is there a magazine or newspaper for the Washington DC area that has club listings/bands in town? Something in the vein of the Village Voice or Boston Phoenix???

washington is pretty much devoid of anything worthwhile in the nightlife category. your best bet is to just look at the 9:30 and black cat listings.

not true! when I was in High School washington was THE place to be-
Fugazi, the Make Up, Chisel, Unrest (and all of teen beat)...
sure, that was 10 years ago but bands tour n all....

Velvet Lounge has a sleeper every now and again.

There is also the Baltimore City Paper which covers some venues despite being Charm City oriented. Washington City Paper exists, but I haven't seen one in years.

Washington Post's "Weekend" section hits on Fridays and isn't bad, but their tabloid geared to a younger audience, (EXTRA, maybe?) was godawful when I saw it.

Baltimore City Paper is by far my favorite, but I don't hardly ever trot over to DC.

pheer.com lists just about every show in the dc/va area, with an inclination towards punk/hardcore.

There is the "alternative" weekly Washington City Paper:

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/

There are more venues than 9:30 but you have to be on the look out. Sometimes the Birchmere in Alexandria and the Iota in Arlington have good shows. I've seen stuff also at Lisner Auditorium which is part of GWU.

A mixed bag which leans towards "adult alternative" with occassional suprises:

http://www.birchmere.com/calendar/calendar_list.cfm

This place I only learned about because Sondre Lerche played there:

http://www.iotaclubandcafe.com/

is the Metro still having shows?

do you mean the metro cafe? i think that place closed a while back.

www.dcist.com is a pretty good resource for what is going on in dc. there are tons of good links on the site
pheer.com used to be much better, but its not a bad start.
bigyawn.net has some listings
washingtonpost.com has "going out" blog that is pretty good.
the washington express - the free version of the post is ok, getting better. their show listings are fairly limited and *usually* for the day of a show.

the warehouse next door is worth checking out, sometimes DC9 has good shows and Galaxy Hut if you are in NOVA. There are tons of house shows in MD, too, near College Park and Silver Spring, depending on what you are looking for.

surprisingly enough, American University has been having pretty rad show in the basement of Kay - the "flaming cupcake" on campus. I wish they had those when I was there.

Don't forget about Fort Reno [www.fortreno.com] on Mondays and Thursdays!

What others have said:

the paper you seek is Washington City Paper (link previously posted);

the Baltimore City Paper also does a nice run-down of the upcoming week starting on Wednesday (I think), including most DC area events;

ultra-lame -- I tried to compile a list of links, but the other sites that have been posted might do you better (stop after Wolf Trap, the rest are place-holders): link, but it might at least give you things to search on.