Japanese jazz artist Takeshi Ohbayashi plays Blues Alley on Wednesday. Photo by Joe Herrera.
MONDAY
The Beehive: Two Inch Astronaut, Swings, Rye Pines, Something Sneaky, and BBC America. 7 p.m. All ages. Accessibility unknown.
WEDNESDAY
Takeshi Ohbayashi @ Blues Alley. 8 p.m., $25. Accessible venue.
Ohbayashi, a native of Hiroshima, Japan, is a thrillingly inventive and melodic jazz pianist whose style is part Ellington and part Brubeck. He won a scholarship to Berklee College of Music in Boston in 2007, and his career took off from there. He has performed at about twenty jazz festivals around the world and recently started his own group, the New Century Jazz Quintet, in New York City. Ohbayashi’s debut album, Introducing Takeshi Ohbayashi, came out in 2011. Ohbayashi’s concert at the venerable jazz venue, Blues Alley, will celebrate the cherry blossoms that are due to bloom soon. — Caroline Baxter
Howard Theatre: La Dispute, Title Fight and The Hotelier. 8 p.m., $20-$23. All ages. Accessible venue.
THURSDAY
American Art Museum: Luce Unplugged: Baby Bry Bry & the Apologists. Also featuring an art talk on Nam Jun Paik. 5:30 p.m., free. All ages. Accessible venue.
The Hamilton: Horse Feathers with River Whyless. 7:30pm, $15-$23. All ages. Accessible venue.
FRIDAY
“Final Fridays” Kickoff @ Republic, featuring Palehound, Two Inch Astronaut and Black Dog Prowl. 10 p.m., free. 21+. Accessibility unknown.
Takoma Park gem Republic strike gold with their new “Final Fridays” series. On the last Friday of every month, the restaurant/bar/performance space will feature lineups of local and semi-regional touring punk bands. Judging by the first lineup, they’re using “punk” pretty loosely, though. Yonkers, N.Y.’s Palehound are more akin to bedroom rock, like early Waxahatchee demos. Silver Spring garage rock heroes Two Inch Astronaut, who are arguably the busiest band in the DMV, will also play, fresh off the success ofFoulbrood. Locals Black Dog Prowl will fulfill your ’90s-arena-grunge nostalgia (is that a thing?) as shoe-ins for Best Accidental Soundgarden Cover Band. Certainly a solid line-up, but I’m interested to see what the rest of the Final Fridays lineups will look like. — Tori Kerr
The Harry Bells and Astronaut Jones @ Tropicalia. 7:30 p.m., $10. 21+. Accessibility unknown.
The depth of Washington, D.C.’s music industry can be witnessed when highly talented members of various bands form side projects to showcase some of their favorite music and have some fun in the process. The Harry Bells is just such a group, an eight-piece brass and percussion heavy band playing the catalog of Harry Belafonte. Opening up will be live acid jazz and downtempo duo Astronaut Jones, ensuring a laid back lounge vibe to accompany the island grooves of The Harry Bells. — Andy Cerutti
9:30 Club: James Murphy DJ set. 10 p.m., $35. Accessible venue.
SATURDAY
Yellow Dubmarine @ AMP Live at Strathmore. 6 p.m., $20-$27. All Ages. Accessible venue.
A few years ago, Yellow Dubmarine released Abbey Dub, their dub reggae reinterpretations of The Beatles’ Abbey Road. After hitting the road with this very popular tribute show, Yellow Dubmarine are back at it again, this time with reggae dub reinterpretations of The Beatles’ 2000 compilation album 1, which contains all of The Beatles chart toppers from 1962-1970. Yellow Dubmarine will be performing their own dubbed out funk covers this Saturday at the brand new AMP Live venue at Strathmore in North Bethesda, MD. — Andy Cerutti
Iota Club & Cafe: The Cowards Choir, Lighting Fires, Angela Sheik, and Barefoot & Bankside. 9 p.m., $12.
SUNDAY
Bohemian Caverns: Joel Harrison Trio. 7pm and 8:30 p.m., $15-$20. All ages. Accessibility unknown.
DC9: Torche, Wrong, Jeff Carey, and Black Clouds. 8pm, $12-$14. All ages. Show space accessibility includes 10-20 steps.
