A nightly Blue Plate Special (also $5.95) makes it enticing to make strategic choices for return visits. Waiters try to pick up Monday night shifts to make a meal of meatloaf night. A cut of the thick, slightly dry (in a good way) comfort food is a good reason to come in for a late night dinner, though the mashed potatoes the slab is served with weren't quite warm enough and the green beans a bit undercooked. Fajita night Wednesday brings a sizzling skillet and a heaping plate of toppings, but the chicken is under-seasoned. Those itching for Thanksgiving will find turkey with the fixins' every Thursday.

Pitchers of cheap beer come standard at any hour, as low as $9 for Rolling Rock. All specialty cocktails from an extensive list are $8, not bargain basement, but not bad considering you're liable to pay close to that much for a rail gin and tonic at any other place in Georgetown. Fair warning: you'll see your fair share of students downing sludge green colored shots of unspecified origins.

Also available is a 20-bottle wine list, well-priced at $20. But if you're looking to go on a spending spree with dad's credit card, the full wine list of 1789 Restaurant, (also operated by the Clyde’s group), is available.

There’s plenty of people watching to go along with your study snack. One Monday night I find myself in the middle of pub trivia night, where a “palindrome” round starts things off. I can’t think of one for “a kingly brew” or any of the other impossible questions. One Saturday, an undergrad and his MacBook rock the house with an eclectic mix that can transition from Lady Gaga to Annie Lennox. My group grabs a pitcher of cheap beer to take in the action and even brave our way out to the dance floor. Cheers to pretending we're still in college!

But whether or not you truly have business hanging out at a campus bar, keep your driver's license handy. Even if you're well settled in with drinks in hand, a bouncer will walk back through at 10 p.m. to recheck IDs and stamp hands. If you forget your ID and go home to get it, the bar will give you a free beer. But no ID, no evening entry.

The Tombs
1226 36th St NW
Washington, DC 20007
(202) 337-6668

Monday-Thursday: 11:30 a.m.-1:15a.m.
Friday: 11:30 a.m.-2:15 a.m.
Saturday: 11:00 a.m.-2:15 a.m.
Sunday: 9:30 a.m.-1:15 a.m.

Showboat benefits from brisk pacing. The show has been heavily streamlined to come in at that reasonable running time, and the cuts aren't missed. But it is the consistent performances dealt out by an able cast, from the jovial Captain Andy (a devil-may-care Harry A. Winter) to a bottled up Will Gartshore (who brings an edge to his irresponsible leading man, Ravenal) that keep it rolling along.

Showboat runs through Jan. 17 at Signature Theatre. Tickets are available online.

>> Also at the Hotel, experimental hip-hop duo Themselves helm a strong like-minded lineup, with eyedea & abilities and EDUCATED CONSUMERS. $12, show at 9 p.m.

>> Remember Matisyahu? Hasidic rap may not have caught on as a larger trend, but he's still around offering his hip-hop reggae stylings at the Sixth & I Synagogue. Sold out, doors at 7 p.m.

>> Philadelphia's Free Energy are about as happy go-lucky as you can find your way to with an electric guitar. With D.C.'s own Radio Fatale at DC9. $8/$10, 9 p.m. We're hard pressed to remember the last time two bands that were so completely and entirely incompatible shared a bill, but hey, sometimes these things work out.

THURSDAY
>> Play flag football, eat yourself sick, get a good spot on the couch and enjoy the company of your family, because there isn't a whole lot of music happening tonight. Happy Thanksgiving!

FRIDAY
>> The Mountain Goats and Final Fantasy might be the perfect lineup to summarize the '00s, musically. On the one hand, lo-fi, literary folk rock. On the other, experimental violin jams that bring indie rock songs to a different place. 8 p.m., $20.

>> Locals Loose Lips offer a softer side of new wave. Think Interpol with a Fischer Price keyboard. They're headlining a fun night of D.C. bands, featuring the poppy folk sounds of typefighter and something a little darker from The Maeda Vale. At the Rock and Roll Hotel, $10, 9 p.m.

SATURDAY
>> Still need to get into the groove and work off some of that Thanksgiving weight? Good news: you don't have to worry about weather stretch pants will still zip up. Throw some on and head to The Red and the Black for Last Saturdays, their regular '80s dance night with DJ Doc Rok. No time or cost are listed, so we're assuming it's free.

>> CHOPTEETH! At the Black Cat! $15, 9 p.m. Because anytime is the right time for some afrofunk.

Other interesting outtakes are that lots of folks like D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier (71 percent approve of her), while opinion on Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee is closely split (47 percent like her, 39 percent don't). On Fenty's tenure, the sitting mayor got passing marks (above 50 percent) only on keeping crime down and maintaining streets and public places. On every other issue – ethics, taxes, leadership, finances – he got a thumbs down. And on his signature issue – education – 43 percent of respondents approved of Fenty, while 40 disapproved.

A couple of notes on the poll: Clarus says they spoke with registered voters, as opposed to likely voters, which is generally considered a less accurate measure. Also, the margin of error is listed at 4.4 percent, which puts the gap between Fenty and Gray well within that margin.

All told, this certainly means good things for Gray, should he choose to run as a consensus candidate aimed at the "Anyone but Fenty" crowd. Of course, his most recent potential ethics scandals could still be a factor in that decision. As for Fenty, well, he still has a year to change some minds. Otherwise, he might have to go on the offensive against Gray -- and soon. And that wouldn't bode well for those already strained mayoral-council relations.

“The [D.C.] music community we were a part of was kind of split into punk and indie pop camps in the early ’90s—and Teenbeat had its own, much quirkier thing going, of course,” recalls Dugan. “All the scenes were so small that you couldn’t help knowing people in all of them…. Mark Robinson booked us for our first Fort Reno show, I believe. The folks from Chickfactor liked us a lot, and Velocity Girl asked us on tour with them and supported us massively. The punks from the Dischord circle were incredibly supportive.”

“John and I lived with a couple of people who were in the band Tuscadero,” Norborg said. “We played with them quite a bit at the beginning, especially… We also played with Fugazi a few times. But I think probably our comfort zone was the Make-Up,” Ian Svenonius’s post-Nation of Ulysses punk-funk garage gospel freakout. “Probably any [band] involving Ian, in particular, they had to headline. ... You couldn’t play after them because they were too over the top. Fugazi could get away with it, but it would be very difficult, and Chisel certainly couldn’t have gotten away with it.”

Dugan recalls the much-missed alternative rock-formatted WHFS being very kind to Chisel, giving the band a great deal of exposure. “We got a lot of play on Now Hear This and did a Dave’s Garage session, and they put us in front of 20,000 people at the Washington Monument with unplugged acoustic guitars and a tiny PA system, opening for the Cranberries. They also booked us with Radiohead at the Convention Center. No joke.”

In D.C., Chisel began to embrace a sharp tunefulness and live-wire energy informed by early British invasion acts and their antecedents. “By the time we reunited in D.C., we were all turning on to mod music, ’60s rock, things like that,” says Dugan. “That was cool by me—the Jam had been my favorite band in my teen years, but I had kind of forgotten about them. I had gotten into darker, moodier music, post-rock, etc. Where we might have been covering the Buzzcocks or Superchunk a few years earlier, we would be encoring with [the Small Faces’] ‘All or Nothing’ or ‘Start’ by the Jam in 1995.”

“Strangely enough,” Dugan noted, “it was Sooyoung Park of Seam who first called us a mod band, after we did some shows in Ohio with Seam in 1994. I think that was kind of a spark of inspiration for us, perhaps unconsciously, to explore that sound. It also brought in the harmonies, which really set us apart. At the time, math rock was kind of ‘in,’ and sometimes it felt like we were reacting against that clinical and heavy approach.”

Over the course of their too-short career, Chisel released a bunch of singles and 7"s, an EP (1995's Nothing New), and two LPs, 8 A.M. All Day and the 1997 swan song Set You Free. 8 A.M. All Day is their strongest offering, a roaring collection of tight-fitting and well-turned-out garage mod mayhem, bursting with memorable melodies and insistent riffs that manage to capture the cool essence of '60s and '70s rock-n-soul without sounding goofy or derivative.

Nearly every song here buzzes with raw pop power as the band pushes the limits of the three-piece setup. Leo's guitar playing is, as always, incredible: the sound he coaxes out of just six strings is consistently surprising, blending choppy, chunky chording with bursts of blazing fretwork. Throughout, Norborg and Dugan provide an unwavering foundation of pulsing bass runs and deft drum fills, the beats finely balanced to bob heads and shuffle dancing shoes while occasionally delving into reggae and dub-influenced rhythmic territory. "Hip Straights" blasts out of the blocks with violent strumming and soaring backing vocals, the skewed main riff bouncing off the rhythm section to excellent effect. "Your Star is Killing Me" swaggers through frantic distortion and troubled treble, while "Citizen of Venus" is almost impossibly catchy, built around a downbeat wavering between stomp and glide. The LP's title track is a taut, anxious anthem marked by one of the album's most vivid vocal hooks.

Chisel tapped Velocity Girl’s Archie Moore to record 8 A.M. All Day, working at Moore’s home studio in Oxon Hill. “I was friends with John and Chris beforehand,” says Moore. “Chris and I played in a band called the Heartworms, and we recorded an album in my basement. Chisel decided to do three or four demos there. That was the first time I met Ted. I had heard exactly one Chisel song, which they had done with Jim Spellman from Velocity Girl. Shortly after we did the demos, they told me they liked the demos enough to use for an album, and wanted to track the rest of an album at my place. I think lack of recording budget figured largely in their decision-making.”

“We recorded everything live,” recalls Norborg. “We were always kind of chasing daylight. We’d get there and record, or mix, and it was pretty quick. There were some random snippets of goofing around, even on the record, of just playing piano and goofing around. If you’re going to make a great record, I think it helps just to have a lot of time to hang around in the studio, and have a lot of taped stuff that ends up not being heard. But it was great fun. It really felt like we were going out in the country, to the middle of nowhere.”

“It was a loose, laid-back vibe,” said Dugan, “Archie was great, lots of fun, and funny, too. He was open to all kinds of ideas. I played a trashcan on ‘Red Haired Mary,’ and I think he suggested recording my improvised piano interludes. Chris and Ted were really on fire with their writing and performing; they liked to do things fast in the studio. We were having so much fun, we started recording songs we hadn’t really played before: ‘Breaking Up with Myself’ and ‘Looking Down at the Great Wall of China.’”

"Everything was done with a minimum of fuss," said Moore. "They played together, in the laundry room. Only a few takes per song. A few overdubs: vocals, guitar solos, a little percussion. It was very exciting to hear them play the basic tracks, but then hearing Ted do his vocals and solos was just ridiculously cool…. I think they would've made a fantastic album no matter where they did it, so I feel quite lucky to have participated.”

8 A.M. All Day's high-voltage production suits the tenor and tone of the songs perfectly, amping up the tension and sharpening every hook. Says Norborg, “Sometimes, if I listen with a severely critical ear, I’m bothered by the thin sound, and I do blame that a little on the medium,” referencing the digital equipment used to record the LP. “But at the end of the day, if I try to imagine it being recorded in the most polished way possible, and then I imagine how that would sound in my head, I don’t like that as much.”

“It has a raw, trebly sound that’s a result of the cheap equipment, our relative inexperience, and of course the band's energy,” observes Moore. “It has a bit of that teeth-gnashing amphetamine sound that reminds me of the early Who or the Creation.”

A decade-plus down the road, 8 A.M. All Day sounds as quick-witted and spit-shined as it did the day it was released. Looking back, Dugan sees 8 A.M. All Day as a group highpoint. “The Chisel material took a huge leap forward in 1995—we knew something was happening,” he said. “I think that Ted’s songwriting really matured with 8 A.M. I feel like there’s a theme of arriving in a new place and being somewhat unimpressed, even a bit angry, with what was available socially, but ultimately it’s also a really explosive, energetic album.”

Says Norborg, “I think we performed the songs on Set You Free better, but I think, overall, 8 A.M. All Day was a better album.”

Repeated attempts to reach Leo for this piece were unsuccessful.

"I'm stepping into a different world that I'd never stepped into before," said the Grammy nominee. "I want to accomplish everything I have not done before."

Gilberto is featured regularly with Thievery Corporation, so we couldn't help but ask whether their might be some surprise guests at tonight's show. While there were no definite plans at the time of the interview, Gilberto did acknowledge that she would welcome the opportunity to have musicians from Thievery sit in with her band. Regardless, she noted that she was looking forward to returning to where she had one of her most memorable performances.

"I was on a triple bill with Manu Chao and Thievery. That was really special," recalled Gilberto. "With my whole history with Rob [Garza] and Eric [Hilton], I saw the beginning of Eighteenth Street Lounge, I couldn't be more happy to play in D.C."

Bebel Gilberto performs tonight at the 9:30 Club, located at 815 V Street, NW. 6 p.m. doors. $35

More in sadness than in anger, Archbishop Wuerl writes, the legislation "would reduce unnecessarily the resources available for outreach." The Archbishop expresses "a simple recognition that the new requirements by the city for religious organizations to recognize same-sex marriages in their policies could restrict our ability to provide the same level of services as we do now." For an explanation as to how these policies would restrict the Archdiocese, Wuerl writes, "Since Catholic Charities cannot comply with city mandates to recognize and promote same-sex marriages, the city would withhold contracts and licenses." It would be the District turning down the Church!

What Wuerl doesn't mention is employee benefits -- the actual crux of the Archdiocese's displeasure with the legislation. The Archbishop writes, "We are asking that new language be developed that more fairly balances different interests -- those of the city to redefine marriage and those of faith groups so that they can continue to provide services without compromising their deeply held religious teachings and beliefs." It is apparently a deeply held religious teaching and belief that same-sex partners of employees of the Catholic Church not receive benefits.

What Wuerl also doesn't mention is that the Archdiocese's judgment is consistent with the Manhattan Declaration, an ecumenical agreement between conservative Christian leaders to rally in their opposition to abortion and teh gay. Wuerl was the first to sign the document, which calls for Christians to practice civil disobedience to protest liberal social laws. Render unto Caesar, bitches!

Of course, what Wuerl doesn't need to say is why he is writing an editorial instead of, say, a letter. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton has said that she hopes to find a solution that does not involve intervention by her peers in Congress -- which is probably conservatives' last best hope for preventing the legalization of same-sex marriage in the District. And D.C. Council members David A. Catania and Phil Mendelson have sent Wuerl letters noting a compromise policy practiced at Georgetown University. Wuerl doesn't mention any specific change to the legislation that his editorial would seem to call for ("We are asking that new language be developed"). But hey, the Washington Post sure is read by a lot of people in Congress who could do something about it.

What Wuerl also also doesn't mention is teh gay aliens. What happens if the Church finds extraterrestrials and they are totally gay?

• Anyone want to lay money on Georgetown -- currently #20 in the AP poll -- still being there at the end of the season? No? The Hoyas sandwiched two road gimmes (Greg Monroe's vacation Tulane and Savannah State) with a thoroughly unimpressive one-point win over Temple on Tuesday. A ridiculous, ESPN–mandated 4 p.m. tip on Tuesday obviously drew a paltry crowd at the seemingly-cavernous Verizon Center, though it was probably for the best. Not even a game-winning shot from Monroe could salvage this train wreck of a game. Don't believe me? Georgetown had more turnovers (16) and fouls (18) than baskets from the field (15). Fun fact: the win did break Temple's streak of 68 straight wins when holding opponents to under 50 points.
• Boy, does the early season scheduling of the big local ACC trio stink. Maryland -- probably the DMV's best chance at a Final Four team, beat minnows Charleston Southern, Fairfield, and New Hampshire by an average of 31 points. Virginia Tech, on the other hand, could only muster 14- and 13-point wins over Brown and UNC Greensboro, respectively. Virginia has cruised against Longwood, Rider, and Oral Roberts, but lost to South Florida. Between the three, they only play one ranked team in the pre-conference slate (Maryland at the BB&T Classic against Villanova on 12/6). And while Tech and UVA have eight major conference opponents combined in the non-con, they are really scraping the bottom of the barrel (Iowa, Penn State twice, Stanford, Auburn, Georgia, South Florida and Seton Hall). Way to boost that RPI, fellas.
• Howard only scored 33 points against Georgia State last night. Oof.
• American, fresh off last year's Patriot League championship and berth in the Big Dance, has started this season 0-4, dropping three straight in Tenleytown.

Setting the Pick:

• It may have been a terrible way to lose a basketball game -- by one to the sixth-ranked team in the country on a three with 13.3 seconds left after leading by as much as 13 -- but George Mason proved that, once again, it will be a massive pain for everyone, especially in the CAA. Jim Larranenga again showed that Mason will be rely heavily on intensity, even when there is a gulf in class. Despite being out-rebounded 37-23 (15-5 on the offensive glass), Mason held Villanova to 35.8% shooting from the field and forced 16 turnovers from a team with a load of experienced guards. Mason dropped another one to #19 Georgia Tech on Friday, but came back nicely to dramatically beat Indiana today. Playing teams like that, 1-2 isn't a terrible return, and the competitive experience could prove invaluable.
• Yet another CAA concern: Is Old Dominion for real? The Monarchs have started the season 4-0, but will be tested in the week ahead with games against Missouri and Richmond -- and later with games against Georgetown and Dayton in mid-December. Time will tell.

Riding the Pine: Morgan State keeping things close with Louisville, as I type...Mount St. Mary's obviously looking to garner votes in Dan Steinberg's Atlantic 11 poll, beating American and Loyola early...Coppin State played the Washington Adventist Shock, which could be a Christian electrician company for all we know...Early candidates for worst team in the area award: Navy, Liberty, Hampton, Norfolk State open a combined 3-10.

SUNDAY:
>> With the price of admission to the Phillips Collection on Sunday (November 29, 4 p.m.) is a recital by pianist Elena Ulyanova.

>> The American Music Festival at the National Gallery of Art continues with a free concert of music by Aikman, Bermel, Corigliano, and Lerdahl, presented by the National Gallery Orchestra (November 29, 6:30 p.m.). Enter the West Building through the Constitution Ave. entrance at 6th St. NW.

>> Speaking of Christmas concerts, another one that will have some interesting music is The Cherry Tree, a program presented by the vocal quartet Anonymous 4 on the Friends of Music at Dumbarton Oaks (November 29, 7 p.m., and repeated on November 30, 8 p.m.). This series is normally open to subscribers only, but some unsold tickets may be available for non-subscribers in the days leading up to the concerts.

Jacqueline Wong-Hernandez, a former St. Hope teacher (not the accuser), told federal investigators that Rhee contacted her after the allegations were first raised to find out what had happened, and told her "she was making this her number one priority and she would take care of the situation." Later, Wong-Hernandez heard that Johnson's lawyer had met with the accuser, and the complain had been dropped. According to the IG report, a week later, when the accuser decided to leave the program because of "financial and family reasons", Johnson confidentially offered her $1,000 a month until the end of the program, which was declined. Wong-Hernandez later quit St. Hope, she says in part because of the handling of the incident.

Earlier this year, the acting United States attorney for Sacramento found that Johnson had committed "no criminal wrongdoing", and the school agreed to pay $424,000 to settle accusations that it failed to follow terms of the AmeriCorps grants.

It's unclear as of yet just what the fallout will be from all of this, and how that will impact Rhee's reform efforts in the District, particularly as next year's mayoral election heats up. On the one hand, it's hard to just dismiss the complaints against Johnson, but the political backdrop to the whole thing suggests certain amount of posturing. Much of the coverage of the report has focused on Rhee, despite the fact that her actual involvement, beyond her personal connection to Johnson, is pretty slim. Her national celebrity may actually hurt her here. Jeff Smith, director of school advocacy group D.C. Voice, told the Examiner, “I think her detractors may use it as another part of their case for why she’s unfair, but I don’t see it as having relevance on her philosophy or approach or management of the school system.” But if the commenters on the Post's story about the scandal are any indication, Rhee's critics aren't going to let this go anytime soon.