TUESDAY >> DCist favorites the Vita Ruins are playing this very night at DC9 for $8. You’re tired of barbequing and sitting around on your back porch by now, aren’t ya? >> Love them? Hate them? Secretly listen to them while you take a nice warm bath and have a good cry? Keane performs to a sold out crowd at the 9:30 Club tonight. WEDNESDAY >> DCist’s own Sriram Gopal will be playing some…

The man with the coolest name in contemporary rock music drew the largest crowd we’ve ever seen at the Rock and Roll Hotel last night. Keep in mind that it was a Wednesday. John Vanderslice also completely demolished the “fourth wall” between the audience and the stage, handing out Mrs. Field’s cookies, inviting a gaggle of fans to the stage for a sing-along of “me and my 424,” and descending from the stage to play…

FRIDAY: >> It’s Friday the 13th. Scaaary? Nah. We laugh in the face of danger. Or at least, you might if you swing by HR-57 tonight for all the DC Comedy Fest events happening on their stages. We gave you the rundown on the festival yesterday, and we’d especially recommend heading over later on to catch the 11 p.m. Leno-Letterman Audition Highlights, which features some of the fest’s funnier comedians in longer sets than usual….

>> The DC Independent Film Festival (DCIFF) opens tonight with a special tribute to Academy Award winning Executive Producer John Daly (Terminator, Platoon), and DCist will be there. Daly will be presented a Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the film industry. Having trouble choosing between which of the 139 films being offered this year? DCist will have a slew of reviews over the course of the festival. We’re especially excited about DCIFF’s move…

In a few short weeks, your fearless editor will finally be attending her very first Wizards game, and I’m getting more excited by the day. I’ve reportedly got a great seat (thanks, Matt!), the Wizards are having a fantastic season, and the game in question will find the boys facing down the Los Angeles Lakers — a team I would be hard-pressed to despise more. Awesome. So of course, in preparation for the big day,…

MONDAY >> New York’s Teenage Prayers offer up a sound that leans heavily on the best kind of influences — from Solomon Burke to The Kinks — to the Red and the Black tonight. Should be just the right kind of band for this intimate venue. $8. TUESDAY >> The last time Art Brut came to town, DCist Kyle said, “I honestly can’t remember the last time I had so much fun at a rock…

Thanks to Diane “The PandaPack Winner” Shedd, DCist was alerted to this incredibly sad account posted on craigslist of poor Julie G’s cat Mittens, who may have bit the big one earlier today, according to her not-very-subtle neighbor, Steve Y. Hey Julie G, it’s Steve Y– your next door neighbor. I remeber you telling me that you read these. Sorry I don’t have your cell or work e-mail, but I think your cat’s dead. I…

The summer concert season is well under way, and few surprises remain, which makes concert news that cuts through the humidity all the more exciting. Here are a few new blips on the radar that we noticed, despite our holding pattern as we await the official VFest announcements this weekend. >> We hope you all got your Sleater-Kinney tickets; they sold out so fast that even the formidible Internet prowess of our own Jason Linkins…

Although I’ve never been, I hear Gravelly Point is a great place to visit if you want to watch the planes at National take off and land. Flickr user zachstern gives us the visual evidence. This shot was taken on a Sony DSC-H1. The EXIF data can be found here. This post was written by DCist Kyle Gustafson….

MONDAY >> “It” band of the month Arctic Monkeys are headlining a sold-out show at the 9:30 Club with Delaware’s eccentric pop ensemble http://www.crackerbox.net/audio/spintoband/”>Spinto Band. Fear not, though. NPR.org is webcasting the show starting at 8:30 p.m. as part of its ever growing and always impressive concert series. So gather around the laptop with the kids, and listen to the latest “greatest U.K. rock band of all time” play in our very own backyard. >>…