FRIDAY:
>> RJD2 is not to be confused with the new R2D2 mailboxes unvelied this month. His turntable skills, however, have us wondering if he’s part robot. At the 9:30 Club, $20.
>> Native sons The Walkmen, who we talked to last spring, bring their boozey, jangley rock, to the Rock & Roll Hotel tonight. Fans can look forward to hearing lots of new material that the band’s been road-testing this spring. If you liked the horn section on “Louisiana,” you’re going to like the new stuff too. And maybe, just maybe, we’ll see a front man with a new lease on life, as Hamilton Leithauser is enjoying the freedoms of a man recently freed from the pokey. The show’s sold out, but you’ll have another chance to see The Walkmen when they play the 9:30 Club in two weeks with the Kaiser Chiefs.
SATURDAY:
>> The D.C. Environmental Film Festival comes to a close this weekend, and while many of the more recent films they’ve been featuring are somewhat tired veterans of festivals from three years ago, we would definitely recommend taking the opportunity to catch a screening of Howard Hawks’ 1952 film The Big Sky. Kirk Douglas and Dewey Martin star as frontiersmen and who embark on a fur trading expedition with a group of men up the Missouri River into uncharted Blackfoot territory. Their plan is a little unusual: to return a kidnapped Blackfoot princess, Teal Eye, to her people to win their gratitude and trade. As you might imagine, danger, lust and other trappings of the wild west ensue. This is one of those lesser-noticed Hawks films, and we guess it’s being shown at this festival as a way of engaging in a discussion about fur and animal rights — but it’s a rare treat to see it on a screen, so head over to the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop at 545 Seventh St., SE, 7 p.m., $5
>> Not to be confused with Band of Horses, Chicago’s The Ponys have been getting great notices for their 3rd album, Turn the Lights Out, even comparing them to an updated Sonic Youth sound. With Black Lips and Panthers at Black Cat. $12 at the door, $10 in advance.
SUNDAY:
>> Don’t miss your chance to check out Actors’ Theatre of Washington’s The Owl and the Pussycat during its last weekend. Here’s what our critic had to say: “Director Lee Mikeska-Gardner has put together a production that can be as unsettling as it is uproarious.” $26.50, 2 p.m. (also Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.)
>> We’re struggling to come up with any other noteworthy cultural event on Sunday, so if you’ve got one to recommend, please add it in the comments. In all honesty, we’ll probably just be at Wonderland, enjoying a bottomless basket of bacon. So we’d recommend that.
Amanda Mattos contributed to the Picks.
