Results tagged “verizoncenter”

              

Last night D.C. wanted the best and they got the best, as the local faction of KISS Army invaded the Verizon Center to see Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, and two other guys not named Ace Frehley and Peter Criss, slap on the makeup and rock 'n' roll all night.

By Eli Resnick and Elisabeth Meinecke With another hockey season upon us – the opening faceoff in Boston is mere hours away – it's time for the DCist hockey crew to look foolish and guess what the Caps will do this year. We'll take a wide turn of the stories heading into tonight's opener, offering our prognostications on the season to be along the way.

              

Bruce Springsteen is still Working on a Theme.

The Caps head into game seven of their epic playoff series with the Penguins at 7 p.m., so Chinatown is going to be a sea of red tonight. Drunk, yelling, fanatic red. At the same time, the annual Candlelight Vigil at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, one of the main events of National Police Week, will begin at 8 p.m. on E Street NW between 4th and 5th Streets. The District Department of Transportation is rightly advising area drivers to stay the heck away from downtown tonight if at all possible. Spectators for both events are encouraged to take Metro. The Gallery Place/Chinatown station is right below the Verizon Center, and the Law Enforcement Memorial is above the Judiciary Square station on the Red line. F and E Streets NW between 3rd and 5th streets will both be closed to traffic tonight for the Candlelight Vigil.

The NHL regular season came to a close this past weekend. The Washington Capitals finished with a 50 win, 108 point season—their best finish ever—culminating in their second Southeast Division title in a row. Their mark was good enough to earn the second seed in the Eastern Conference behind Boston. Along with the Bruins, only San Jose and Detroit of the Western Conference enter the playoffs with better records. As the two seed in the East, the Caps draw the # 7 New York Rangers for a first round Stanley Cup Playoff series that begins tomorrow evening at the Verizon Center. Game 2 is an afternoon affair this Saturday.

                    

For the last two years, Capitals fans have flocked to the Verizon Center and rocked the red. Last night, the arena was packed with hockey fans of a different breed, as Washington played host to the Frozen Four, the NCAA's Division I men's college hockey championship. Nevertheless, teams and fans are largely sporting the same colors. Boston University and Miami (Ohio) fit right in with their red school colors, though both teams were wearing their home white last night. The University of Vermont and Bemidji State, both in different shades of green, rounded out the field.

Speaking of NCAA tournaments, the Frozen Four is coming to the Verizon Center starting tonight, marking the first Division 1 NCAA Championship to be hosted here in the District of Columbia. The entire championship series is already sold out, but Craigslist is absolutely bustling with scalpers and ticket traders, so if you're hoping to go, check for deals.

DCist's Verizon Center correspondent Martin Austermuhle reports from the front lines of the impending D.C. Council vs. Media Basketball Game. "I'm here with D.C.'s local media luminaries, and they're not letting us in! Scandal!" Thankfully, WTOP's Mark Segraves updates on his Twitter feed that the security issue has been resolved, possibly after intervention by D.C. Council chairman Vince Gray. But Martin's still worried: "With everyone here, who's actually covering the news?" he muses. "Fenty could dump a month's worth of bad news right now." The rest of us DCists will do our best to pick up the slack, but Martin has a point. We're not likely to see much in the afternoon news cycle today, with so many reporters at the game.

Martin already told you all about it, but we wanted to remind all of our readers that tickets are available for this afternoon's D.C. Council vs. Media basketball game, which precedes the annual City Title games. Tip off for the Council vs. Media game is at 4 p.m, with all proceeds benefiting the District of Columbia Interscholastic Athletic Association (DCIAA) and the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (WCAC). Duck out of work early and watch DCist's own Martin Austermuhle attempt to strip the ball from Phil Mendelson's mustache. For full team line-ups, click here. And don't miss out on D.C. Wire's preview, featuring video of Team Media's Jonathan O'Connell (Washington Business Journal) looking like a major threat. Go Media!

             

Joining the ranks of resurrected Boston institutions such as the Red Sox, the Celtics and The Pixies, the newly reunited New Kids on the Block stopped by the Verizon Center last night on their tour promoting their reunion disc, The Block, which actually reached #2 on the Billboard album chart. Yes, Donnie, Danny, Joey, Jonathan and Jordan are quite a bit older than their mid-1980s heyday and their dance moves are a bit more robotic these days, but it didn't matter to the capacity crowd in attendance last night. The set was a mix of old material and new, but it was the big hits like "You Got It (The Right Stuff)" that got the crowd on their feet. And judging by the number of vintage NKOTB shirts I saw, plenty of the audience was there the first time around.

With only a week to go in the regular season, games mean more to some teams than others. The Boston Celtics long ago wrapped up the Atlantic Division and the first seed in the Eastern Conference while the Washington Wizards are making a final push for the fourth seed and home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. As a result, last night's 109-95 win over Boston can't exactly be taken as gospel, but was impressive nonetheless.

March is without a doubt the dog days of the NBA schedule. College ball takes center stage while half the teams in the NBA start jockeying for ping pong balls. So do you stay at home and watch Idol murder the Beatles or take in a game against a team 17 games under .500? Judging by the "14,755" in attendance for Washington's 105-97 win over the Milwaukee Bucks last night, most people chose the former. Too bad for them, as rookie Nick Young paced the Wiz and excited those in attendance, including Redskins QB Jason Campbell, with an array of dunks, finishing with a career-high 22 points in 27 minutes. Antawn Jamison added 23 points and pulled down eight rebounds, but left the game in the last minute with a lower back strain.

As you may recall, the luxury suite at the Verizon Center that owner Abe Pollin gave to the city as a thank-you gift for that $50 million check to upgrade the facility has caused some bad feelings between Mayor Adrian Fenty's staff and the D.C. Council. Each office thought they ought to have total access to the box, and the mayor's office even tried to block the Council from getting their hands on Wizards tickets. But now WTOP's Mark Segraves updates his ongoing Phone Booth saga to report that in order to douse the flames of indignity flaring up between the two governing bodies, Pollin has given the D.C. Council their own suite.

WTOP's Mark Segraves got a hold of a partial list of the folks who've been receiving tickets to use the city's free luxury box in the Verizon Center -- the one that the D.C. Council is so miffed they're being boxed out of -- and there's some fun tidbits he discovered.

Most of those invited to D.C.'s Luxury Suite at the Verizon Center by Fenty either contributed the maximum $2,000 to Fenty's campaign or worked on the campaign. The rest of the tickets, with only a few exceptions, went to friends, family and the mayor's senior staffers of the mayor.

Once again, the Pollstar Concert Industry Awards nomination list shows that D.C.'s no small potatoes when it comes to touring music. Like last year, the 9:30 Club is nominated for Nightclub of the Year, Wolf Trap's Filene Center is nominated for the Red Rocks small outdoor venue award, and Birchmere's Michael Jawarek is nominated for Nightclub Talent Buyer of the Year. There are a few new additions to our area's nods too.

Since 1990, Burma’s rightful Prime Minister – and only hope for democracy – has been a political prisoner under a military dictatorship built on a foundation of violence and intimidation. Thus, struggle is nothing new for the Burmese people as civil unrest has become analogous to the country for nearly half a century. For this, one can’t help but hope for better fortune for the people of Burma, be it in their native land or right here in D.C., like the success of a small, unassuming restaurant simply called Burma. Whether owner John Tinpe realizes it or not, the decision to christen his 2nd floor establishment after the country’s unofficial title is a strong testimony to his people’s continuous fight for democracy (Burma was officially renamed Myanmar in 1989 but pro-democracy advocates refuse to acknowledge the change).

Now that the gloves have come off in the relationship between the D.C. Council and Mayor Adrian Fenty, it's apparently time for more of their amusingly petty disagreements to become public. The Post has a hilarious story in today's District Extra about a brewing battle over exactly how the city's allotment of free Wizards tickets will be distributed. Turns out last week the mayor's office slyly attempted to pick up all 24 tickets for the...

Since trading away team leader and expert benchwarmer Brian Sutherby to save money and cure a losing streak, the Caps have chalked up two more uninspired losses to teams from subtropical climatic zones. Last night's nominal crowd at Verizon Center cheered optimistically when the Caps lobbed soft shots from the blueline into the catching glove of Atlanta's third-string goalie, Johan Hedberg. They cheered sarcastically when Capitals museum piece Olaf Kolzig stopped easy shots. Some fans...

MONDAY >> The Library of Congress Mary Pickford Theatre in the James Madison Building kicks off 5 weeks worth of free Monday night rock and pop films with a rare showing of the 1966 documentary, The Big T.N.T. Show. David "Man from Uncle" McCallum hosts Ray Charles, Petula Clark, the Lovin' Spoonful, Bo Diddley, Joan Baez, the Ronettes, Roger Miller, the Byrds, Donovan, the Seeds, the Modern Folk Quartet, and Ike and Tina Turner taped...

Who says the Washington Wizards didn't improve over the offseason? Last night DCist made our first trip down to the Verizon Center this season and noticed plenty of changes; fancy new press credentials (now with marketing slogans!), shiny, new flat screen monitors in press row in section 104, that snazzy $50 million scoreboard that puts a whole new spin on the Kiss-Cam and a new red carpet themed video set to Kanye West's "Bigger,...

Anytime a new bar opens with more than 3 or 4 taps, my ears perk up. I start getting the urge to go check it out, to pay a visit and welcome the new neighbor on the block. Thus, when a Bar Louie opened this summer in the Verizon Center (downstairs from Lucky Strike) with a 20-tap list, I was immediately lured by the siren song of another taphouse in the area. Although the bar...

It looks like I.M.P., the Montgomery County-based company that runs the 9:30 Club and Merriweather Post Pavilion, hasn't given up on opening a Silver Spring music hall. In September, we wrote that concert producer and venue owner Live Nation had signed a non-binding letter of intent to put a Fillmore music hall in the old J.C. Penney store at Georgia Avenue and Colesville Road in Silver Spring, across from the AFI Silver Theater. Both the...

We're a little short-staffed today, so if you've got any picks to add for this weekend, please leave them in the comments. FRIDAY >> This weekend the Uptown Theater is playing the final cut of everybody's favorite movie about replicants running amock, and young Darryl Hannah being super sci-fi hot, Blade Runner. >> If an apocalyptic future isn't exactly what you're in the mood for, try on Seattle's dream folk rockers, Band of Horses, for...

>> D.C. firefighters were called to a rowhouse fire in Columbia Heights this afternoon. The blaze broke out about 5:15 p.m. in the 1300 block of Otis Place, NW. [AP/WJLA] >> As if Adams Morgan could somehow be ruined by the introduction of beer and wine sales at a grocery store? Have they been to Adams Morgan? [Examiner] >> SmarTrip cards are now available at more Giant stores. [Free Ride] >> "Good lord, have...

It goes without saying that Stevie Wonder is a living legend. The singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist has been performing for well over 40 years and is responsible for a slew of well-known hits. As one concert-goer stated to me on my train ride home, the near capacity crowd at Verizon Center would’ve been there for a couple of days if he’d decided to play everything in his discography. Instead, he covered approximately 27 songs over the course of...

MONDAY >> Do you like screamo? How about metalcore? Us neither, but if you do, get yourself to the 9:30 Club, for Underoath and similarly sinisterly-named Every Time I Die, Poison the Well, Maylene and the Sons of Disaster, and Belle and Sebastian. Just kidding about the last one. 6 p.m., $18. TUESDAY >> Stevie Wonder needs no introduction. He's coming to the Verizon Center today. Tickets start at $68, so get your wallet ready....

Quite a few eyebrows were raised when The Hives announced they would be opening for Maroon 5's arena tour, and with good reason. Most of the teenagers and soccer moms in the Verizon Center last night weren't sure what to make of the Swedish quintet when they hit the stage just after 8 p.m. This was not lost on frontman Howlin' Pelle Almqvist. "Think of this as a first date," he told the crowd....

MONDAY >> Were you out of town this weekend, wishing you were home soaking in the goodness that was the DAM! Festival? Fear not. Tonight there is one more show, and it happens to be the festival's biggest. The chanteuse to give all other indie chanteuses a run for their money, Cat Power, is taking the 9:30 Club stage with the Dirty Delta Blues, and a little help from openers Childballads. $25 or your...