Folk/Americana band Red Molly played to a full house at Jammin’ Java last night, singing songs that, in the words of one fan, fall into one of three categories: “lost love, lost life, and get lost.” Three-part harmonies and sensitive string arrangements were the name of the game as the trio played tracks from its just-released fourth record, James. The band is offering the album to all show attendees as part of a “pay what you want” deal that applies to all Red Molly merch. For the music biz geeks out there, it’ll be interesting to hear about the results of experiments like this.

Live shots after the jump and at the full gallery.

Full gallery here.

“I know it’s weird,” Tanya Tagaq said of her music on Friday night at National Geographic. Tagaq’s emotional stage presence was both a strength and weakness, as she vacillated between cathartic release while throat-singing and vapid philosophizing while singing conventionally. Despite the low points, the performance, which mostly consisted of a single long improvisation bolstered by the considerable talents of Tagaq’s sidemen, was powerful, unique, and not one that many in attendance will forget anytime soon.

More photos after the jump and at the full gallery.

Full gallery here.

About three songs into the performance last night, a fan somehow got onstage—”I don’t know where the hell he came from,” a Verizon Center staffer said afterward—and rushed Jay-Z, before being unceremoniously thrown off the high stage by a bodyguard (he was shaken up, but fine). If you’re looking for photos of that excitement, they’re not here—this happened literally seconds after photographers were escorted out of the arena for the night.

That aside, hit the jump or the full gallery for more photos of, you know, the actual performance.

Full gallery here.

Atomic plays what I like to think of as free jazz for prog fans—relatively accessible avant-jazz that revels in stop/start dynamics, abrupt thematic shifts, bizarre time signatures, blazingly intense solos, and the juxtaposition of beautiful melody with raucous dissonance. Despite the near-destruction (twice!) of a borrowed upright bass, the quintet successfully ran through a set of mostly brand-new material last night at Twins Jazz to a good-sized, enthusiastic audience.

More photos after the jump:

Annie Clark and St. Vincent have played the D.C. area five times in the past two years, but that didn’t stop them from packing the 9:30 Club last night. The highlight was the encore, featuring a solo rendition of “Paris Is Burning” and a noisy, chaotic version of “Your Lips Are Red.” Setlist and more photos after the jump and at the full gallery.

Wildbirds & Peacedrums, whom we’ve recommended in the past, opened:

Full gallery here.

St. Vincent Setlist:
The Strangers
Save Me From What I Want
Laughing With a Mouth Full of Blood
Actor
Jesus Saves, I Spend
Just the Same But Brand New
The Bed
These Days (solo, Nico cover)
Black Rainbow
Marrow
The Party
—–
Paris Is Burning (solo)
Your Lips Are Red

I’ll never be able to forgive the Black Eyed Peas for inflicting “My Humps” on the world, but they sure put on a pretty fun show. More photo evidence after the jump and at the full gallery.

Ludacris was second on the bill but seemingly nearly as much a draw as the headliners:

The horrendously bad LMFAO opened the show:

Full gallery here.

A couple years ago, Rockville’s Hotspur was the subject of an award-winning City Paper cover story about the difficulties of making a living as a musician. Last Friday, the band played its first headlining show at the 9:30 Club, at the top of a bill featuring a slew of up-and-coming local pop-rock groups. More photos after the jump and at the full gallery.

D.C.’s No Second Troy were next on the bill:

Northern Virginia’s versatile Margot MacDonald played second with her electric rock group:

Another NoVA band, Boys Will Be Boys opened the night:

Full gallery here.

Tegan and Sara managed to fill up the vast majority of seats at the cavernous Warner Theatre last night, with concertgoers that looked decidedly different from Monday’s Yes show. More photos after the jump and at the full gallery.

Holly Miranda provided support:

Steel Train opened the night:

More photos at the full gallery.

The highlight of Yes‘ set last night at the Warner Theatre might have been singer Benoit David—whose voice is a dead ringer at times for Jon Anderson’s—introducing a song by saying, “This next one is a beautiful song from a beautiful album… Tormato,” followed by half the audience trying not to snicker. Still, when the band stuck to its classics (and I’ll more than willingly defend its early-’70s output as such), it was pretty entertaining. At this point in Yes’ career, that’s all anyone is asking for.

More photos after the jump and at the full gallery.

A few more photos at the full gallery.