Weekend Picks: Mission of Burma, NSO

Saturday:

There are usually two kinds of band reunions: the kind in which a band plays the hits from its heyday, and the kind in which a band attempts to pick up where it left off, writing new material. Seminal Bostonian post-punk act Mission of Burma is doing a bit of both. Formed in 1979, the band released only one full length, Vs., before calling it quits as a result of guitarist Roger Miller’s tinnitus. In 2002, the band reunited and has since toured regularly and recorded more full-length albums than in its original incarnation. On Burma’s current tour, titled “Definitive Editions,” the band members are breaking from their usual blend of old and new to please their more nostalgia-hungry fans. They’ll play Vs. in its entirety throughout the tour, showing that, while they’re not living in the past, they’re not afraid to look back. Mission of Burma performs with Versus at 9 p.m. at the Black Cat, 1811 14th St. NW. $15. (202) 667-7960. —Matthew A. Stern

Sunday:

Washington, D.C., won’t have Leonard Slatkin to kick around anymore. The National Symphony Orchestra’s longtime music director is off to Detroit after the Kennedy Center decided against renewing his contract, but not before a proper send-off. D.C.’s dwindling and increasingly geriatric classical music community was at best ambivalent about the 63-year-old conductor: His 12-year tenure was marked by grousing from the Muppet Show balcony critics, who bemoaned both the declining interest in classical and the NSO’s earnest but sometimes embarrassing efforts to reverse this (see “Video Games Live!”—classical renditions of songs from Halo and World of Warcraft). Nevertheless, Slatkin left his mark. He revived interest in Russian, British, and American composers in a field dominated by Austrians and Germans, and he knew how to connect with an audience, if not with Statler and Waldorf. In this program, Slatkin will highlight some of the best of his repertoire—Shostakovich, Elgar, and Bernstein—and will be joined by master cellist Yo-Yo Ma. The performance begins at 7 p.m. at the Kennedy Center’s Concert Hall, 2700 F St. NW. $25–$150. (202) 467-4600. —Michael Paarlberg

This entry was posted on Friday, June 27th, 2008 at 10:32 am and is filed under Show Alert. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.