This Friday, Saturday and Sunday the Sweet Tea Pumpkin Pie Music Festival takes over a huge number of venues around town with mostly free shows by local and out of town bands. I’ve been helping out on the organizational committee for this festival and I couldn’t be more excited that it’s all coming together. Here are my picks for local bands worth checking out.
- Indie rockers Paperhaus cap off the night at 1 AM at The Black Squirrel
- Young punks The Black Sparks play at Columbia Station
- Heaven boasts a tight & focused lineup of twangy rock with SweetBread Jim’s, The Torches & Typefighter
- The WeatherVanes and The Highballers play back to back at Secret Lounge
- We Were Pirates and Norman Rockwell play at Mood Lounge
- Former locals Zulu Pearls haven’t returned to DC in 3 years. Welcome them back at Secret Lounge
- Presto Bando are definitely worth checking out at Mood Lounge
- Young Rapids, fresh from recording a prestigous Daytrotter session in Chicago, play the Paw Tracks / Car Park Showcase at Comet Ping Pong
- Lost Civilizations is interesting experimental music at Mellow Mushroom
- Do not miss Ugly Purple Sweater at Heaven. These guys (and gal) are great musicians and performers, and their show at Red Palace last weekend was PACKED!
- Shoegazers Mittenfields play LOUD at Ghion
- I’m happy to see some hip-hop represented at Old Dominion Brewery by Redhead and Ardamus
Here’s a masive Spotify playlist of lots of the bands playing at the festival.
Keep checking the schedule this weekend, there’s still a few TBDs to fill in and some reshuffling is expected. There’s a LOT going on around town this weekend, but only the STPP Fest has no advance tickets and almost no cover charges. Come check out some fantastic new music!
Hometown Sounds 