GIVE FOLK PUNK A CHANCE
Whether or not you're a fan of perhaps the most overtly sincere subgenre, "folk punk," tonight the Vera Project provides an ideal space for queer performers and allies. Bloomington (and surprise! Plan-It-X-affiliated) sextet Defiance, Ohio have inspired YouTube covers for roughly a decade. Their sing-along protest songs and gently harmonized acoustic punk positivity escalate on their new release, the Calling EP. With fuzz-poptrepreneur Your Heart Breaks and bristly pop-punk band Corner Kick. Vera Project, 7:30 pm, $8 adv/$10 DOS.
MALE BONDAGE: HEAVIER THAN THE BACON INDUSTRY
When a group likens its sound to "KARP and Fugazi making out," it's cause for both excitement and fear. Fortunately, Indianapolis-based Male Bondage pay proper tribute to both bands with thick-sliced metal-punk riffs slabbed across an artful sludge-rock foundation. It's also good to see the return of slow-burning hardcore band Cold Lake; this is their second show after more than a year of hiatus. New Seattle lo-fi garage/post-punk band Seminars and Freak Vibe complete a bill that will casually incite nightmares. Hollow Earth Radio, 8 pm.
POST-EVERYTHING ADVENTURES WITH POSTMADONNA
If you want sublime aural adventures from some reigning indie-rock locals, this could be your Sunday night. Newish instrumental trio Heavy Petting forge post-metal and sparkly Midwestern emo indebted to American Football, and do it well. On the track "5," guitar drifts in a Russian Circles–inspired soft-to-loud dream glaze, embalming the listener in sigh-inducing dynamic shifts. Another product of the area's burgeoning prog-/math-rock scene, spazzcore band Postmadonna have a new album that defines dizzying hedonism and squiggly bombast. To grasp their sound, imagine if a more self-indulgent Tera Melos were led by an aggressively ADHD Omar Rodriguez-Lopez. This is the release show for their self-titled LP, which contains 11 tracks of amplified carnivalesque surprises that end almost faster than you can listen to them. It's a thing that will excite people who love garish technical flair from musicians. With Special Explosion and New Lungs. Crocodile Back Bar, 7 pm, $5.
