We know it's Thanksgiving this week so make sure to relax and enjoy some good food and great company—but once the tryptophan wears off, get up and head over to these excellent live music shows happening around town. We've got everything from our theater critic's lifelong attachment to pop punk (New Found Glory), to the future of The Internet (Syd), to a cheesy-in-the-extreme Christmas band that only comes around once a year (Trans-Siberian Orchestra). Follow the links below for ticket links and music clips, and find even more on our music calendar.
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MONDAY
Death From Above, the Beaches
Death From Above (formerly Death From Above 1979 and before that Death From Above) are a bass-drums duo who sound reasonably produced, at least on their new album, Outrage! Is Now. Bouncy, bouncy low frequencies from Jesse F. Keeler, moving fast enough to pass for guitar; Sebastien Grainger sings high while skin-pounding, like he’s drawing unnamable entities down from the sky to scrunch humanity like toilet paper. On a bad news day, you hope he succeeds. Otherwise, just make with the mosh. ANDREW HAMLIN
TUESDAY
Flying Lotus, Seven Davis Jr, PBDY
Of all the international stars birthed from Los Angeles' flourishing ’00s beats hub Low End Theory, Flying Lotus reigns supreme. From the mutated post-hiphop he explored on his landmark Los Angeles LP or the manic and groovy prog heard on 2014's You're Dead!, his music has always been both banging and brainy. His past high-tech, immersive live shows have made for some of the most exciting electronic music events, but he's gone in on this latest tour, a 3-D spectacle premiered at last summer's FYF festival and was raved about by fans and critics alike. Well, depending on whether you've forgiven him for his knee-jerk defense of the Gaslamp Killer... NICK ZURKO
TUESDAY-WEDNESDAY
"Awesome"
The performers, recording artists, joke-writers, theater nerds, necktie wearers, and good-hair-havers in “Awesome” mostly have things like kids and mortages now, but every couple years the stars align for a reunion show. This will not be one of their hard-to-categorize theater pieces, like the immortal Delaware. It will not be straight-up literary, like the times they wrote songs based on books by Jonathan Safran Foer and Miranda July and then performed them with and for Foer and July. This is simply a rare reunion show, featuring “band and fan favorites spanning the full catalogue.” CHRISTOPHER FRIZZELLE
New Found Glory, the Ataris
The 20-year nostalgia cycle brings us New Found Glory and the Ataris, two bands that represent the vocal spectrum of mid-’00s mainstream pop-punk, from Jordan Pundik's hyper-nasal SoCal inflections to Kris Roe's regular-nasal SoCal inflections. Turns out NFG have been producing relentlessly upbeat, power-chord-heavy pop-punk songs full of clap-track breakdowns for two decades straight, and if nothing else, their new album, Makes Me Sick, is another prime example. I thought for one second to rag on the new joint, but then re-listened to “My Friends Over You,” one of their early hits, and found my high-school allegiance renewed. Fuck the haters. Go to the show, yell every word to every song (you can probably guess the lyrics to the new songs as they’re happening), get Warped Tour sweaty, and prove that being grown up is twice as fun as growing up. RICH SMITH
WEDNESDAY
Gary Numan, Me Not You
It's Gary effing Numan. Oh, still need convincing? Okay. He was a catalyst in bringing British synth-pop to the mainstream following the release of his so-ahead-of-its-time-it-hurts 1979 LP The Pleasure Principle. His catalog is as forward-thinking and out-there as any other in the genre. Oh, and he's one of the most dynamic and under-heralded live performers around, who turned what could have been one-hit wonder success into a career replete with a massively dedicated cult following. So, yeah, it's Gary Numan, and you should definitely go see him if you've ever once sung along to "Cars" or "Are 'Friends' Electric?” NICK ZURKO
Hibou
Feather-light and sugar-glazed, the music of Hibou (21-year-old Seattle musician and ex-Craft Spells drummer Peter Michel) acts like a washcloth dipped in ice water and gently placed on your forehead. His self-titled album on Barsuk sounds like a blend of proto-shoegaze bliss merchants Cocteau Twins and the Cure at their non-gloomiest, but recast for millennials. Hibou proves that sighs matter. DAVE SEGAL
Kid Cudi
College kid favorite Kid Cudi will be back with a new set of R&B-aspirational flows and pot pun wobbles for everybody.
Mozzy with Guests
Rapper and hiphop storyteller Mozzy has a habit of being prolific, sometimes releasing four albums in a single year—go see him showcase that energy.
WEDNESDAY & FRIDAY
"Thankful Dead" with Andy Coe Band
Not only are the Grateful Dead their own cottage industry (still!), the venerable San Francisco psychedelic/Americana juggernaut has spun off hordes of tribute bands that form their own lucrative sonic ecosystem. In Seattle, Andy Coe Band reign in that Garcia-fied realm. Coe is the guitar hero/vocalist who captains this trip with astonishing dexterity and soulfulness. The rest of the group also possess deep knowledge of the Dead’s songbook, and their fluid, rootsy, interstellar moves reanimate the mother of all jam band’s music for those who may have missed the originators. And damn if Andy Coe Band’s rendition of “St. Stephen” isn’t pure bliss. DAVE SEGAL
FRIDAY
Hot Chip (DJ Set)
Britain’s Hot Chip have become global standard-bearers for song-oriented house music. Their frictionless tracks bubble with a restrained optimism and melodies to which well-adjusted people like to sing along. As DJs, Hot Chip dig deeper than you’d think in the techno and house realms while staying open to a wide range of styles in order to undercut expectations. For example, their Bugged Out mix includes tracks by Theo Parrish, Armando, Conrad Schnitzler, Sparks, Zapp, and Gang Gang Dance while Hot Chip’s DJ-Kicks mix contains cuts by Audion, Tom Zé, Black Devil Disco Club, Grauzone, and This Heat. Let’s hope the Hot Chip blokes still harbor such adventurousness on the decks. When you’re as popular as they are, crowds will likely let them get away with such idiosyncrasy. DAVE SEGAL
Illenium
Melodic bass producer Nick Miller performs as Illenium, acting as a weaver of complex aural arrangements for the dance party set.
Lisa Prank, Rex Manning Day, Fine, The Carols
Experimental pop punk angel Lisa Prank brings dreamy rom-com meets Jimmy Eat World vibes into a low-key and lo-fi reality. She'll be joined by the excellently named Rex Manning Day, Fine, and The Carols. KIM SELLING
Mogwai, Xander Harris
It's normally clichéd to describe mostly instrumental post-rock bands as the creators of imaginary soundtracks, except Mogwai make it unavoidable. In addition to their proper studio albums, the Glasgow outfit has scored films, like the experimental documentary Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait and (with Clint Mansell) Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain. Mogwai's new album, Every Country's Sun, is of a piece with those works, as Stuart Braithwaite, Dominic Aitchison, Barry Burns, and Martin Bulloch conjure up the kind of atmospherics associated with Nordic noirs in which moments of tension give way to pastoral interludes and even a Moody-Blues-meets-Mercury-Rev-like vocal number. KATHY FENNESSY
Seattle's Last Waltz Tribute
The actual Last Waltz—when the band called the Band said good-bye to the road (for a while, anyway)—went down 40 Thanksgivings ago. I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels old. Honking up yeyo from a backstage area designated the “Powder Room” (replete with rubber noses), the five Band members and a bevy of their funky friends belted, pounded, and screeched through several great songs. Even Neil Diamond looked righteous (although Bob Dylan thought he could top Diamond by falling asleep). This recurring Thanksgiving tribute features an all-star local cast to feed the hungry via Northwest Harvest. Let’s pray for no Powder Room! ANDREW HAMLIN
Shabazz Palaces, Gillan Gaar
In a cavalcade of cosmic Seattle talent, iconic hiphop group Shabazz Palaces will join up with writer Gillian Gaar for a book signing and DJ party. Shabazz will helm the decks in celebration of the release of their graphic novel-album Quazarz vs. The Jealous Machines, with Gaar signing copies of Hendrix: The Illustrated Story.
Sinister Six, Cheap Cassettes, Double or Muffin
As of this past summer, it’s looking like early-1990s, snotty Seattle punks the Sinister Six have returned for a bit of a stay! They’ve played a bar here, a backyard there, and tonight they’re gonna be lighting up Slim’s. Of note also, tonight’s show is Sinister Six’s guitar giant James Burdyshaw’s birthday party! Um, if you think you want to bring him a gift, I’ve heard he likes “Black Berry Brandy” and “Little Black Pills.” Local punks Cheap Cassettes, with their cool Heartbreakers-style jams, and (ahem) Double or Muffin (!), are also on this bill. MIKE NIPPER
Tori Amos
Vulnerable and deep and more than a bit witchy, full of melodic contradictions and classic Tori Amos themes: the devil, moonlight, love as well as hate, unapologetic feminism, and a mythical Aah-am-er-her-her-ICA that exists only in her head. Classic Tori. ADRIAN RYAN
Yiruma
Korean contemporary classical musician Yiruma will be making his Seattle debut with this program, combining melodious Korean compositions with earthly inspirations.
SATURDAY
Baio, Teen Daze
Chris Baio’s main gig is playing bass in Vampire Weekend, and his solo work displays much of that group’s verve and wit. The sound of his polymorphic globe-trotting pop is similar, too, albeit with more drum-machine grooves and Baio’s rickety baritone in place of Ezra Koenig’s boyish falsetto. His second album, Man of the World, finds inspiration in the death of David Bowie, Baio’s favorite artist, as well as the troubling state of global politics. Opener Teen Daze take a different route to explore the same issue on February’s Themes for a Dying Earth, a quasi-ambient folk record full of alluring guitar work and patient atmospherics. ANDREW GOSPE
Matisyahu, Common Kings
Matisyahu is undoubtedly devoted and faithful, and yet his iconic stage persona feels gimmicky and calculated. His earnestly worn Hasidic attire and Orthodox Judaism grant him an exoticized authenticity that trumps race and class, allowing white, middle-American footbaggers entry into a musical tradition that is otherwise comically foreign to them (as in white dreadlocks and the ubiquitous freshman-dorm Bob Marley poster). What's really bizarre is how Matisyahu's bland, lyrically ascetic music has become so popular. At least with dub appropriators like Sublime or jam-band heroes like Phish, there's a culture of rebellious hedonism to entice the youth. But Matisyahu's lyrics call out materialism, drug use, atheism, and apathy, all without even the radical political undertones of traditional reggae. Could it be that the kids just want to rock out with God? It's a possibility that shakes the very foundations of rock music. ERIC GRANDY
Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Yes, I know, they're cheesy in the extreme and not even actually from Siberia, but Trans-Siberian Orchestra's jolly blend of electric-guitar shredding and Christmas music is like the flu: It comes around every year and it's extremely catchy. That being said, if I'm going to be afflicted with pinch-harmonic-inflected cheer, then I'm at least going to focus on the upside. Which is, TSO formed from the remains of the excellent and under-appreciated power-metal outfit Savatage, whose interpretation of Edvard Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King" probably sparked the whole classical-music-meets-metal fad. Now if only they still had Alex Skolnick from Testament in the band. JOSEPH SCHAFER
SUNDAY
Syd, Buddy, Malia, DJ Osh Kosh
Syd (a Kyd no longer), who was the silent heart OF a collective that brought immense young energy back to the City of Angels, is the voice of the Internet—a collective whose depth grows as members step out individually—and as a soloist, glides as cool as a frozen glacier of cucumber ice water. Her dolo 2017 debut, Fin, established Syd as a formidable dark horse sanger/rapper who will be in the running for years to come. That said, Buddy’s “Find Me” is one of the best pop songs I’ve heard in years—this Compton MC-inger is a jewel in the gem-rich rough of post-Top Dawg Entertainment LA. LARRY MIZELL JR.
Get all this and more on the free Stranger Things To Do mobile app—available now on the App Store and Google Play.
