Occasionally I hit various venues in the area in search of live music. My two favorite places are probably Phantasmagoria (a smoke-free club in Wheaton) and Kramerbooks (a bookstore in Dupont Circle), which boasts bands and all-night eats Friday and Saturday nights. My friend Chris McMahon's acoustic+ band has played at Kramerbooks a couple of times. I've discovered an interesting "Cabaret Rock Nouveau" band that I want to hear again: Xyra + Verborgen. I really like the rich sound of the instrumentation combined with Xyra's contralto voice, and they have some intriguing lyrics (not just the usual love songs!), too. Their sound is not as world-weary as Marlene Dietrich (surely you've heard her "Falling in Love Again"), if not as up-tempo as Suzanne Vega's 1996 "Nine Objects of Desire" CD (also cabaret-oriented). Their Glass Birds CD I got is a professional quality production and a pretty good reflection of what I heard.