If you're reading this, it means you've survived last week's heat wave and you're ready to emerge into the light of day and see some excellent local music. Good news: We've got you covered with plenty of great shows this week across town, ranging from perennially horny death metal jammers to the most recent mainstream attempt at rap-rock hybridization to the top cuts from The L Word soundtrack. Check out our full-to-bursting music calendar for everything else happening this week.


Jump to: Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday

AUGUST 22
Belphegor, Origin, Shining, Guests
The horny hellions in Austria’s Belphegor have been saving the Dark Lord money on boner pills for more than 20 years now via lascivious death metal that could double as Satan’s Cialis. Beelzebub’s bedsprings have undoubtedly been put to the test to the randy sounds of such blackened bedroom jams as “Demonic Staccato Erection,” “Sexdictator Lucifer,” and “Bondage Goat Zombie.” Expect a full-on orgy of evil when Belphegor hit town with tech-death progressives Origin, suicidal Swedes Shining, and black-metal alchemists Abigail Williams. Lucifer’s getting some tonight. JASON BRACELIN

Boris Performing Pink, with Earth
For the first decade of their career, Japan’s amp-worshiping Boris sought to redefine/deconstruct hard rock. On 2006’s Pink, however, these heavy-metal subversives strove to perfect it—and they came pretty close. Among the most accessible of the band’s 22 studio records, Pink saw Boris coloring within the lines, musically speaking, instead of taking their usual Jackson Pollock approach, with feedback in place of paint splatters. Pink collapsed doom, punk, prog, a little folk, and a lot of good ol’ fashioned butt rock into a singular statement on the power of the riff, resulting in one of the great guitar records of the decade. On their current tour, Boris are celebrating the 10th anniversary of Pink by playing it in its entirety. Time to put your air-guitar chops to the test, dudes. JASON BRACELIN

Guitar Euphoria: Northwest Guitar Greats
The Triple Door presents Guitar Euphoria: Northwest Guitar Greats, a spotlight on two nights with six guitar masters; both nights are hosted and emceed by Andre Feriante who will be performing with each player. Monday features Mark Wilson (classical), Jeff Fielder (electric) and Brian Nova (jazz). Tuesday features Steve Kim (fretless bass guitar, jazz, classical), Danny Godinez (acoustic guitar), and Andre Feriante (flamenco fusion, classical, virtuoso ukulele). (Through August 23)

AUGUST 22-23
Omara Portuondo and Eliades Ochoa
Omara Portuondo and Eliades Ochoa from the Buena Vista Social Club share their decades of being Cuba's musical sweethearts with the Moore.

AUGUST 23
An Evening with Josh Groban
Operatic heartthrob Josh Groban takes his inexplicably successful "Stages" tour on the road to the Chateau, providing an evening rife with intimate lounge pop and showtune classics, that is completely sold out already, of course.

Journey and the Doobie Brothers, with Dave Mason
Everpresent torch-holders of the '80s, Journey and the Doobie Brothers, bring their light-rock-less-talk vibes to White River, with an opening cameo from Dave Mason.

AUGUST 23-24
Brandi Carlile with the Secret Sisters
Brandi Carlile, born in a tiny Washington town called Ravensdale, got a gig singing behind an Elvis impersonator, came to Seattle, turned herself into a band, got signed by Columbia Records, won over the critics, sold a song to General Electric, sold records, recorded with the Seattle Symphony, sold more records, came out, got married, had a kid, and released her latest, The Firewatcher’s Daughter, last year. Not necessarily in that order. The Woodland Park Zoo concerts don’t usually allow loudness or drums or distortion. That won’t concern Carlile, though. She needs only a guitar and her voice for that signature country sound. The opposite of the fulfillment of gospel—that ache for things not obtained. ANDREW HAMLIN

AUGUST 24
Banks & Steelz
Rock and rap collabs. Tough to pull off. Run D.M.C. and Aerosmith did it. Anthrax and Public Enemy did it. Do RZA and Paul Banks of Interpol do it on the new album, Anything but Words, as 21st-century renegades named Banks & Steelz? No, they do not. It’s not RZA’s fault. It’s not Bank’s fault. It’s the ampersand’s fault. Banks’s air-raid instrumentation lends urgency to RZA’s aggressive-to-goofy-and-back-again verses, but the choruses require Banks to self-aggrandize in a way that doesn’t suit his distant and blasé-sounding voice. In this case, the odd couple’s just odd. RICH SMITH

Busdriver, Deantoni Parks, Grayskul
LA rapper/producer Busdriver has no problem testing the comfort level of his listeners, whether he’s bouncing massive, lopsided beats around your skull or rapping about racial politics and pubes in the same breath. But left-field lyrics and an occasionally rough delivery aside, he’s succeeded in provoking thought using working-class signifiers to convey complex social dichotomies in the same way a rapper like Open Mike Eagle has. “The feds are using your phone data for revenge porn,” says Driver on last year’s Thumbs mixtape. Then, just when you feel like you’re getting used to his weirdness, he’ll flash his softer side with a song like the beautiful, Kenny Segal-produced, Anderson .Paak-featuring “Worlds to Run” to catch you off guard. The point, it seems, is that Busdriver is a mixed bag, full of the good and bad, pretty and ugly, like the world, and like everyone listening. TODD HAMM

Elvis Depressedly, Teen Suicide, Nicole Dollanganger, Aeon Fux
File Elvis Depressedly under brooding, and electric-keyboard-heavy, but with a sly, dry sense of humor, as with naming favorite things after drugs, and winking, “You know what I mean.” I honestly care about you fellows, I just hope you can give up any bad habits. Teen Suicide can’t decide which kind of a band they want to be, but you’ll tune in to hear them struggling for consensus. Nicole Dollanganger marshals gothic disaster stories, death, and rending, to her little-girl voice. Aeon Fux claims to be an alien, outer-space subtype. Aliens seem very interested in Portishead, daytime TV, and permutations of the word "fuck." Shoot’em all down, people. ANDREW HAMLIN

Gwen Stefani with Eve
Ex-ska princess and current reality TV judge Gwen Stefani comes to KeyArena for a night of No Doubt oldies and new solo tracks, with Ruff Ryders' First Lady and all-around badass Eve.

Lynyrd Skynyrd
Still going strong despite retaining only one original member, Lynyrd Skynyrd busts out decades of southern rock experience at EQC with a nine-member band.

MSTRKRFT with Woolymammoth
Jesse F. Keeler, along with producer Al-P, takes a break from Death From Above 1979 to pull on the helmet of MSTRKRFT, together creating robotic electronica with a pop sensibility.

AUGUST 25
Gipsy Kings
Fusion legends Gipsy Kings showcase their decades of experience blending traditional flamenco styles with Western pop and Latin rhythms at the Chateau.

Nat Evans: Longways, Coyoteways
Nat Evans presents this live performance/participatory event—combining naturalistic field recordings with an original musical score—inside Mark Dion's Neukom Vivarium.

Olivia Newton-John
Southern Hemisphere sunshine of the '70s roller rink variety sparkles through Snoqualmie Casino courtesy of pop culture icon Olivia-Newton John.

PlayBack Launch Party
Celebrate the launch of PlayBack, a local music collection service hosted by Seattle Public Libraries, with live performances by PlayBack members Fly Moon Royalty and Sun Breaks, and a set from KEXP DJ El Toro playing tracks by other PlayBack artists.

Rachel Green, Daniel Salo, Erin Jorgensen
Singer and local wood nymph Rachel Green, with composer Daniel Salo, presents a composition of voice and piano synthesis. This debut piece from the duo blends layers of choral music and new electronica, thus creating an operatic installment of impassioned sonic surrealism. Bill support comes in the form of Erin Jorgensen, who plays ballads and adult lullabies on marimba.

Research: Cooly G
One of many stars on Britain's Hyperdub label, Cooly G's a low-key torch singer and producer of sly, downtempo bass music for mind and body and an important catalyst in UK dubstep's evolution toward more intimate modes. At her best, she mutates R&B to increasingly more intricate rhythmic patterns while keeping the boudoir aura simmering. My favorite Cooly G tune remains 2009's “We Can Fly,” a spare, eerie piece that sounds like an impossible meeting between A.R. Kane and Burial, with Cooly's remarkably opiated vocals drifting over the advanced, skeletal beat science. But there are many gems scattered throughout her discography, and this rare Seattle appearance should be riveting. DAVE SEGAL

Riff Raff with TRiLL SAMMY, DiCE SOHO, and DOLLABiLLGATES
Inexplicable pop culture juggernaut Riff Raff takes his candy-colored interpretation of hiphop culture to the Showbox stage, with bill support from TRiLL SAMMY, DiCE SOHO, and DOLLABiLLGATES.

Studio 4/4: Umek
Before he became Slovenia's highest-grossing techno DJ/producers and worked with bombastic, political rabble-rousers Laibach, Umek was one of the world's foremost makers of pounding, rapid-pulsed, underground techno during his mid '90s-early '00s peak. But that style—the one that sounds as if you're creating soundtracks for androids engaging in mortal combat—doesn't get you booked to the biggest festivals and fanciest dance clubs, so Umek softened his production mode and started racking up bigger paydays. His disenchanted fans complain about this development on Umek's Discogs page, and there's no denying the negative trend. Still, those looking for a sweaty Thursday night of techno don't really have a better option than this. DAVE SEGAL

AUGUST 25-26
Suicide Squeeze 20th Anniversary with The Coathangers
Doing business for two decades as a record label’s no joke. Seattle indie Suicide Squeeze started when the industry was booming, but disaster was looming, with downloading and streaming slashing record companies’ profits from the late ’90s onward. So it’s more than warranted to celebrate Suicide Squeeze’s acumen and robust roster in 2016. Tonight’s the first of a two-night stand (tomorrow’s at Neptune Theatre). You can get amped to Fullerton, California power-pop dynamos Audacity, Portland surf punks Guantanomo Baywatch, and the sardonic, feminist-punk badassery of Childbirth. As for headliners the Coathangers, who are supporting their newest, Nosebleed Weekend, Kathy Fennessy nailed them when she described the Atlanta trio as “a cross between LiLiPUT and the Runaways,” with some Slits in the mix, too. Sounds like a nerve-fraying good time. DAVE SEGAL

AUGUST 26
Eric Frye, Raica, RM Francis
Praise be to Seattle electronic musician RM Francis for bringing to our attention Minneapolis composer Eric Frye. Go immediately to ericanthonyfrye.com, click on the “sound” section of his site, listen to “Zenzizenzizenzic,” and prepare to have your cortex vortexed. Frye induces the same sense of glorious chaos heard on the most mind-bending works by Morton Subotnick, Mort Garson, and Nik Raicevic. Here and in other compositions, Frye achieves an ideal balance between highbrow tonal rigor and structural mischievousness—much like Francis himself, actually. Also on the bill, Raica (Further Records co-owner Chloe Harris), one of Seattle's most adventurous and unpredictable electronic-music producers. DAVE SEGAL

Guided By Voices and BRONCHO
In the time it has taken me to write this sentence, Guided by Voices frontman Robert Pollard has probably written three songs—each approximately two minutes and 17 seconds long—that buzz with lo-fi earnestness, crackle with catchy pop surrealism, and drip with his unabashed love of words. Each, to borrow a Pollard phrase, explicitly laid out like a fruit cake. Even if GBV had never found an audience, dude would probably still be cranking out gems from a garage in Dayton, Ohio, drunk on his own brilliance. After four decades, innumerable personnel shifts, and a couple disbandments, Pollard released a new GBV record, Please Be Honest, on his own this spring, writing every song and playing every instrument. For this tour, he's assembled a new band that includes stalwart guitarist Doug Gillard, who played with GBV for nearly a decade. Will Pollard, who shall remain ageless, still be taking pulls from a bottle of Cuervo, subjecting us all to his incessant onstage banter (if you’ve never listened to Relaxation of the Asshole, an entire album’s worth of his live-show wisdom, treat yourself now), and doing rock ’n’ roll’s best high kicks? Fuck yep. ANGELA GARBES

Heart, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, Cheap Trick
Do I even need to sell you on this? Heart are the living bedrock of heavy music in this city. There’s enough potential energy stored in the staff notation of the “Barracuda” riff to get the US off of fossil fuel. Joan Jett remains the best thing to come out of the Runaways, and she’s the only artist to record a good cover of a Bon Scott-era AC/DC track (“Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap”). And Cheap Trick are… Well. Some people love 'em. Personally, I think Nine Inch Nails should have gotten their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Slot, but who cares? Attend their victory lap anyway. JOSEPH SCHAFER

Parquet Courts
There's a nervous energy that distinguishes Parquet Courts' five full-lengths to date, including this year's fine Human Performance. The New York-by-way-of-Texas quartet combine the crazy rhythms of the Feelies with the late-night ramblings of the Modern Lovers. It's not that they're paranoid or peevish. It's more that they’re hyper-sensitive to external phenomena and eager to share their immediate impressions—before new thoughts rush in to replace the old. Lyrics tumble out in a caffeinated rush over guitars that rumble like rickety subway cars. On the new album, the first to feature songwriting from all four members, they also add new moves, like the twang of "Pathos Prairie" or the kraut-rock chug of "One Man, No City." The phrase "don't sleep" has never seemed more apt. KATHY FENNESSY

Sara Gazarek Trio
Sara Gazarek’s a Seattle native. She graduated from Roosevelt High School and its sophisticated jazz programs. She lives in LA but comes up here not quite enough. She’s one of the most interesting jazz singers working; the only aggravating thing is that she may never become a superstar. She doesn’t force anything and she doesn’t grandstand. What she does comes off subtle, and you have to lean your ears in carefully to get to the bottom of it. The new album Dream in the Blue finds her as half of a duo, with pianist Josh Nelson. Listen to it several times after you buy it at the show. Come to think of it, buy her other records on top of that. ANDREW HAMLIN

Way & Co. Presents Night Boss, Nail Polish, Casual Hex
Playing outside of taco joints is très punk. Tonight you have the privilege of witnessing Seattle’s preeminent no-wave-informed band, Nail Polish, who slayed at this year’s Block Party. They generate tornadoes of lyrical angst and sonic causticity at under two minutes a pop. Hey, this could be the gig that gets them signed to Hardly Art. Casual Hex lurch in a more methodical, downcast post-punk manner, somewhere between Flipper and Siouxsie and the Banshees—which is a very nice place to lurch. Night Boss contain some of Seattle’s most talented musicians (Jayson Kochan of Midday Veil and Airport; Dan Enders of MTNS), but their songs come off as drunken, punkin’ pisstakes. They call their music “primal therapy for dirtbags,” and at that important task it seems to succeed. DAVE SEGAL

AUGUST 26-27
An Evening with Steve Miller Band
Steve Miller, the king of classic rock FM radio, brings his whole band to the Chateau for two nights of flying like an eagle.

AUGUST 26-28
2nd Annual Freak Out Weekend
Oh, man time to get yer moptops combed out, 'cause this year’s annual summer “celebration of psychotronic rock 'n' roll freakiness,” better known as the Freak Out Weekender, is THIS weekend. Saturday night’s freak scene will feature the fab and long-running local garage stompin’ group the Primate Five, who are opening for two '60s-styled, Portland-based Nuggets/Back from the Grave garage bands: the Sellwoods and the Mean Reds. The Freak Out wraps up Sunday evening with Jim Basnight (aka Northwest Nuggets) with the Mobettes and what should be a top-class performance from Jerry Miller. Miller, of course, is best known as a member of Moby Grape AND his incendiary guitar playing on Tacoma band the Elegants' version of “Ooh Poo Pah Doo.” MIKE NIPPER

AUGUST 27
Chastity Belt, So Pitted, Happy Diving
Chastity Belt burst on the scene a couple years ago with a full formed pop sensibility that slashes with post-punk astringency and glints with chiming guitar textures à la Television and the Feelies. Their debut album, No Regerts, vibrates with guitarist/vocalist Julia Shapiro’s trenchant, witty observations about the ups and downs of being too smart to get enchanted with your surroundings, set to rock songs that ingratiate themselves without being obnoxious about it. The beautiful, surging title track of their new album for Hardly Art, Time to Go Home, betokens interesting things. DAVE SEGAL

Diarrhea Planet with Hounds of the Wild Hunt
Ignore for a moment their incredibly distasteful (though highly memorable) name, and take a listen to Nashville rock outfit Diarrhea Planet. I recommend “White Girls” from their 2013 album I’m Rich Beyond Your Wildest Dreams. Go on, I’ll wait… Pretty catchy, right? For all their immature excess—the name, the album title, the fact that they have four guitarists—Diarrhea Planet know how to write a song with punch and the kind of adolescent longing that made pop punk briefly the lingua franca of American teenagers in the early ’00s. They swerve away from the shine and snarkiness or their forebears, however, in exchange for grit and the pentatonic blues scale. JOSEPH SCHAFER

Drive Like Jehu with Hungry Ghost
You can sense the ravenous hunger the local music community has for this Drive Like Jehu reunion tour by reading our feature on page TK. There are legitimate reasons for this: These San Diego hotshots' post-hardcore rock burns pure and true like few other bands' from their ’90s heyday. Their self-titled 1991 debut album is practically the platonic ideal of clangorous, angry young man rock that’s as brainy as it is muscular. Though they leapt to Interscope for their 1994 follow-up, Yank Crime, Rick Froberg, John Reis, Mike Kennedy, and Mark Trombino did anything but sand off their rough edges and cravenly slouch toward the middle of the road. Drive Like Jehu’s first incarnation didn’t last long, but they left a perfect, compact discography. It’s impossible to imagine them doing anything other than tearing through their catalog with ferocious authority. DAVE SEGAL

I Love the '90s with Salt-N-Pepa, Coolio, and Guests
Experience the resurrection of all your favorite still-alive '90s thrillers with this ridiculously stacked line-up of Salt-N-Pepa, Coolio, Tone Loc, Color Me Badd, All4One, Rob Base, and Young MC.

Problem with Guests
XYZ, The Blowup, and Nectar present a night of local and touring hiphop acts, featuring LA thriller Problem, Choice, Cam the Mac, Tre Ross, ST$ Boys, DJ Peg and hosted by Seattle's first lady of hiphop, Gifted Gab.

AUGUST 28
5 Seconds of Summer with Hey Violet and Roy English
Outrageously popular Aussie boybanders 5 Seconds of Summer ignite their legions of screaming TigerBeat fans at the White River Amphitheater, with openers Hey Violet and Roy English.

Belly
Memories of Belly’s 1993 hit “Feed the Tree” may fit nicely into the current wave of ’90s nostalgia, but then, as now, they were a band with way more going on than an admittedly killer single. Their live show was tough, spiky, and loud, as befits a group that arose from a mid-to-late-’80s New England scene that included Pixies, Dinosaur Jr., and of course, Throwing Muses, which Belly leader Tanya Donelly co-founded with her stepsister Kristin Hersh— before going on to co-found the Breeders with Kim Deal. In other words, as long as we’re sparing a moment to recall the splendor of the early ’90s as the world collapses, we should take note that Tanya Donelly should be revered as royalty, or at least royalty in exile. And Belly rocked way harder than you may have thought. SEAN NELSON

Melissa Etheridge
Folk-rock legend and '90s lesbian rumor mill icon Melissa Etheridge spreads her wings and does other inspiring Americana metaphors at Snoqualmie Casino, on the Mountain View Plaza stage.

Vibrations Festival
Capitol Hill venue Cairo may be dead, but Vibrations is alive and well for at least one more year, thanks to a coordinated effort by Seattle curation team Vignettes. The 2016 iteration lays out the greatest hits: an afternoon-into-evening frolic across the Volunteer Park amphitheater grove with a panoply of local art, music, and business favorites to keep you satiated in the late-summer haze. Take your pick of goods from vendors like Spin Cycle, Cold Cube Press, and Indian Summer as you swan to the sonic vivacity of Lilac, Aeon Fux, and Jenn Champion. Devour a snack from the Patty Pan and Six Strawberries food trucks as you snake through the visual installations provided by Mariko Yoshino, Leena Joshi, and MKNZ. Lists of three are convenient for blurbs, but there’s really a hell of lot more where all this comes from, and you can take it all in for free. KIM SELLING