Photo by iceman882

FRIDAY:

>> The National Gallery of Art’s Jazz in the Garden is one of the District’s best free concert series. Performances take place every Friday from 5 to 8:30 p.m. in the Gallery’s sculpture garden. The seasonal weekly event begins on Friday, with vocalist Lady A.

>> Annie Clark, a.k.a. St. Vincent, has made her mark with a critically acclaimed and complex blend of indie pop and electronic influences and quickly built a devoted following. She comes to the Black Cat mainstage with Lo Moda. 9 p.m., $15.

SATURDAY:

>> The excellent violinist Nicholas Kitchens will present Bach in Cremona, a lecture-demonstration on the fabled historical instruments (made by Amati, Guarneri, and Stradivari) of the Library of Congress at 2 p.m. This special program, featuring performances of the unaccompanied violin works of Bach, requires no tickets and is open to the public.

>> Today’s Inside Media discussion at the Newseum is with Jim Lehrer of The NewsHour. Lehrer has been a journalist since 1959, and will discuss his career as well as his new novel, Oh, Johnny, which “follows an idealistic young Marine whose dreams of big-league baseball and romance are deferred when he is deployed to the Pacific during World War II.” 2:30 p.m.

>> Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy‘s consistently innovative take on Americana never really gets old, even if the music itself sounds sometimes as if it comes from some creaky and forgotten corner of Appalachia. His Birchmere concert is sold out, so get busy on Craigslist if you missed out. 7:30 p.m., $22.50.

>> Get your body moving with Ra Ra Rasputin, who are at DC9 with The Spiritual Machine and Loxsly. 9 p.m., $8.

>> Perpetual DCist favorites Jukebox the Ghost (***) bring their reliably lively live show to the Rock and Roll Hotel this Saturday with Jenny Owen Youngs and The Winter Sounds. 8:30 p.m., $12/$14.

SUNDAY:

>> The annual Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Rally departs from the Pentagon at noon and ends at the Reflecting Pool at 1:30 p.m. Don’t forget to make note of the relevant road closures.

>> PBS is once again broadcasting its uber-cheesy Memorial Day Concert live from the west lawn of the Capitol. Actors Gary Sinise and Joe Mantegna are emceeing, and special appearances will include Katie Holmes, Colin Powell, Laurence Fishburne, and Trace Adkins, plus performances by the National Symphony Orchestra and all military bands. 8 p.m.

>> OK, so it’s not exactly the Giro d’Italia, but for local competitive cycling it’s about as good as we’ll get this weekend. Head on down to Parking Lot 4 on RFK’s northside on Sunday for the annual City Bikes RFK Criterium, a fast-paced bike race that will include a variety of amateur races and two pro races — men and women — in which some of the region’s best cyclists will go head to head for $20,000 in prize money. The races start are as early as 8 a.m., but the pro men go off at 12:30 p.m. and the pro women at 2 p.m. And keep an eye out at 4:30 p.m. for the Men’s 3/4 race, when you’ll have a chance to scream snarky things at Martin Austermuhle in person — he’ll be racing.

>> It’s not a holiday weekend with the traditional Vs. party at Black Cat. DJ Dredd is back with a trifecta: “Prince vs. Madonna vs. MJ (Michael Jackson)” is sure to be a crowd pleaser. $13, 9 p.m.

>> Yet another sold out show ends the week, as the hugely popular indie rockers of The National start three sold out shows at the 9:30 Club, and two of them are on the same night. The band plays both the early and the late slots on Sunday night, and then a third show on Monday. Tickets are long gone for all of them, so good luck. 7 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. Sunday, 7 p.m. Monday.

MONDAY:

>> The National Memorial Day Parade starts at 2 p.m., traveling straight down Constitution Avenue between 7th and 17th Streets NW.