FRIDAY: >> Friends ‘o DCist Middle Distance Runner have had quite a ride since playing our special Unbuckled/Anniversary concert last September. Despite a few bumps on the road, they’ve gone from little band that could to having their first headlining slot at 9:30 club tonight. We’ll say we knew them when. With The Dance Party. 10 p.m., $10. >> Akron/Family impressed the pants off of critics in 2005 with their self-titled neo-folk stylings. They’ll be…

Fringe. When most Washingtonians speak the word, it’s usually in the context of dangerous foreign militias or whatever wackadoo mental sputum has oozed forth from John Hinderaker’s brain that morning. But for the next eleven days, Washington is going to come to know the term in a whole new light, because today is the start of the first-ever Capital Fringe Festival, a merry and motley collection of unique theatre, dance, cabaret and decidedly “other” performances,…

February’s theater scene brings a month of insomnia and exorcisms, dames and deaths. But before we outline the month’s offerings, allow us to say thanks to DCist reader Jeffrey, who reminded us that tickets for the Monty Python spectacular, Spamalot, coming to the National Theater in June, go on sale Februrary 26. They’ll be gone faster than you can say “shrubbery,” so mark your calendars. In the meantime, how far would you go to protect…