After a grip of SIFF screenings, Seattle Theatre Group's Neptune Theatre will finally host music as an 850- to 1,000-capacity venue (850 for seated shows, 1,000 for general admission) with two strong-ass bills. Technically, these dates should be covered in next week's paper, but I'm on a vacation for which I've signed up for electroshock therapy. First, on Friday, June 17, the Neptune hosts Mark Lanegan, whose grim and arresting solo work still hits the bull's-eye after all these years. If there's a better treatise on a night in the city than his duet with PJ Harvey, "Hit the City" off 2004's Bubblegum, I've not heard it. Also, for a truly haunting version of the Appalachian folk classic popularized by Lead Belly, "In the Pines" (aka "Black Girl," aka "Where Did You Sleep Last Night"), see Lanegan's 1990 album, The Winding Sheet. If you scored tickets already, congrats: It's sold out. Then on Saturday, June 18, Austin-based indie-folk-rock act and critics' wet dream Okkervil River headline, but the real treat that night will be New Jersey's Titus Andronicus, who may get tired of Springsteen and Hold Steady comparisons, but fuck it—that's all high praise in my book. Frontman Patrick Stickles howls like a whiskey-fueled everyman, and the band's anthemic and scrappy rock is stuffed with chord progressions and vocal affirmations that will make you proud just to be alive. Had I not already finished this week's music piece (see "My Summer Playlist"), the band's latest, The Monitor, would surely be in it. As of this writing, Saturday's show is nearly sold out.
The following weekend at the Neptune boasts a two-night stand from the wonderfully droll musician/actor/comedian (and Australian) Tim Minchin, whose rapid-paced and hilarious piano rhymes are so sharp, they'll puncture minds all the way to the back row. Stay tuned for the June 22 issue, in which Dan Savage interviews Minchin.
This year, the NFTN festival (www.noisefortheneedy.org) benefits Real Change, which employs up to 400 people a month, most of them homeless, in addition to providing social services in a political-economic climate that increasingly conspires to dry out such efforts. According to booker Mamma Casserole, this year's NFTN (through June 12) features more Portlanders than ever: Soft Metals, Loch Lomond, Drew Grow and the Pastors' Wives, Builders and Butchers, Kelli Schaefer, and Ramona Falls. The show I'm not missing, however, is Saturday, June 11, at the Underground Events Center: Akimbo, Wildildlife, Black Queen, Princess, Vultures 2012, Smooth Sailing, Whiskey Tango, and What What Now. HEAVY, bros. 
