And it's not just them—there's more stuff going on all over the DMV.

Books

Sen. Christopher S. Bond Reads from and signs copies of The Next Front. Borders L Street.

Bobby Deen and Jamie Deen Read from and sign copies of The Deen Bros. Take It Easy Quick and Affordable Meals the Whole Family Will Love. Barnes & Noble Tyson’s Corner.

Jamie Ford Reads from and signs copies of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. Borders Baileys Crossroads.

Ray Raphael Reads from and signs copies of Taking Power: How the Founders, All of Them, Redefined the Polity. Busboys & Poets 14th & V.

Jacqueline Thomas Reads from and signs copies of The Ideal Wife. Borders Largo.

Jen Yates Reads from and signs copies of Cake Wrecks: When Professional Cakes Go Hilariously Wrong. Barnes & Noble Tysons Corner.

Music

American Brass Quintet Kennedy Center. $30

The Aquarium, Hotchacha, Mystery of Two Velvet Lounge. $8

Bear in Heaven, Ineveryroom The Talking Head. $10

The Breakups DC9. $8

David Knopfler Jammin Java. $20

The Psychedelic Furs, Happy Mondays, Islands 9:30 Club. $35

Kurt Rosenwinkel Blues Alley. $25

Theater

Opening: The Alchemist at STC's Lansburgh Theatre. The Alchemist follows the antics of three con-artists: Subtle, Face and Dol. When the gentleman Lovewit flees England to avoid the Plague, the trio set up headquarters in his home and set about exposing the social ills of their fellow Londoners. To Nov. 22.

Mocky & GZA: "Birds of a Feather"
It's a bit of a stretch to call this song, assembled by Canadian producer Mocky, a collaboration. The rapper merely plops into the middle of the song, drops a single throwaway verse—a free-associative rant about birds—and abruptly vanishes. Plus, the tweeting birds and sunshiny jazz-pop seem a little out of character for the man who helped found Wu-Tang Clan.

Usher: "Papers"
Honestly, you'd think women would be a little more discreet when hanging out with Usher. The guy's constantly blabbing about his deepest and darkest secrets. His breakout album was called Confessions, for God's sake. Then again, it must be pretty hot to hear somebody like Usher sing your dirty business. "Papers," the first song to leak from Usher's new record, tentatively titled Raymond vs. Raymond, finds him giving everybody the skinny on his recent divorce. Apparently, it sucked. "At 10 I lost my mama/And I been through so much drama/And I turned into the man that I never thought I'd be/I'm ready to sign them papers," he sings, presumably from his analysts' couch.

Bear in Heaven: "Dust Cloud"
It's hard to imagine how Brooklyn space-rock band Bear in Heaven can make it through a band practice without having a box of Dramamine on hand. "Dust Cloud," from the group's second full-length, Beast Rest Forth Mouth, surpasses mere wooziness and goes all the way to seasickness. Do not walk and chew gum and listen to this song at the same time.

This review involves a lot of name-dropping. So don't say you weren't warned.

And, really, how else to consider Free Energy? The Philadelphia-based blogosphere favorite doesn't strive for originality, nor even hipster cachet: You can hear Television or Big Star all you want in the quintet's peppy, big-guitar sound, but really, these guys are all about what you hear on "corporate classic rock stations." Why it works — at least on record in mp3s — has as much to do with the group's nonironic approach as its mindless raison d’être and taut, oft-inspired songwriting. We're understandably skeptical of "woo-ooh," "oh-oh," and "hey alright" choruses, but it's refreshing that Free Energy can actually sell them. Whether that places the band, in those gilded annals of nostalgia rock, closer to The Strokes or The Darkness, I can't say.

In a quick, fairly energetic, and underattended show at the Black Cat downstairs last night, Free Energy cribbed T. Rex's "Mambo Sun" almost verbatim and sometimes invoked The Stooges, but mostly, it reveled in the stuff of Alice Cooper, Cheap Trick, early Tom Petty, and (most centrally) Thin Lizzy — think big, loud, elemental, and poppy. Objectively, it was perfect: Hooks breathed, guitars sirened, cowbells clanged. Skinny as death and neon as fuck, singer Paul Sprangers pranced and strutted and crooned, a little bit Iggy Pop, a little less Julian Casablancas. And I was utterly nonplussed.

I suppose I owe you a mea culpa: Strange as it seems, somehow it's easier to appreciate Free Energy on an academic level than a visceral one. To Sprangers and his bandmates, they're just channeling their heroes and playing it straight. Hell, drummer Nick Shuminsky was wearing a Styx shirt. But the band's songs conjure up grander, arena-sized associations it can't pay off live — never mind the half-empty room. What I'm getting at is this: If you're going for pure homage, then mean it. Execute rock kicks. Flash a devil sign or two. Spit on your fans. As long as the songs are good — and Free Energy's songs are very good — it's not self-parody.

The lexicon Free Energy trades in — of partying 'cuz it's all you've got left, of girls called "child" and "babe," where "hold on" is the only imperative — is a seductive one. So are the choruses, repetitive, sure, but entirely infectious. And slowly, the charisma is creaking toward 11.

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In an entirely different sense, the evening's openers also made smart use of repetition. With drummer David Rich hospitalized, Buildings (or BLDGS) , usually a quartet, became a one-piece for the evening (BLDG?). Guitarist Collin Crowe smiled nervously as he played, constructing slow-building soundscapes with his guitar, synth, and laptop (chirp noises abounded). In the post-rock tradition, Crowe's compositions involved much guitar noodling, but these moments were more barbed than fluid — more Nels Cline or Loren Connors, say, than Mogwai or Do Make Say Think.

And the Brooklyn band Bear In Heaven favored crescendoing song structures and unusual rhythms over verse-chorus arrangements and 4/4 beats. The quartet drew from bands blending the epic and the artsy — some Spiritualized, much Deerhunter — and half its members played synths half the time. What resulted was a glazed, insistent aesthetic that probably could use more attentive songwriting, but showed promise. Not terrible for an evening of works-in-progress.

Photo by Benjamin R. Freed.

Pastiche can be a funny thing: When Paul Sprangers and Scott Wells played fuzzy, proggy slacker pop in the St. Paul, Minn., band Hockey Night, I figured that as long as Stephen Malkmus keeps pumping out decent-or-better albums every few years, my brain just doesn't have the RAM for a Pavement Lite.

If this is beginning to sound like a half-hearted endorsement, I'll stop and say this: Sprangers and Wells' new outfit, Free Energy, makes anthemic, insanely catchy music with a hefty, forgivable debt to your favorite '70s pre- (but not proto-) punk bands — think Thin Lizzy's chutzpah, Cheap Trick's contagiousness, and the wide, romantic eyes of The Raspberries. The much-buzzed-about group (now based in Philly) recently signed with New York's dance-punk mavens DFA, which some people find strange or something, since Free Energy isn't a dance band. Bullshit. I'm shimmying in my desk chair just writing about these guys. What they lack in originality (plus ça change... and all that), they more than make up for with insistent songwriting, strutting rhythms, and insane hooks.

Free Energy brings its old-is-new-again rock to the Black Cat backstage tomorrow, and the show, also with Bear In Heaven and D.C.'s BLDGS, is well worth your $10. Unless, of course, you're set on getting your Gossip Girl on with Cobra Starship instead.

This blog has already covered Free Energy's self-titled single, so check out the hometown-loving video (and show deets) after the jump. (I lived in Philly for two years, so sometimes I gotta rep, too.)

Wednesday, Aug. 26 | Free Energy, Bear In Heaven, and BLDGS | Black Cat downstairs | 8 p.m. | $10

Photo courtesy of Free Energy's MySpace page.