Thanks to everyone that entered DC Metblogs Rascal Flatts Giveaway. Tonight I drew the winning entry after returning from the Red Sox slaughter by the Nationals. As a Red Sox fan I was sad, but happy to see the Nats get a win against one of the best teams in the AL East.

So who’s the lucky winner? You’ll have to watch the video to find out!

Well, Virgin Fest is back for another summer.  What with Pimlico’s financial issues, there was deliberation as to whether the Preakness would actually happen, let alone another summer music fest.  However, Virgin have moved the Festival to Merriweather Post Pavilion, and renamed the Festival to “Virgin Mobile Free Fest.”  Yep, tickets this year are free!  You’ll still need to order them in advance, though (UPDATE:  tickets can be gotten via Ticketmaster starting at 10 a.m. EST on Saturday, June 27.  Free, except for those irritating “convenience” charges.).

The lineup for VF is, as usual, impressive (at least to this old fogie).  Headliners Weezer and Blink 182 will be accompanied by Franz Ferdinand, Girl Talk, Jet, Mates of State, Public Enemy, Taking Back Sunday, The Bravery, The Hold Steady, The National, St. Vincent, and Wale.  A Dance Tent will house the likes of Danny Howells, Holy F*ck (uh, that URL is NSFW), Lee Burridge, and Pete Tong.  Gates will open at 11 AM, and the show will last until 10 PM.

Tickets, as I mentioned, are Free.  They don’t seem to be yet available on Ticketmaster, but we’ll keep you posted on the “sale” date.  The Fest is encouraging attendees to donate at least $5 to The RE*Generation to help stem youth homelessness.  You can text “FREEFEST” to “20222″ for a one-time $5 text charge,  or go old-school and donate online.

Get on out there and have fun, you crazy kids!

Rascal Flatts will be making a stop this Saturday at Nissan Pavillion and you can win a chance to not only go to the concert but to meet them here on DC Metblogs!

The band is on their American Living Unstoppable Tour (presented by JCPenney) and JC Penny has been gracious enough to offer me a pair of tickets and a chance to hang out with the band before the show. The winner will also get to chill at the VIP tent which will include plenty of food and beverage.

Free tickets, free food, and a chance to meet multi platinum music group? Sign me up! (Unfortunately I cannot because I run this site.)

So how do you sign up?

All you have to do is send an e-mail do dcmetblogs@gmail.com please include:

• Your full name
• Your full address
• Your telephone number
• Your e-mail address

The only rule is that you have to have a valid photo ID in order to meet the band and get your tickets. And also I will have to exclude the other writing staff at DC Metblogs (sorry Frank!)

I will take all the entries and draw the names on Thursday June 25th at 11:oo PM (or whenever I get back from the Red Sox/Nationals game) the winner will be contacted Friday morning and in bloggy fashion, I’ll draw the winning entry on YouTube and post the video that night.

So what are you waiting for? Tell all your friends to e-mail DC Metblogs and get in the action!

EDIT: Please sent only one e-mail, multiple entries won’t do you any good.

Yay!  Washingtonian tweets the happy news that Fort Reno’s summer concert schedule has finally been announced!

• Monday, June 22nd: Pash, Funk Ark, The Sweater Set
• Thursday, June 25th: Electricutions, Meow vs Meow, Noon:30
• Monday, June 29th: Cigarbox Planetarium, Small Doses, Batala
• Thursday, July 2nd: Caverns, Aerialist, TBA
• Monday, July 6th: Go Home Robot, Sea Monsters, Power Pirate
• Thursday, July 9th: TBA, Imperial China, FFFever
• Monday, July 13th: Poor But Sexy, Laura Zax, Formers
• Thursday, July 16th: Godisheus, Girl Loves Distortion, Laughing Man
• Monday, July 20th: Meredith Bragg, Hey Arbore, TBA
• Thursday, July 23rd,  Night of a Thousand Cakes!: Soft Power, Benjy Ferree, TBA
• Monday, July 27th: TBA, Stoney Lonesome, Pree
• Thursday, July 30th: Title Tracks, Casper Bangs, Grendel Babies

My personal favorites, Poor But Sexy will be playing on July 13th – here’s hoping the June Gloom finds its way back to the West Coast by then.  You can get there on the Metro by heading for Tenleytown on the Red Line and then taking a walk to the park from the station.  Shows start at 7:15 PM and are over by 9:30, so there’s no worry about staying out too late on  a school night.  Let’s all head outside and dance!

And hey, no arsenic this year, please!

Thanks to flickr user Andrew Huff for this photo of reigning Philly US Air Guitar Champ Windhammer.

If you get up on stage and fake playing a song, a la Ashlee Simpson or  Milli Vanilli and you will lose your Grammys and never sell a CD MP3 again-except ironically, of course.

But get up on stage and blatantly put on recorded music and also PRETEND to be holding an instrument-and you’ll sell a hell of a lot of tickets.

Some how air guitar has gone from being something we did to entertain ourselves in front of the mirror and transformed into something people will pay good money to see.  Somehow both more fake and more real than a guitar game like Guitar Hero (both of which take a lot less talent and effort than say, I dunno, playing the guitar for real?)-air guitar is a thing now.  With it’s own contest and governing board and everything.

And it’ll be at the 9:30 Club on Friday (at 8pm).

Yes, go watch (or participate!) in the Washington DC regional of the US AIR GUITAR CHAMPIONSHIP.

Okay-so this whole fad strikes me as a bit too much hipster for my taste, but it probably is something to see at least once.  Just read that partial article on the main page for US Air featuring Air-Guitarist “Windhammer

Windhammer’s left hand was a blur. His right hand dashed up and down the invisible fretboard, furiously articulating chords in unprecedented contortions. If anyone witnessing the light-speed riff even had a chance to wonder what the hurry was, the abrupt emergence of the solo answered their question.“

And here I would have thought that the guy was just making it up.  Alas, I would have been wrong-apparently the emperor does in fact shred in his new clothes.

Any Metblog users going/participating?  I want to hear from you-what am I missing here?  Is this like LOST or soccer where you need a little background info to know and appreciate what is going on?  Enlighten!

(and for the record, I always used a tennis racket-I never felt comfortable with just air…)

In the meantime, here is air guitar in it’s natural, moving, element…

Thanks to the phone banks with the Terry McAuliffe campaign, I heard that he and will.i.am will be down the street tonight at Clarendon Ballroom. The event is titled, “A Night with will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas” and proceeds will go to McAuliffe’s gubernatorial campaign.

This is less of a political message and more of a, “if you want to see will.I.am and don’t mind throwing money at Terry McAuliffe to do it- here’s your chance!

Terry seems to know a few famous people, later this week he’s holding a rally at NOVA in Annandale with Bill Clinton. Well that makes sense since he ran Hillary’s Presenditial campaign and is a former DNC chairman.

A Night with will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas

The Clarendon Ballroom
3185 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, Virginia
Monday, May 11, 2009 at 8:00pm
$20 Admission
$500 Co-Host (includes admission to a special VIP reception with Will.I.Am at 8:00PM and recognition at the event)

Even though she now calls Seattle her home, Ali Marcus grew up in the Washington DC area and has performed at local venues such as Iota, Jammin’ Java, and Galaxy Hut. She’s been playing music since she was an 8th grader in Northern Virginia. Now the Folk singer is excited to release “The Great Migration” and is celebrating her release with a hometown performance tomorrow night at The Velvet Lounge.

A one woman operation, Ali does everything herself, from writing the songs; to producing albums and booking tours; she even writes her own press releases! The folk-life entrepreneur has been on an east coast swing spreading the love for her new album, and has also teased a possible “secret show” somewhere in DC on the 13th.

Ali Marcus
Velvet Lounge
Saturday May 9th  (Doors open 9pm/Show at 10pm)
$8 (18+ show)

The company that excels at signing athletes to endorsement deals have done it again. In their latest cheesy/terrible TV spot, Caps Superstar Alexander Ovechkin shows that he should stick to scoring goals and taking shots of vodka:

Tom Jones @ 930

So, last night I went with a couple of friends to see Tom Jones at the 9:30 club. Yes, knickers were thrown (but not by us). It was an eclectic crowd, with everyone from 18-year-olds to retirees in the mix! Tom had a great band, and sounded pretty darn good for someone who’s 68 years old. He’s perfectly aware of his abilities and his limitations and works to stay within them to give the audience the best possible sound. (Aretha Franklin, I’m looking at you.)

He’s out supporting his new album.

The show put me in mind of a couple of other big-name, small-venue shows I’ve seen in the fifteen years I’ve lived in the DC metro:

• Tony Bennett at the old 9:30 Club (which was way, way, way smaller than the existing venue); he was playing an impromptu charity show and admission was the price of a can of food
• David Bowie at Nation (about the same size as the existing 9:30 Club)

How about you, DC? What great surprise acts have you seen around town, and where was the show?

I snapped a few shots of the main acts at the Manifest HOPE party tonight – Santogold, De La Soul, Moby

Full set is on flickr.