This week, our music critics have picked everything from Linda's Prom to Beach House to Betty Who. Follow the links below for ticket links and music clips for all of their picks, and find even more shows on our complete music calendar, or look ahead to the rest of this month’s major concerts.
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MONDAY
BLUES/COUNTRY/FOLKWayne "The Train" Hancock, Gus Clark & the Least of His Problems
Wayne "The Train" Hancock invites you to crack open a cold one and enjoy his brand of juke-joint Americana. He'll be joined by local country outfit Gus Clark & the Least of His Problems.
The Neuroscience of a One-Track Mind: A Lecture-Concert
This highly intellectual, multidisciplinary evening will begin with a lecture by UW neuroscientist Chantel Prat on what happens in the brain when we concentrate, then continue with a solo marimba performance by Erin Jorgensen, the progenitor of Bach + Pancakes. The organizers also tease cupcakes and giveaways, so this evening sounds like it's worth your attention.
The Bouncing Souls, The Bronx, Skinny Lister, Sharp/Shock
Former Stranger music contributor Megan Seling has written, "Everything you need to know about the Bouncing Souls you can learn by listening to their song 'True Believers,' the epitome of pop-punk anthems. The chorus: 'We live our life in our own way/Never really listened to what they say/The kind of faith that doesn't fade away/We are the true believers.' Shakespeare it is not, but the Souls have been practicing what they preach for more than 20 years, touring the world and playing the same high-energy songs about riding BMX bikes, crushing on the Quick Chek cashier, and loving punk rock music till the day they die. And God bless 'em for that." They'll return to Seattle with opening support from LA punks the Bronx, London's Skinny Lister, and Sharp/Shock.
Wand, the Lavender Flu, Great Spiders
Cory Hanson of Wand (and other outfits) is challenging fellow Los Angeles Drag City artist and occasional bandmate Ty Segall for the busiest mofo in indie-rock crown. Productivity without quality control is bunk, obviously, but Wand have kept the levels high since 2014’s Ganglion Reef. The new Laughing Matter radiates George Harrison circa All Things Must Pass vibes. Wand are a font of garage-psych epicness, mastering that controlled bombastic tunefulness thing just as well as Tame Impala, but with a fraction of the fan base. Portland’s Lavender Flu are a secret supergroup doing wonderful, enigmatic things to rock-song structure, creating coloring-outside-the-lines beauty out of distorted guitars, ramshackle rhythms, and slack-motherfucker vocals. DAVE SEGAL
TUESDAY
JAZZEddie Palmieri's Latin Jazz Septet
Few albums are more aptly titled than Eddie Palmieri’s 1962 debut, La Perfecta. Recorded with his backing band of the same name, La Perfecta is a near-flawless distillation of the flourishing Latin jazz scene of New York in the 1960s, bustling with Technicolor horns, airtight salsa rhythms, and Palmieri’s bright, urbane piano lines holding it all together. Since then, he’s solidified his reputation among diehards as one of the pillars of his trade, but all the neophyte has to do is listen to “Kinkamache” off 1975’s Unfinished Masterpiece (another apropos title) to recognize Palmieri’s sun-kissed brilliance on the ivories. KYLE FLECK
Jazz Lounge: Emma Caroline Baker
Jazz, soul, and R&B vocalist Emma Caroline Baker will be accompanied by guitarist George Bullock for an evening of sultry jazz classics and contemporary hits.
Bad Suns
LA rockers Bad Suns will come to Seattle with opening support from singer Carlie Hanson.
Emily Wells
One of my favorite albums of 2013 was the self-titled full-length from Pillowfight, the sexy grooving project of vocalist/composer/arranger/multi-instrumentalist/producer Emily Wells and Dan the Automator. The solo work of classically trained Wells is more experimental and finds her mixing traditional techniques and instrumentation (cello, viola, and violin, both bowed and plucked) with modern styles and technology (analog synth, drum machine), pitting her seductive, sometimes multi-tracked velvet-silk vocals against it all. She usually employs live looping and sampling to build her dramatic, gothic-vibing, exploratory sound in a concert setting. LEILANI POLK
Passion Pit
Michael Angelakos can be counted on to deliver infectiously saccharine synth-pop as Passion Pit, which is both his solo project (he writes, records, and produces all the studio LPs by himself) and a band (on the road, the singer/keyboardist is joined by musicians on guitars, synths, bass, and drums). He self-released Passion Pit’s fourth and last album, Tremendous Sea of Love, which is just as joyously uplifting as we all expected, and as the title suggests, although the title track is surprisingly gauzy and abstracted. LEILANI POLK
St. Lucia
St. Lucia is a band begun by Jean-Philip Grobler, a South African-born musician now making dreamy, gauzy electro-pop in Brooklyn. The blogosphere loves him, and if you're a fan of M83ish synth dramatics, you will, too.
WEDNESDAY
DJ9th Annual Linda's Prom
For the ninth year in a row, the ever-popular Capitol Hill watering hole will transform into the dimly lit gymnasium of your dreams, fit to house all the Axe Body Spray, cheap booze, and revelatory dancing of your youth. Per the rules of proms everywhere, spiked punch will be available, a king and queen will be crowned at midnight, and DJ Pretty Please will surely provide a generous dose of throwbacks.
Dance Gavin Dance, Don Broco, Hail the Sun, CoVet, Thousand Below
Sacramento-based post-hardcore (not dance, surprisingly) band Dance Gavin Dance will headline with support from Don Broco, Hail the Sun, CoVet, and Thousand Below on their Artificial Selection tour.
The Japanese House, Art School Girlfriend
English artist Amber Bain, who performs her whistful indie-pop as Japanese House, will come to Seattle with support from fellow UK artist Art School Girlfriend.
Léon
Swedish songstress Léon uses '70s dance club vibes and layered personal narratives to empower pop tracks that would otherwise be bland with a less impassioned performer.
WEDNESDAY-THURSDAY
ROCK/POPBeach House
There is something so rich and sumptuous about the seventh outing from dreamy Baltimore pop duo Beach House, aptly titled 7. Something about it feels so very Seattle—moody, gray, and damp, yet stunningly awash in color and sparkling and glinting with a peek of sun. Which is exciting, because I loved Beach House after their 2008 debut, Devotion, but felt pretty blasé about everything that came after, up until 7. You know who also loves Beach House? Charles Mudede. When I asked him why, he replied, “They relax me… I love that exhausted mood.” Which I never really thought about, but it makes perfect sense: Their music is dazzling, yet the ethereal lassitude envelops you like a warm sonic blanket. LEILANI POLK
WEDNESDAY & FRIDAY-SATURDAY
ROCK/POPDimmer Twins
Patterson Hood (guitar, vocals, mandolin) and Mike Cooley (guitar, vocals, banjo, harmonica) have been playing together for decades, many years before they formed beloved alt-country and roots-rock outfit Drive-By Truckers in 1996. As Dimmer Twins (a nod to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, sometimes called the Glimmer Twins), Hood and Cooley strip down to the bare acoustic essentials and perform their own respective solo songs, original duo material, and choice DBT cuts. This should be an intimate and stirring evening. Friday’s show is sold out but there were still some Saturday tickets available at the time of this writing. LEILANI POLK
THURSDAY
BLUES/COUNTRY/FOLKJoseph, Haley Johnsen
Once upon a time, a band of three sisters blessed the land with voices as sweet as ambrosia. It sounds like a fairy tale, complete with dense, melodic ballads calling forth the spirit of the Pacific Northwest with lush, honeyed harmonies. Joseph are at their natural, earthy best when inclined to the folky side of the pop-folk spectrum, so let’s hope that facet will shine through in their set. AMBER CORTES
Filthy Friends, Eyelids
Filthy Friends are a Northwest supergroup featuring former and current members of R.E.M., Sleater-Kinney, and Young Fresh Fellows (including Peter Buck and Corin Tucker). They released their debut, Invitation, on Kill Rock Stars in 2017, and Stranger freelancer Kathy Fennessy described it as “a stirring rock record that recalls the Patti Smith Group gone power pop, and with a Southern accent.” The band hits town behind sophomore follow-up Emerald Valley, which is preceded by two ass-kicking singles, the crunchy guitar-riff-driven scorcher “November Man” and the snotty, anti-capitalist punk-kicking “Last Chance County.” Both suggest a show with energy to spare. Take a nap beforehand. LEILANI POLK
Racoma
At this edition of the stripped-down concert series Sub Rosa, enjoy sunny alt-rock from Seattle's Racoma.
Ruler, Bad Saint, Ryan Rebo
Ruler is an indie post-punk band centered on the feelings and movements of Matt Batey, the bandleader behind this vehicle for sad-face emoji guitar-driven pop and rock.
THURSDAY-FRIDAY
CLASSICALBrahms Concerto Festival
The timelessness and simple elegance of Johann Brahms' compositions will be revealed with this two-night performance of his First Piano Concerto and Double Concerto on Night One and his Second Piano Concerto on Night Two.
FRIDAY
DJNoise Complaint: Tiga
Montreal DJ/producer and Turbo Recordings boss Tiga operates at the more accessible end of the tech-house spectrum while striving to keep his tracks sexy and psychedelic, often abetted by warped vocals that reinforce the decadent narrative. Over the past 18 years of production and touring, Tiga has become very adept at making clubs seem like the warm-up spaces for orgies. And that’s why he makes the big bucks. Check out his 2018 collab with the Martinez Brothers, “Aphex N Girls,” for an example of Tiga’s hedonistic mojo. He’s also been known to drop This Mortal Coil’s version of “Song to the Siren,” so, respect. DAVE SEGAL
Videoasis
Videoasis, the biannual showcase of Pacific Northwest-made music videos curated by Bobby McHugh and Sharlese Metcalf, will return to the big screen.
Eliot Lipp, DJ Dab, Baloogz
Bursting with 253 pride, electronic producer Eliot Lipp named his 2006 album on John Hughes III’s Hefty label Tacoma Mocking Bird. I hear you groaning, but its tight, rhythmically springy, and deceptively melodic electro tracks punch above their weight. His self-titled 2004 debut on Prefuse 73’s Eastern Developments pops, locks, and does the splits with the sort of lithe-limbed funkiness you’d expect from glitch-hop maestro Guillermo Scott Herren. Later work like 2009’s Peace Love Weed 3D (every track lasts 4:20) on Lipp’s own Old Tacoma imprint slants toward the crasser, stiffer end of ’80s-electro fetishizing, but the last half of the album loosens up and becomes trippier and sexier. (Tip to musicians: Add more of both these qualities to your songs for the overall betterment of humankind.) I’d lost track of Lipp since Peace, and his 2014 full-length Watch the Shadows makes me feel that I’ve not missed much. Change can be good, but Shadows sounds like a descent into bland fodder for Orange County strip-mall dance clubs. Hope this is just a blip and not a permanent dip for Lipp. DAVE SEGAL
Hunt & Gather's 3rd Annual Spring Diversion
Local house music favorite Hunt & Gather (aka Pezzner, Michael Manahan, and Doza) will provide a soundtrack for a hopefully balmy spring night.
Michal Menert & the Pretty Fantastics, Exmag, Spyn Reset
Boasting the ability to offer a "musical salve for those suffering from the relentless stream of contemporary reality," California-based artist and producer Michal Menert and his band the Pretty Fantastics blend jazz, hiphop, and electronic music on their latest record. They'll be joined by EDM group Exmag and Electro-prog rock outfit Spyn Reset.
The Cave Singers, somesurprises
Though the Cave Singers launched with a sound dwelling in meditative folk terrains, the Seattle outfit has done some evolving over five records, getting louder and incorporating striding rock and breezy psychedelic overtones into their songwriting. 2016's Banshee—their first album minus label backing and entirely crowd-funded by fans—feels as if it were produced beneath a prairie thundercloud; it’s vaguely dark and brooding, marked by washes of airy twanginess and strains of melodica, and with highlights in chugging, guitar-fuzzed lead-off track “That’s Why” and the slow strutting groove of “Strip Mine.” LEILANI POLK
Great Grandpa, Antonioni, Dummy, Bitch Fits
Here are Sean Nelson's words on Great Grandpa: "Everything about this band is a complete joy. Their 2017 album, Plastic Cough, remains one of the best releases by a Seattle band in recent memory. The lyrics are sharp, the loud guitar tone is the friendliest kind of distortion, the melodies stick in your brain like a pickax, and the influences are pleasingly familiar to 1990s indie rock adepts without going over. If you're young, they're just an excellent band. But if you're old, Great Grandpa is like bumping into an old friend you haven't seen in years, only to discover that it's actually their kid."
W Music Spotlight: La Fonda
Join local indie dream-pop sextet La Fonda for some dreamy jams full of '60s "surf-esque" guitars and swoony synths.
FRIDAY-SATURDAY
ROCK/POPBetty Who
Heavily biting on the dance-pop balladeers of the 1980s and ’90s, Betty Who cruises through the 2010s holding tight the influences of higher icons. Her buzz-worthy blonde bob may get more attention than her music, but Betty's latest album, The Valley, is aiming to change all that.
SATURDAY
CLASSICALTen Grands
What could be a mind-blowing battle royale between world-renowned pianists is actually a delightful event to raise money for children's music education, as 10 performers astride a baby grand apiece play selections from every genre.
Youryoungbody, Zah, Webdriver Torso, DJ Sharlese
Youryoungbody like it dark—real dark. The Seattle-based duo deals in heavy, synthy darkwave that is both danceable and spooky as hell. Their most recent track, “4ever,” is lush and otherworldly with Killian Brom masterfully holding down the beats and Duh Cripe’s voice soaring over and around the music. Youryoungbody will be joined by multidisciplinary artist and genius Zah, and the postapocalyptic Webdriver Torso, which take their name from a creepy Google-generated YouTube account. DJ Sharlese throws down in between. This is a stacked lineup of talent. JASMYNE KEIMIG
Flight To Mars, Dream Police
The 16th annual Flight to Mars benefit show features Pearl Jam's Mike McCready and Duff McKagan and friends playing as a tribute to 1970s English heavy rockers UFO, with Cheap Trick tribute band Dream Police as the opening act. Proceeds will go to Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America's Camp Oasis, the Jennifer Jaff Care Line for People with IBD, and the Vitalogy Foundation.
Jeremy Enigk, Tomo Nakayama
Here's the thing: Jeremy Enigk's first solo album, Return of the Frog Queen, is one of the truly epochal LPs for this region. Released in 1996 after a tumultuous period for his band Sunny Day Real Estate, this surreal collection of chamber-instrument-laced acoustic songs changed the landscape of what Seattle could sound and feel like, ushering in the next 15 years of Northwest music. And the shows at which he debuted this material remain some of the most staggering performances I ever saw. If you don't know the album, you are in for a treat. SEAN NELSON
Shannon Shaw, Prom Queen
Brill Building/Wall of Sound R&B/teen rock and roll from the late-1950s/early-1960s became an unbreakable archetype and, when done well, remains as visceral as ever. Well, tonight we get TWO contemporary takes. Prom Queen, whose R&B-ish, forlorn ’60s-style pop vocal songs are righteously strict to the form and totally evoke the sound of a B&W era in full technicolor. Ms. Shannon Shaw (hold the Clams) possesses an archetypal yet remarkable teen R&B voice. For her solo LP, she’s brought it into contemporary context with her cross-genre take on late-1960s/early-1970s-style pop songs. MIKE NIPPER
Stephen Malkmus
Conceiving a paradigmatic mode of indie rock and then subtly modulating it into more fluid and twisty prog rock can get old after 30 years, so Pavement leader Stephen Malkmus tweaked his wry, rangy rock songwriting into different forms on the new Groove Denied album. The aging-rocker-goes-electronic subplot often comes across as anticlimactic, but Malkmus is savvy enough with the synth-centric aesthetic not to embarrass himself. Actually, Groove Denied ranks as SM’s most interesting and boldest post-Pavement release yet, with “Belziger Faceplant” in particular sounding like a mutated minimal-wave highlight. If this is a midlife-crisis move for Malkmus, then it’s much better than splurging on a Dodge Viper. DAVE SEGAL
The Velveteins, La Fille
The new Michael Benjamin Lerner–coproduced album by Seattle’s La Fille, Alright Already, abounds with accomplished power-pop songs polished to an immaculate gleam. Guitarist Jay Louis sings dulcetly and as if his skinny tie is pinching his vocal cords, a not uncommon trait among power-pop vocalists (see: the Shoes, King Tuff’s Kyle Thomas). La Fille’s songs go down easily and pleasurably, melodic sucrose that’s surprisingly nutritious. Alberta trio the Velveteins create a naive, delicate strain of throwback rock that seems nearly unaffected by the sexual and psychedelic revolutions of the 1960s. DAVE SEGAL
SATURDAY-SUNDAY
ROCK/POPMac DeMarco
Everyone’s favorite and least favorite slack rocker Mac DeMarco got himself in a bit of hot water recently. The Canadian musician was accused of copying singer-guitarist Mitski after announcing the name of his album (Here Comes the Cowboy) and lead single (“Nobody”), which was eerily similar to Mitski’s own recent outing Be the Cowboy and lead single “Nobody.” The jangle pop rocker claims to have never listened to Mitski’s album, despite its consistent ranking as the best record of 2018—which is a little surprising. But no matter. Mac always puts on a show. Live, he spices up his tracks by speeding ’em up or slowing ’em down. Sometimes Mac even gets freaky with the crowd. Just don’t steal his hat! JASMYNE KEIMIG
SUNDAY
ROCK/POPTom Odell
English singer-songwriter Tom Odell will tour North America yet again promoting his latest album, Jubilee Road.
Omar Apollo, Ambar Lucid
Mexican American singer-songwriter Omar Apollo will bring his lovely jazz- and R&B-infused alt-pop tunes to Seattle after an opening set from Mexican Dominican musician Ambar Lucid.
