Why Go Anywhere Else?

Friday night. Date night. Get out and see friends night- and a lot of talented friends are playing this Friday night. Two totally different shows at two very different venues- but if you are an ambitious night owl, you can catch them both.

First the venerable Alice Despard, former owner of The Galaxy Hut, is playing at The New Deal Cafe in that all American socialist experiment- Greenbelt, Md.
Alice has pared down her band to The Alice Despard Group. Bare essentials here: she plays guitar with a rich and amazing energy that is all her own. You might want to ease Alice into the folk category, but she has always leaned towards an edgier side and her drummer, Evan Pollack is in total sync with what she has going on. Add to the mix Alice's voice which I could listen to all day even though girl singers are not usually my thing. The opening band, The Lost Patrol starts at 8; Alice goes on around 9:30.

Meanwhile just down the road the honky tonk which was once Chick Hall's but is now Surf Club Live will be feature two true blue road house classics: The Thrillbillys and Ruthie and The Wranglers. (The one and only Johnny Castle)

The Thrillbillys, one of our local super groups, usually play the TINY Sunset Grille in Annandale so this is a great chance to see them in action over on the other side of DC in a much larger venue. (Though they have such a strong fan base that I wouldn't be surprised to see Sunset Grille pilgrims showin' up.)And Ruthie and The Wranglers are no strangers to The Surf Club. They recorded one of their earlier CDs right here on the Surf Club stage. When the band doesn't have you up and dancing, Ruth can bring about a sea change: she has the kind of cry in your beer voice that will make you ask the bartender to leave the bottle.

Things get rolling at Surf Club around 9 or so, but go on fairly late-until 1 or so.

Please support these local bands and venues before they go the way of Starbucks and Hard Rock Cafes-just what this corrupted capital DOESN'T need!