverse musical genres, Nelson often uses guitar pedals to create expansive soundscapes.

ZACH DIXON is a saxophonist, composer, improviser, and aspiring wizard. Drawing inspiration from musical storytellers like Sun Ra and Ryuichi Sakamoto, they create musical spaces that invite the mind to wander. Zach invites you to close your eyes and visualize the story hidden within the music...or fall asleep, they're bound to do something that'll wake you up at some point.

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.

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 * 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! 

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.

Tongue Scraper - Punk from Baltimore, Maryland

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.

Linda Smith is a pioneer of home recording who self released her music originally on cassette starting in 1987. In the early 90’s, indie labels Slumberland and Harriet Records expanded her reach with the release of two seven inch eps. Recently, Brooklyn NY label Captured Tracks has reissued two complete albums on vinyl and she has begun to tour in the US and internationally for the first time.

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.

The Flash Hits
Flash Hits emerged in 2012 as a four-track experiment between Damien C. Taylor (The Sounds of Kaleidoscope, Asteroid #4) and Mike Hammel (Lilys, False Tracks). Their creative back-and-forth yielded the sprawling 38-song demo World Tore, with contributions from Jordan Blumling (Gondola). Expanding into a full-band effort, they recorded The Basement Tape in South Philly, followed by The Bloodline Tape, and Noises capturing sessions across the East and West Coasts with a rotating cast of collaborators, including members of Pink Skull, Adam & Dave’s Bloodline, and Asteroid #4. 

Hushing
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!

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.

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. 

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)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 * 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.

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)

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)

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.

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.