X: Exene Cervenka, Billy Zoom, Jon Doe, and D.J. Bonebrake, pictured sometime well in advance of their current 31st anniversary tour. As unabashedly retro, amphetamine-spiked rocksoulpunkabilly two-fers go, you’d be hard-pressed to do better than pioneering Los Angeles punkers X, with garage-rock archeologists the Detroit Cobras on the undercard. Billed as X’s 31st anniversary tour, (though their recorded career began with 1980’s Los Angeles) this greasy double bill pulled into the 9:30 Club Wednesday…

Yesterday the National Park Service quietly announced that Ford’s Theatre, the site of President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination and one of D.C.’s most popular tourist destinations, will close today for 18 months as it undergoes a massive renovation. The planned $8.5 million upgrade will include improvements to the heating, air conditioning, lighting and sound systems, the addition of an elevator and new restrooms, the Park Service said. As the WaPo points out, in addition to being…

A new “old musical” may sound like a contradiction in terms, but that’s exactly what Meet John Doe, now playing at Ford’s Theater, is. At first, one might wonder if we need a show that takes us back to the days of classics like Kiss Me Kate and Sweet Charity, but with such intelligent lyrics and such a satisfying blend of hope and cynicism, John Doe is more than a nostalgia trip, and doesn’t have…

MONDAY >>West Coast represent! Hailing from Los Angeles, the five-man hip hop collective Jurassic 5 will be bringing their easy-to-swallow beats to the 9:30 Club with the Brooklyn-based X-Clan. $25.00, 7:30 p.m. TUESDAY >> Three Stars alums The Roosevelt (***) might play some tunes off their upcoming EP when they rock DC9 with The Subjects and NOVA’s very own The Beanstalk Library. Support your local “The” bands. $8. >> Dave Grohl returns to the city…

We know, we know, we’ll get it out of the way first — we cover Borf too much, Borf sucks, he’s a tagger without talent, we’re “crackers” for even writing about him, etc, etc, etc. Believe us, we’ve heard it all. Over and over. And over. But since we seem to have become the clearinghouse for all things Borf, we felt a responsibility to post this email from a loyal reader who tipped us off…