THE EVENS

If you're a fan of the groups in which Amy Farina and Ian MacKaye have played, you will find things to like in their collaborative project, the Evens. Although their albums don't initially sound like their previous and much beloved bands—such as the Warmers, Fugazi, or Minor Threat—Farina and MacKaye's rapport brings out the best of their abilities. Farina's drumming creeps and lulls with airy restraint, while MacKaye's baritone guitar fills the space with burly riffs. Their lyrical interplay feeds off of each other as well—where Farina is elegiac and yearning, MacKaye is stern and brooding. Without relying on the brute force of traditional punk or hardcore, the Evens are incredibly tense and disarming, giving fury to quotidian indignities in a whole new way. Vera Project, 8 pm, $8 adv/$10 DOS.

MARISA ANDERSON, WALRUS MACHINE, OVERCASTING

Marisa Anderson defies easy categorization. Her rough-hewn and improvisational guitar compositions rarely sound the same and almost never last longer than two minutes. Listening to one of her albums is a bit like speeding very fast across America and having a crackling speaker that picks up guitar snippets along the way. You pass by Appalachia, the Mississippi Delta, and the Mojave Desert. You catch glimmers of different sounds (there's bluegrass, there's folk, there's country), but before you can totally home in on one, it's already drifted away and a new song has begun. Anderson is agile enough where this doesn't sound like a bunch of dusty field recordings. Her songs are testaments to the expansive nature of American guitar expression and very much alive. Gallery 1412, 8:30 pm.

LORDE, UNTIL THE RIBBON BREAKS

Have you heard of Lorde? She is a young New Zealand singer whose song "Royals" recently went to number one on the US Billboard Alternative Songs chart. Drawing from influences as diverse as Animal Collective to Lana Del Rey, Kanye West to the Replacements, Lorde is a brilliant outcast, reinterpreting big, boastful tales of American excess into suburban-minded, seemingly languid yet highly complex electro-pop songs. If you're lucky enough to have a ticket to tonight's show, you're not just catching a skillful new musician. You might be seeing the most talented 16-year-old on the planet. (This show is part of Decibel Festival.) Showbox at the Market, 6:45 pm, $20.