Nothin’ but nothin’ can take the wicked sting out of the current cold snap like a night packed into a local music venue. So get out there already.
Tonight (Friday, January 13):
Dick Dale, Dead Man @ The Tractor Tavern. $20 at the door. Show at 9pm.
Well before Quentin Tarantino goosed “Miserlou” into the mass pop-culture consciousness in Pulp Fiction, Dick Dale was already one of the undisputed legends of surf guitar, a virtuoso of the style who pulled dirty rock sounds into the stuttering beach party mix with volcanic ferocity; and he’s a staggering force of nature in a live setting. Get ready to frug, and to get your ears blown out.
Post Adolescence, Mothership, We Wrote the Book on Connectors, The Dignitaries @ The High Dive. $7 at the door. Show at 9pm.
Post Adolescence play winning post-punk with emotions and fun writ large in equal doses. The band’s fat and full guitar sound recalls Suede, and Johnny Straube’s tremulous tenor voice is an idiosyncratic pop taste well worth acquiring. The ballad “Don’t Walk Away” manages to make the girls swoon while the boys air-guitar, and the band’s rockers jump out of the speakers with playful energy. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, get to the High Dive early, for Pete’s Sake: Tacoma’s Dignitaries pound out garage rock with blunt-force trauma, and We Wrote the Book on Connectors bolster their ample chops with the funniest great pop songs this side of Flight of the Conchords.
The Bad Things, Bakelite 78, Bat Country, Gunstreet Glory @ The Comet Tavern. $8 at the door. Doors at 8pm, show at 9pm.
I loves me some drunken cabaret pop, and the Comet’ll have it in doses this evening. Headliners The Bad Things remain that gloriously-sodden sub-genre’s local masters, but don’t miss Bakelite 78‘s clattering Tin Pan Alley pop: Crooner/principal singer Robert Rial suggests the love child born of a bathtub-gin-fueled make-out session between Rudy Vallee and Tom Waits.
Saturday, January 14:
Allen Stone, Kris Orlowski @ The Neptune Theater. Sold Out. Doors at 8pm, show at 9pm.
Allen Stone’s honey-sweetened soul voice has arrived with so much hype it’ll almost kick in your gag reflex, but there’s a reason for the mountain of press and the Conan O’ Brien slot: The kid’s got the goods. Tomorrow’s Neptune gig is sold out, which means if you ain’t got a ticket you’ll miss Stone and what’s sure to be a solid set by Kris Orlowski, a folk singer whose sandpaper pipes rough up his rootsy compositions with bracing grittiness. Stone also plays Sunday night at the Neptune with Noah Gunderson of The Courage warming things up, and yeah, that one looks to be sold out, too. Sorry to tease you like that.
Lonesome Shack, Sugar Sugar Sugar, The Curious Mystery @ The Sunset Tavern. $7 advance, $8 at the door. Doors at 9pm, show at 10pm.
Blah, blah, another two-guy band rifling through the blues, blah, blah. But Lonesome Shack pick out a more back-porch sound than the Black Keys or My Goodness–think Leadbelly, possessing the souls of a couple of indie-rock kids. Great stuff. The Curious Mystery, meantime, sound a little like Mazzy Star’s atmospheric attempt to compose music for a Sergio Leone western after dropping acid. Oh, and I won’t prattle on any more about middle-slotters Sugar Sugar Sugar than I have already, except to say that they kick ass.
Sunday, January 15:
Orchestra Zarabanda @ Columbia City Theater. $10 at the door. Show at 8:30pm.
Seattle ensemble Orchestra Zarabanda parlay Cuban salsa music that’s utterly free of pretense or irony: It’s just there to make you dance, and it’s played to perfection. They periodically headline classy and high-priced joints like Teatro Zinzanni, so take advantage of the chance to hear this tight and danceable rhythm collective in a classy and reasonably-priced joint like Columbia City Theater.