Photo used with permission under a Creative Commons license with rrelam

You have an opportunity to miss a very important show show tonight. See, you might miss it and you might never hear about it again. But then, you might miss it and you might be forced to endure re-tellings of the evening for years to come. Like that one Run for Cover show, when the Federal City Five played an all-girl tribute to The Clash, and Del Cielo’s Andrea Lisi put in a pitch-perfect performance as Pat Benatar, and a whole bunch of people got down to some Hall & Oates dressed solely as Oateses.

The chances are good that something remarkable will happen tonight. The Avalon Theater is screening Ashes of American Flags, the new live Wilco concert film by Brendan Canty (of Fugazi) and Christoph Green, for the DC International Film Festival. And to celebrate, a whole bunch of people are taking the stage at Comet Ping Pong afterward to play Wilco songs. You can bet that some combination of Wilco covers by Mary Timony, Big Gold Belt, Peter Hayes, Edie Sedgwick, Revival, Brandon Butler, Mary Battiata, Lorelei, and whoever appears as the special surprise guests is going to be noteworthy. Putting Wilco’s catalog into these hands can’t be dull, after all.

You don’t have to wait until tonight’s 7 p.m. screening at the Avalon to see Ashes of American Flags. Stop by any record store where fine music is sold and pick one up (and wish the clerk a happy Record Store Day!). There are a couple of ways to hear the Wilco hoot night, too: Live and in person, for free, tonight at 10 p.m. at Comet — or through your friends’ remembrances tomorrow and maybe for some time to come.