MUSIC: Experimental pop rockers Xiu Xiu are playing a sold-out show tonight with locals Thao Nguyen and the Get Down Stay Down and Chris Garneau at the Black Cat Backstage. If you didn’t score a ticket, you could always go for drinks in the Red Room and try to listen through the door. 9 p.m.

HAPPY HOUR: Local music legend/bar and restaurant owner Eric Hilton is the guest at tonight’s Modernist Society at Bourbon in Adams Morgan. The night kicks off at 9 with $3 Brooklyn and Bell’s, with the q&a with Hilton starting at 10. DJs D-Mac and Neville C. will follow to get everybody dancing.

ART: Still haven’t been down to the National Portrait Gallery to check out the portrait of Stephen Colbert hanging between the 2nd floor bathrooms? Well get there tonight, because the “artwork” is coming down after this weekend, and NPG public affairs officer Bethany Bentley is hosting a “Face-to-Face Portrait Talk” about the Colbert affair from 6 to 6:30 p.m. The NPG is open daily from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.

JAZZ: The FREE Rhythm Road concert series at National Geographic Live! continues tonight. The 6:15 p.m. set will showcase the jazz-funk of vocalist Maya Azucena, and world jazzers Alvin Atkinson and the Sound Merchants play at 7:15 p.m. The shows take place in the Grosvenor Auditorium at 1600 M Street NW.

MUSIC: ’90s Canadian alternative music star turned anti-war activist Matthew Good is at Iota tonight, with Mary Battiata of Little Pink. If you don’t like your rock mixed with politics, this one might not be for you. 9 p.m., $15.

Photo by soleil1016

The listed events were chosen by the editors of DCist and brought to you by the 2009 Toyota Corolla.