What does the beginning of the end sound like? Not long ago, in a small bar tucked away in far Northwest DC, local folk punk band Trash Boat and the Ambush did a twisted cover of Bob McFadden’s “Beat Generation,” singing instead: “We belong to the dead generation.” On Saturday at the Howard Theatre, Yo La Tengo covered Sun Ra’s cold war jazz classic “Nuclear War:” “it’s a motherfucker, don’t you know?/ if they push that button, your ass got to go.” And on Sunday at the 9:30 Club, Darkside lead singer Nicolas Jaar crooned a hellish interpolation of John Lennon: “imagine all the people/ living in hell/ doesn’t take much.”

What I’m saying is that vibes are bad right now in Washington, DC, the belly of the beast and the center of the collapse, and you can hear it everywhere you go. But bad vibes are nothing new for Anohni, the 54-year-old singer and performance artist who came up in New York’s experimental theater scene in midst of the AIDS crisis. Throughout the ’90s, she built a reputation with her band the Johnsons (named in honor of Marsha P.) for achingly beautiful songs which explored the contradictions of love, queerness, and oppression.