CROWNS ON 45
(Re-bar) An appropriate accompaniment to Jackie Hell and Ursula Android's twisted nerve--and the tribes they pander to--the NYC four-piece known as Crowns on 45 makes the type of music you want do the punk shimmy to. Like Sleater-Kinney, Bikini Kill, and, dare I say it, X-Ray Spex (and maybe even a little of the B-52's), this foursome churns out a refreshing mix of punk rock and new wave that will shake down those who dare embark on the almighty Pho Bang. Good luck, scenesters--better have your dancing shoes on. Oh and maybe wear that ill-fitting number you picked up at Atlas last week. CO45 is that cool. FRANK NIETO

VHS OR BETA, I AM THE WORLD TRADE CENTER, THE FITNESS
(Graceland) The theme of "Performance Art as M.O." has been re-energized for a while now, in which a band will incorporate a theme that complements and sometimes defines its music. This includes such acts as Pink & Brown (scary masks, psycho performances), Violent Ramp (skatepunks armed with a half-pipe), and Jonny X & the Groadies (naked/wetsuit scientist deathcore). Seattle's the Fitness--an explosion of new-wave keyboards, guitar, and drums, featuring members of Lightheavyweight--wear matching sweat suits and sometimes even do aerobics moves onstage. It's a good thing they're opening, because the audience will need some good calisthenic moves for the sweet, Euro-pop-influenced beats of I Am the World Trade Center and Louisville's indie-house-discotronic VHS or Beta. This fun, lighthearted event would never have happened if it weren't for the Human League. JULIANNE SHEPHERD

TRANS AM, !!!, PINES OF NOWHERE
(Graceland) See preview this issue.

KULTUR SHOCK
(Sit & Spin) Lou Barlow may call his side project Folk Implosion, but Seattle's Kultur Shock--a spirited group composed primarily of immigrants from the Balkans--could accurately describe its music as a folk EXPLOSION. If you thought world music was for meek, Subaru-driving, Birkenstock-n-sock-wearing Green Party members, you might want to think again. In the wrong hands, the genre-bending, category-defying, life-affirming, mind-warping music that Kultur Shock creates could be an outright mess. Thankfully, it's not. It rocks. And rolls. And sways. And makes you wanna move your body in a way that sort of meshes the mosh pit with the drum circle. (Did I just use "drum circle" in a non-pejorative way? Help!) Think of the band as the punk-rock version of fusion cuisine--eclectic, approachable, exotic, and delightful. But just go see 'em, okay? If your mind is at least somewhat open, you won't regret it. BARBARA MITCHELL

MIDNIGHT THUNDER EXPRESS, THE CRIPPLES
(Graceland, late show) See CD Review Revue this issue.

ONCE FOR KICKS, THE MAROONS, VISQUEEN
See preview this issue. (Chop Suey) Once for Kicks--which was founded in Bellingham in 1991 and formerly called Sourmash--now features Kurt Bloch on bass along with singer/guitarists Bill Coury and Tom Cummings, and drummer David Gleza. The band just released a new six-song EP, Call in the Sedatives. The title track features backing vocals from Rachel Flotard (whose band Visqueen opens tonight) and guitarist Marty Chandler (Hog Molly, Supersuckers, Gerald Collier). Portland's the Maroons is a pop-influenced rock band that idolizes Bloch, which should make this the feel-good, love-fest show of the week. KATHLEEN WILSON

KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, HYPOCRISY, SOILWORK, SCAR CULTURE, SINGLE BULLET THEORY
(EMP) Killswitch Engage is the sound of clean-cut hardcore kids who grew up listening to stuff like Metallica, Pantera, and Swedish death metal--which means that along with plenty of heavy double-bass-drum action and heroic guitar riffing, you can also expect your fair share of positive-thinking lyrics and tear-stained emo breakdowns. Speaking of Swedish death metal, this show also features two of that genre's best-known bands. Hypocrisy has been around for over a decade, but its latest album, Catch 22, takes the band in a new direction with its embrace of alternative-nation angst (one song is imaginatively entitled "Don't Judge Me") and digitized, industrialish production. (Could the band be vying for the title of the Scandinavian Slipknot?) Meanwhile, Soilwork has also taken a slicker turn of late, adding an almost arena-rock-friendly coating of keyboards and vocal melody to its staccato death-metal foundation. Weird. New Yorkers Scar Culture open. WILLIAM YORK

THE QUEERS, THE BRIEFS, THE INDEPENDENTS
(Graceland) It's retarded for sure--both the Queers' songs and my ever-so-slowly-dissipating love of them after all these years. This is a band whose career is based on stunted social and emotional ideas--both on album and song titles--mired and expired in eternally teenage-driven lyrics. Honestly, the music is all centered around a time in one's life that one should experience, get over, and then shudder at the memories of for the rest of one's life. Not laugh at and rejoice in, and certainly, above all, not pay good money in order to sing along to. That said, see you there. KATHLEEN WILSON

THE WHITE STRIPES, BRENDAN BENSON & THE WELL FED BOYS, WHIRLWIND HEAT
(Moore Theatre) If you think you've had a crazy year, imagine what the last 12 months have been like for the White Stripes. The Detroit act went from being a Gories-influenced cult favorite to hitting Europe, MTV, the Peel Sessions, and mainstream radio with a bright shower of passionate garage-blues performances. Stripes frontman Jack White is a total guitar god in my book, both in the way he plays loud, complex pieces that make you ignore the fact that this is only a duo, and in his sex-fueled vocal tantrums. Expect a new album, tentatively called Elephant, from the band in early 2003 (including one track sung by Meg White!), and until then, expect journalists to still act like idiots about the nature of Jack and Meg's real relationship. Opener Brendan Benson writes bubbly, innocent, Matthew Sweet-meets-Sean Lennon-style Beatles-influenced power pop. JENNIFER MAERZ

PRETTY GIRLS MAKE GRAVES, YOUR ENEMIES FRIENDS, HINT HINT
(Vera Project) Led by firecracker vocalist Andrea Zollo and ex-Murder City Devil bassist Derek Fudesco, Pretty Girls Make Graves has been called the "band to watch" by both local media and nationally respected music publications. With its attitude-drenched but never pretentious sound, Pretty Girls has garnered a heavy following of those old enough to recognize the band's influences (new wave and early-'90s punk) or who are merely looking for something in tune with the current infatuation with East Coast-informed retro-renewal acts. Guitarist Nathan is married to Your Enemies Friends keyboardist Aska, and Hint Hint features Graceland booker and former Closed Caption Radio member Jason LaJuenesse on drums. KATHLEEN WILSON

DJ SHADOW
(Showbox) See Stranger Suggests.

BOTTLES & SKULLS, THE CHARMING SNAKES, TARANTULADA
(Sit & Spin) Bottles & Skulls is one of the Bay Area's best new rock bands. Their unapologetic songs about being your worst nightmare are hot-tempered and ready to pounce, seething with untamed aggression, and glowing with frontman Alpha Boozer's inner wildfire. Their last album, Never Kiss the Wasp, paints the picture of a world where sanity gets stomped into submission by alcoholic girls in duct-tape dresses and guys who brag that there's only two kinds of drugs--"too much and not enough." B&S's reckless attitude is compounded by their excellent songwriting skills, where the instruments quickly run through the fuse that Boozer lights with his gravely vocals. The band is in Seattle to record its sophomore follow-up with the legendary Jack Endino, and will deliver a fast, furious set that'll leave your rock 'n' roll battered and bloody. JENNIFER MAERZ

THE GET UP KIDS, HOT ROD CIRCUIT, AUDIO LEARNING CENTER
(Showbox) When I was younger, I used to get really righteous when artists who were once good began vaingloriously riding on their past accomplishments once their talents had begun to fade. I said it about director Robert Altman, who once made great films, then made a shitpile like Prêt-à-Porter. Then he went and made Gosford Park and I felt like a jackass. I said it about Weezer when Pinkerton came out, then Weezer blew me away again, and once more I felt like a jackass. (With Maladroit, I've finally learned to remain reticent in judgment.) So the Get Up Kids' latest, On a Wire, is a bit of a disappointment, but last year's "retrospective" Eudora reminds me why I loved the band in the first place, and I hope, like Superchunk, the Get Up Kids find that balance between staying young and growing older. Until then, I'll revel in the fun of days only just recently gone by. KATHLEEN WILSON

CURSIVE, EASTERN YOUTH, 31 KNOTS
(Paradox) Watching a Cursive show is like vicariously going through a horrible breakup. But instead of crumpling into a shell of your former self, you lash out in violent mood swings, ripping your innards out to show what's killing you inside. Without the tears or passive sobbing, Cursive frontman Tim Kasher scrunches his face into portraits of pain and strained relations as his songs build up and burst with emotions in At the Drive-In-like tirades. The Omaha, NE, act puts on powerful live shows, forcing you to face Kasher's inner demons (personal breakdowns, divorce) with claustrophobic intensity. Cursive recently released a split EP with Eastern Youth (8 Teeth to Eat You) that shows the band is still able to leave your heart shredded and your emotions reeling as Kasher screams about the stab wounds in his bludgeoned ego. JENNIFER MAERZ

PAUL OAKENFOLD
(Showbox) I'm not usually a fan of DJ Paul Oakenfold's compilation CDs because I'm not a fan of trance music. I find the whole European tribal thing at the heart of trance somewhat tedious, and prefer to see Europeans in banks wearing business suits rather than in sandals dancing under a ripe Ibizan sun. There is a hard techno edge to Oakenfold--which he demonstrates on his soundtrack to the high-tech spy thriller Swordfish--but what he usually plays is music for liberated trancers. His new CD, Bunkka, extends beyond trance into hiphop, rock, and ambient songs, with the best tracks actually being the hiphop-heavy "Starry Eyed Surprise" (which features rapper Shifty Shellshock) and "Get Em Up" (which features rapper Ice Cube). Rockers Tricky and Perry Farrell also appear on the CD. I read somewhere that Billy Corgan recorded a track with Oakenfold, but it did not make it into the album. Indeed, these are tough times for Smashing Pumpkins. CHARLES MUDEDE

N*E*R*D, SPYMOB
(Showbox) See preview this issue.

LUKA BLOOM
(Century Ballroom) Folkie Luka Bloom may be Irish, but it takes a whole lot more than a cute accent to transform an LL Cool J rap into a stripped-down, genuinely affecting, acoustic-based number. Of course, there's a whole lot more to his repertoire (and talent) than one novelty number (although his gift for reinterpreting other people's songs did lead to an entire album's worth of covers a couple of years ago). Since the release of his first solo album, Riverside, in 1990, Bloom has been wowing audiences and critics alike with a rare ability to score simultaneous emotional and intellectual bull's-eyes--his voice rich with feeling and depth, his words conveying that particular Irish gift for storytelling and lyrical dexterity. Pick up any of his albums and you're in for a treat; go see him live and you're in for a real experience. BARBARA MITCHELL