Ben Tufts tribute to The Who at Iota

Tonight at Iota is going to be a huge musical event marking the 45th anniversary of the recording of one of the greatest live performances of all time--The Who's 1970 performance at University of Leeds! Local legends Ben Tufts and Derek Evry lead a huge array of musicians and a 33 song performance this Saturday February 28. Doors open at 8:30 with only a $12 cover. A portion of the funds from the event will be donated to The Craig Tufts Educational Scholarship Fund. The nights' lineup includes:

Derek Evry
The Beanstalk Library
Nayan Bhula (of The NRIs)
Matt Berry (of Classified Frequency)
Erik Bradford (of Short Lives)
Nicole Morris (of Accidents)
Scott Price (of Ten Feet Tall)
Tony Porreco (of Black Checker)
Seth Morrissey (of westmain)
Selena Benally (of More AM Than FM)
Dan Cohn (of The Grand Candy)
Aaron Mason
James Colvin
John Penovich (of Cravin' Dogs)
Anthony Moreno (of Projected Man and Mud Rey)
Mark Miller
Chris Martin (of Jon Miller Band)
Howard Rabach (of The Grey A)
Ed Zigo (of westmain)
Tom Helf (of Cravin' Dogs)

NYE - The Fire Tonight at Iota

New Year's Eve is going 8-bit this Dec 31 with electric piano trio The Fire Tonight at Iota. Once again joining them are well known DC folk/rock band The Beanstalk Library and also The Cowards Choir. Cover for the night is $20 and music starts at 7:30pm.

The Fire Tonight at Iota

Electric piano trio The Fire Tonight are rocking with their 8-bit inspired tunes at Iota on Friday June 27. Joining them are well known DC folk/rock band. The Beanstalk Library. Out of coincidence,Ryan Walker of The Beanstalk Library and Stephen Russ of The Fire Tonight share the same birthday. Because of that, with your $12 cover you also get a free copy of The Fire Tonight's latest album How Could Anyone Do This? Philadelphia based tinmouth will start the night out at 8:30pm.

NYE live music party at Iota

For this 2013 New Year's Eve Iota is throwing its 4th Annual NYE party. The night starts at 9pm with a $18 cover charge, and features three local bands and DJ Sam Snow to keep things moving between sets:

The Beanstalk Library
Derek Evry
These Future Saints

Clarendon Day this Saturday

Clarendon Day is an annual family friendly block party that is taking over the neighborhood this Saturday, September 28 from 11am to 5pm. Streets around central Clarendon will be closed off as dozens of local restaurants and businesses will have tents offering up food, beer, wine, chili cook-off and other goodies. There will also be a ton of live music playing on three stages all day long:

Arlington’s Car-Free Diet Stage

• 11:00 am               Nanny Assis
• 11:50 am               Roosevelt Dime
• 12:40pm                Derek Evry
• 1:30 pm                 Kitty Boy
• 2:20 pm                 Cecily
• 3:10 pm                 The Beanstalk Library
• 4:00 pm                 The Cowards Choir

 Burke and Herbert Stage                 

• 11:00 am               The Unexpected
• 11:10 am               Static
• 11:20 am               Safety Third
• 11:40 am               Jason Masi
• 12:10 pm               Miss Shevaughn and Yuma Wray
• 12:40 pm               49 cent Dress
• 1:20 pm                 The Microphone
• 2:00 pm                 Diamond Dolls
• 2:30 pm                 The Curbfeelers
• 3:10 pm                 Skip House
• 3:50 pm                  Go Go Symphony
• 4:30 pm                 West Main

ARC Stage                     

• 11:00 am               ReVision Dance Company
• 11:35 am               Ballet Nova
• 12:15 pm               Laura Baron
• 12:55 pm               Adagio Ballet
• 1:30 pm                 The Flashband Project
• 2:10 pm                 Red Light Distraction
• 2:30 pm                 Saffron Dance
• 3:10 pm                 Big Hoax
• 3:55 pm                 O’Neill-James School of Irish Dancing
• 4:20 pm                 Richie Walz & Mo Safren

"Help Ben Tufts" concert at Iota

Derek Evry is organizing a concert September 10 at Iota to help out another local musician Ben Tufts. Ben is a drummer who has played in 20 some bands regularly, but had a large amount of musical instruments stolen from him in DC this past weekend. So to help out a friend and fellow musician, Derek is throwing a huge concert with tons of local talent to replace the lost equipment. RSVP and more info on Facebook here. There is about 20 live acts playing 10 minutes each at Iota starting at 7pm:

7:00 - Rachel Levitin
7:10 - Luciano Lima
7:20 - Tiger Gilliam
7:30 - Andres Gallego
7:40 - Jasmine Gillison
7:50 - Matthew Berry
8:00 - Mary Battiata
8:10 - Jackson Edwards
8:20 - Andrew Gaddy
8:30 - Lauren Calve
8:40 - Justin Trawick
8:50 - Laura Tsaggaris
9:00 - Derek Evry
9:10 to 9:30 - DJ Sam Snow
9:30 - theScapes
10:00 - StarFK Radium
10:30 - Colin Thompson Band
11:00 - The Beanstalk Library
11:30 - The Cowards Choir
12:00 - DJ Sam Snow (All Night)
 

Del Ray Music Festival June 22

Don't miss the Del Ray Music Festival this Saturday June 22, as its a free event from noon until 9pm and showcases many local bands. This is the seventh year the event has graced Alexandria, VA with the goal to "highlight, support, and showcase the local musical talent through a community event for families and children." The headliner for the event is Catie Curtis, with other bands on two stages including:
The Walkaways
The Highballers
Orchard Wall
The Beanstalk Library
Tiffany Thompson
The Weathervanes
Kate Moran Band
Elroy Jenkins
Rock of Ages student performances

The event offers food from local Del Ray restaurants and is family friendly with a moon bounce and games for kids. They are also partnered with the non-profit all-volunteer Guitars not Guns, which aims to use music to inspire at-risk and underprivileged youth by providing music education and mentoring opportunities.

The list of musicians and events is too long for here, so check out their Facebook, website or Twitter for more event information. Thanks to Kate Moran for organizing this, and if you want to volunteer you can sign up here.

Beanstalk Library at Iota Saturday

DC native band Beanstalk Library will be releasing their second album The View From Here next week and is celebrating with a performance at Iota Saturday. On June 15 the rock band will be joined on stage by Normal Rockwell at  9pm, with the $12 cover getting you in for both bands. Beanstalk Library has played in Clarendon many times before, and also alongside other local talents like Andy Zipf and Molly Hagen

Jenny Owen Youngs @ Iota

Tonight Iota was by the very personable and talented Jenny Owen Youngs, who showed she was versatile with the acoustic, electric guitar, bass as well as excellent vocals. The Beanstalk Library opened for her and were good enough to let her band borrow their strings.

Jenny's beats were honest and contagious, and she was complimented by the bass and drummer backup from Chris Kuffner and Elliot Jacobson.

Her songs were varied, from upbeat melodies to songs about breakups, divorce, and friends with cancer. One of her tunes was recently featured on "Weeds". I think I enjoyed her personality and humility the most.