Wednesday May 14top

Neil Masson Trio

  Benson Hotel, 309 SW Broadway., 228-2000. All ages. Map

DJ Robb

  C.C. Slaughters, 219 NW Davis St., 248-9135. Map

Gretchen Mitchell

  Crown Room, 205 NW 4th Ave., 222-6655. Map

The Dirtbombs, Dan Sartain, Terrible Twos

[FUZZY BASS ROCK] Dirtbombs frontman Mick Collins said recently that he "never intended to do just one kind of music." He certainly bears that out: In the past year this bottom-heavy quintet has released three singles on which they cover Suicide and INXS, and a full-length, We Have You Surrounded, that veers from hard-charging garage rock to pure noise. The results are all distortion-heavy Dirtbombs and, for the most part, all brilliant. ROBERT HAM. 9 pm. Dante's, 1 SW 3rd Ave., 226-6630. $14. 21+. Map

Justin Currie

[SINGER-SONGWRITER] Some might vaguely—and unfairly—recall late-20th-century Glaswegian pub-rockers Del Amitri as a Scottish Hootie and the Blowfish, insofar as their unfortunately twee 1995 hit "Roll to Me" is recalled at all. Few remember the novel acoustic-Television twin-guitar attack of the band's obscure 1985 debut, or the logorrheic romantic whose voice it introduced. No less literate, lovelorn or obscure all these years later, Del's leader Justin Currie has released a quiet stunner of a solo debut, What Is Love For, that finds him in great voice and winningly lousy spirits. Forget your preconceptions tonight and experience a superior singer-songwriter. JEFF ROSENBERG. 9 pm. Doug Fir, 830 E Burnside St., 231-9663. $20. 21+. Map

DJs Atom 13, Soil

  East Chinatown Lounge, 322 NW Everett St., 226-1659. Map

Hate of the City: DJs Keebler, Jonny P Jewels

  East End, 203 SE Grand Ave., 232-0056. Map

TRONix: Brian Eno's Birthday Bash feat. Solenoid, DJs Popcorn, Brokenwindow, 808

  Ground Kontrol, 511 NW Couch St., 796-9364. Map

Erin McKeown Duo, Justin Jude

[SINGER-SONGWRITER] Not only do tonight's concertgoers get to hear the mercurial Ms. McKeown explore yet another musical permutation—a duo with drummer/singer Allison Miller—but the pint-sized song-plugger is also due to preview several new compositions from her soon-to-be-recorded album, her first of all-new material since 2005's We Will Become Like Birds. The duo will tackle tunes from that effort, intervening standards album Sing You Sinners and live disc Lafayette. A few earlier favorites will doubtless appear as well. JEFF ROSENBERG. 8 pm. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., 288-3895. $20. 21+. Map

Fern Knight, Ex Reverie, In Gowan Ring, Ah Holly Fam'ly

[MORE ALT-FOLKS] In the beginning, there was folk. And folk meant either a lone weirdo sipping a bucket of moonshine and playing a homemade guitar, or a trio of elf-worshipers singing about a unicorn around a mushroom circle, depending which side of the pond you happened to be standing on. Then there was the ’60s folk revival: world-weary white dudes with acoustic guitars or, well, elf-worshipers again. But now there's anti-folk (snarky), freak folk (beardy) and post-folk (huh?). Which brings us to Philadelphia folksters Fern Knight, whom I will dub "Very Competent Folk." Fact: It takes more than drugs and a beard to play a harp or a cello well. FK can do both. ERIK BADER. 9 pm. Someday Lounge, 125 NW 5th Ave., 248-1030. $7. 21+. Map

Thursday May 15top

Jean Ronne, Lee Wuthenow

  Benson Hotel, 309 SW Broadway., 228-2000. All ages. Map

Barack the Vote: Junkface, Alan Singley and Pants Machine, Andy Combs and the Moth

[BARACK ROCK] Well, it’s about time! With such indie-rock luminaries as the Arcade Fire and a reunited Superchunk pledging their support for Obama, it’s high time we countered with our own musical fundraiser. Tonight's show boasts three of our favorite—if vastly different—local “rock” acts. Junkface plays quick and dirty tunes indebted to both Brainiac and any kid who ever spent $30 on a Casio keyboard, while Andy Combs and the Moth plays creepy-crawly folk spiked with banjo and kazoo breakdowns. The real treat, though, is the bounty of new material Alan Singley should drop—word on the street says his new summer-lovin’ tunes feature Bacharachian levels of orchestrated shit. Bugs, Burt and Barack—what’s not to love? MICHAEL MANNHEIMER. 9 pm. Berbati's Pan, 231 SW Ankeny St., 248-4579. $5. All ages. Map

DJ Alex Hollywood

  C.C. Slaughters, 219 NW Davis St., 248-9135. Map

Lowenbad, Subatomic

  Crown Room, 205 NW 4th Ave., 222-6655. All ages. Map

LSD&D, DJ Whisker Friction

[UGLY GLAM] Remember back in middle school when you used to hide a sheet of acid in your Dungeon Master’s Guide and kept a copy of the Satanic bible under your bed? No? Well then, feel free to live vicariously through the sacrilegious and unapologetically geeky LSD&D. This new group promises a raw, ugly glam rock sound that is nearly guaranteed to offend at least one of your sensibilities. Revel in it, or roll one D20 to save yourself from frontman Seantos’ deadly bear hug. NATHAN CARSON. 9 pm. East End, 203 SE Grand Ave., 232-0056. Cover. 21+. Map

Murder By Death, Dios Malos, Gasoline Heart

[PSEUDO-BEACH POP] Remember that neighbor you once had—the one who’d leave notes if your lawn was too overgrown, the one who’d tell your parents you had thrown a rager while they went to see Blue Oyster Cult’s reunion tour? Well, that guy’s come back in the form of Dios Malos frontman Joel Morales, and he’s not happy about all the Beach Boys comparisons and hipsterdom accusations his band’s been getting. Just check out Dios Malos' website, which reads more like a bitter diatribe than a press release. Sooner or later this L.A. quintet, which has a beardo-thug look that toggles between Hood River and hoodrat, is just going to have to get over its machismo and accept the fact it does Pet Sounds well. Very well. CHANDLER FREDRICK. 9 pm. Hawthorne Theatre, 3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 233-7100. $12. All ages. Map

Bill Beach (6 pm)

  London Grill, 309 SW Broadway., 228-2000. All ages. Map

Donna Jose Open Mic

  Mock Crest Tavern, 3435 N Lombard St., 283-5014. Map

Iraq Veterans Against the War Benefit: Shaky Hands, Tara Jane O'Neil and Fred Nemo, Dark Yoga, Ilyas Ahmed, Aaron Montaigne, ...Worms

[PEACE MUSIC] We all know it’s no longer “hip” to read a newspaper (except, ahem, this one), that all media is suspect and that “the truth is out there.” Meanwhile, here’s a newsflash, hipster: There’s still a fucking war going on. No War U.S.O. is a collaboration between Portland arts collective Red76 and Gabriel Mindel Soloman (Yellow Swans), and under the guise of a really awesome show they will be raising funds for Iraq Veterans Against the War. From the post-jangle of the Shaky Hands to the fingerpicked moodiness of Ilyas Ahmed, the lineup has a little something for everyone (…Worms, anyone?), including a rare performance by former Antioch Arrow frontman Aaron Montaigne (who works at Rotture?!). A righteous cause, an awesome show; no struggle, everyone wins. ERIK BADER. 9 pm. Rotture, 315 SE 3rd Ave., 234-5683. $5. 21+. Read a full Q&A with Montaigne on LocalCut.com. Map

Alan Jones Presents

  The Cave, 636 SW Jackson St., 274-4294. Map

Friday May 16top

Neil Masson Quartet w/ Lee Wuthenow

  Benson Hotel, 309 SW Broadway., 228-2000. All ages. Map

Acoustic Minds

  Borders-Beaverton, 2605 SW Cedar Hills Blvd., 644-6164. Map

Rene Corbin

  Borders-Vancouver, 811 SE 160th St., (360) 891-2060. Map

DJ Geno Cochino

  Crown Room, 205 NW 4th Ave., 222-6655. Map

The 4th Annual Pangaea Project Benefit: The Everyone Orchestra feat. The Stanton Moore Trio

[GOODWILL GROOVES] Pangaea's pulling big names for its fourth-annual fundraiser (this year two shows strong). The Pangaea Project takes low-income and at-risk kids, and teaches 'em the importance of humanitarianism through a nine-month program that takes them across the world (last year, teens spread goodwill in Ecuador). This year the Everyone Orchestra, Matt Butler's experiment in randomized improv, headlines both nights (and includes the defunct String Cheese Incident's Michael Kang). New Orleans' the Stanton Moore Trio lends funk on Friday, while Keith Moseley (another former Cheeser) adds extra jam on Saturday. Talk about philanthropy: Help kids get ahead by helping others, and all you need to do is ride a groove. AP KRYZA. 8 pm. Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W Burnside St., 225-0047. $22 advance, $25 day of show ($80 ticket package available). All ages. Map

The Posies, The Nice Boys, Blue Skies for Black Hearts, Le Concorde

[POP] The more I dig into the Posies' back catalog (I was a particularly late convert, discovering the Posies through co-frontman Ken Stringfellow's excellent 2001 album, Touched), the more I get it. The Seattle pop outfit knows exactly how sappy some of its infectious tunes are, and damnit, that's just how they've rolled since back in the late '80s. Sure, the band got caught up in heaviness in the mid-late '90s, but it was only skin deep: The Posies are a pop group and a damn fine one at that. And they're perhaps the only group that could get me singing along to the lyrics "Love comes inside you/ Gets behind you/ Takes you under its wing." OK, they do know that's funny, right? The Posies are on a 20-year reunion tour and Portland is one of a handful of cities that gets to experience the "full band" version of their show. Show them some love. CASEY JARMAN. 9 pm. Dante's, 1 SW 3rd Ave., 226-6630. $10. 21+. Map

DJ Kenoy

  Devils Point, 5305 SE Foster Road., 774-4513. Map

El Perro Del Mar, Lykke Li, Anna Ternheim

[SWEDE AND SWAY] From Robyn to Peter Bjorn and John, Jens Lekman to the Concretes, it seems like the Swedish are taking over America, and it appears that Lykke Li will be the next Nordic act in line to conquer our airwaves. The 22-year-old Swedish sprite bridges the gap between twee and angst with her brand of danceable indie pop by laying it gently on the line on one track—only to turn around and stand up for herself by the next. Handling the production for her debut, Youth Novels, was Björn Yttling of that aforementioned trio Peter Bjorn and John. The pairing doesn't hurt her bid for queen of America, nor do her genes—this girl is hot! Lykke Li's alterna-pop tour companion, El Perro Del Mar, also hails from the Scandinavian country. Surely this qualifies as an invasion! NILINA MASON CAMPBELL. 9 pm. Doug Fir, 830 E Burnside St., 231-9663. $13 advance, $15 day of show. 21+. Map

Situations: The Kills DJ

  Dunes, 1905 NE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd., 493-8637. Map

Ohioan & Native Kin, Inside Voices, No Go Know

  Exit Only, 1121 N Loring St., 815-302-6041. Map

Quasi, Typhoon, Reporter (Main Theater); Michale Graves, Sons of Sirens (Balcony)

[RHYTHM SECTION BLUES] A good rhythm section can go a long way. For Quasi, one of Portland's best bands since way back in the '90s, that's long been a moot point. See, Sam Coomes and Janet Weiss were a duo before duos became a big deal. And while Featuring “Birds” and Field Studies are still fantastic records, Coomes’ newer jams are among the best he’s ever written. The twosome's currently rounded out by bassist Joanna Bolme (of the Jicks, among others), and Coomes still rocks out melodic and cacophonous on both guitar and his signature roxichord. Add to that the fact Weiss is probably the best living drummer on the planet, and it makes a fine case for checking out Quasi’s first gig in a while. MICHAEL MANNHEIMER. 9 pm. Hawthorne Theatre, 3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 233-7100. $10 advance, $12 day of show. All ages. Quasi also plays Saturday, May 17, at Live Wire!. Map

'80s Video Dance Attack: VJ Kittyrox

  Lola's Room at the Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W Burnside St., 225-0047. Map

Bill Beach (6 pm)

  London Grill, 309 SW Broadway., 228-2000. All ages. Map

Run On Sentence, Ryan Sollee (10 pm); Jennifer Batten (7 pm)

[CONTEMPORARY ROOTS REVIVAL] See music feature. 10 pm. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., 288-3895. $7 advance, $8 day of show. 21+. Run On Sentence also plays Saturday, May 17. Map

Lloyd Allen in the Mix

  Mock Crest Tavern, 3435 N Lombard St., 283-5014. Map

Brett Dennen, Mason Jennings, Missy Higgins

[SINGER-SONGWRITER] One of Rolling Stone's "Ten To Watch" in 2007, think of Brett Dennen as advance warrior of the post-John Mayer (Dennen regularly opens for the heartthrob) generation. An irritatingly proficient acoustic guitarist fond of the jazz-inflected chords, Dennen writes the songs to make stoned fratboys shuffle and their girlfriends tear up. He appears utterly without the strains of self-loathing or outsized libido that make his patron tolerable. Home-schooled, abounding with unironic musings of peace and love, devoted to charities…the children of prosperity scare me. JAY HORTON. 8 pm. Roseland, 8 NW 6th Ave., 219-9929 (Grill), 224-2038 (Theater). $22. All ages. Map

John Nastos Quartet

  The Cave, 636 SW Jackson St., 274-4294. Map

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, Port O'Brien, The Ocean Floor

[BREEZY POP] Turns out you can judge a book by its title, and Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin is bouncy, breezy proof. The Missouri outfit is part Besnard Lakes, part Luna, plus an airy nonchalance that's strangely attractive. The band's natural sharpness flirts with smugness, but just when you think it's overacting the part, Boris submits to that all-too-human urge and throws some poppy artificial clapping into the fray. And SSLYBY is already more popular than its round-faced Russian hero. Even in Russia. MARK STOCK. 9:30 pm. Towne Lounge, 714 SW 20th Place., 241-8696. $8. 21+. Map

Saturday May 17top

Live Wire!: Quasi, The Builders and the Butchers, Marc Acito, Will Durst, Mark Galbraith and Peter Kallen, Shelley McLendon

[VARIETY SHOW] See Friday listing. 8 pm. Aladdin Theater, 3017 SE Milwaukie Ave., 233-1994. $15. All ages. Map

Doctor Moss, Nesali, War With Saturn, Speed Galactic

  Ash Street Saloon, 225 SW Ash St., 226-0430. Map

Napalm Beach, Fernando, At the Spine

[OLD SCHOOL ROCK] After a forcibly extended Argentinian holiday, Fernando's back to business with a new/old band, a renewed roots direction and a practice space (industrial Southeast’s AudioCinema) shared with legends-of-Northwest-punk Napalm Beach. The Beach boys play out seasonally at best these days, but Fernando managed to convince his '90s Satyricon buddies to headline something resembling the old warehouse parties. Like a club night, but, y'know, fun. JAY HORTON. 8 pm. AudioCinema, 226 SE Madison St., 750-5363. $10. 21+. Read a full Q&A with Fernando on LocalCut.com. Map

Neil Masson Quartet w/ Lee Wuthenow

  Benson Hotel, 309 SW Broadway., 228-2000. All ages. Map

2 Licks 2 Many Bluegrass Band

  Borders-Gresham, 687 NW 12th St., 674-3917. Map

DJ Alex Hollywood

  C.C. Slaughters, 219 NW Davis St., 248-9135. Map

DJ Mello C

  Crown Room, 205 NW 4th Ave., 222-6655. Map

The 4th Annual Pangaea Project Benefit: The Everyone Orchestra, Keith Moseley & Friends

[GOODWILL GROOVES] See Friday listing. 8 pm. Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W Burnside St., 225-0047. $22 advance, $25 day of show. $80 ticket package available. All ages. Map

Dry County Crooks (CD release), Michael Dean Damron & Thee Loyal Bastards, Drunken Prayer

[ROCKABILLY PUNK] See profile. 9:30 pm. Dante's, 1 SW 3rd Ave., 226-6630. $7 advance, $8 day of show. 21+. Map

Langhorne Slim, Ferraby Lionheart

[REBEL AMERICANA] Like a mash-up of Bob Dylan rambling and Two Gallants badassery, NYC songwriter Langhorne Slim shambles through singer-songwriter Americana, honky-tonk swill-alongs and country-tinged ballads with ease and attitude. Tunes like “Hummingbird” and “Colette”—both off Slim’s excellent self-titled ’08 release—show he’s got a tender, thoughtful side, but his rough and tinny voice and near-Springsteen-esque rock-outs (see “Hello Sunshine”) attest to hard times had and souls purged. Thank goodness; the result is whole-package, irresistible alt-country goodness. AMY MCCULLOUGH. 9 pm. Doug Fir, 830 E Burnside St., 231-9663. $10 advance, $12 day of show. 21+. Map

The Carrots, Night Wounds, Feather Figure

  Dunes, 1905 NE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd., 493-8637. Map

Brian Copeland Trio

  East Burn, 1800 E Burnside St., 236-2876. Map

Car Clutch, Strategy, Ilyas Ahmed, Golden Bears

  Exit Only, 1121 N Loring St., 815-302-6041. All ages. Map

Freakshow-a-Go-Go: All of the Above, Beefcake Burlesque, Cattitude, The Gender Fluids, Gender Offenders, Kings n Things, KO & Co., The Smarmy Chorus Girls, Thisway / Thatway, The Vagabonds, Sossity Chiricuzio

  Hippodrome, 315 SE 3rd Ave., . $15. All ages. Map

Minmae, Boat, Per Se (10 pm); Gass the Caddy Band (6 pm)

[SCHOOLBOY POP] Good God, do I love me some Boat. The Seattle-based outfit could single-handedly restore one's faith in pop music. Warbly voiced frontman D. Crane waxes fun and juvenile like a school boy, smart like a grad and nostalgiac like a 10-year class-reunion attendee. Every track on 2006's Songs That You Might Not Like is at once clever, ridiculously catchy and tender (and last year's Let's Drag Our Feet is no shabby follow-up). I don't know how they do it, but the live show is always excellent, too: either fantastically drunk 'n' carefree or knock-your-socks-off tight. And their scarf-wearing bass player is the most comically charming wingman you can imagine. Boat's joined tonight by Portland faves Minmae (dark and oft-noise rattled rock) and Per Se, a.k.a. Anne Adams, who's just as quirky and cute as her lo-fi, loop-happy pop songs. AMY MCCULLOUGH. 10 pm. Kelly's Olympian, 426 SW Washington St., 228-3669. Cover. 21+. Map

Bill Beach (6 pm)

  London Grill, 309 SW Broadway., 228-2000. All ages. Map

Johnnie Ward Sharkskin Review

  Mock Crest Tavern, 3435 N Lombard St., 283-5014. Map

BrownPort Festival: Nick Jaina, Climber, Run On Sentence (5 pm)

[INDIE FOLK & POP] See Here Comes Your Fan. 5 pm. Pioneer Park Amphitheater, Brownsville., . $5 (children under 12, $3; families, $15). All ages. Run On Sentence also plays Friday, May 15. Map

All of the Above, Beefcake Burlesque, Cattitude, The Gender Fluids, The Gender Offenders, Kings n Things, KO & Company, The Smarmy Chorus Girls, Thisway/Thatway, The Vagabonds, Sosity Chiricuzio (8 pm); Tu Fawning (CD release), Dragging an Ox Through Water, The Paperbacks (9 pm)

[TU COOL] When Portland channels Portishead, it ends up with Tu Fawning—a four-piece that might just take the prize for having members with the most unpronounceable full names in the Rose City (Joe Haege, Corrina Repp, Liza Rietz, Toussaint Perrault…take that, English vowel rules!). The band celebrates the vinyl and digital release of its long-anticipated EP, Secession, a six-track piece packed with Repp’s jazzy, distant-girlfriend vocals and Haege’s space-warped samples. Don’t miss Dragging an Ox Through Water, whose oddball brand of lo-fi folk hits the road in June for a very rough (read: many, many TBA venues) North American and European tour. CHANDLER FREDRICK. 9 pm. Rotture, 315 SE 3rd Ave., 234-5683. $10 advance, $15 day of show. 21+. Map

Radar Bros., Le Switch, Hello Damascus

[ECHO-CHAMBER AMERICANA] It's easy to dig the Radar Bros. The Cali quartet has a breeziness about it that harkens back to early Grateful Dead records (complete with traces, er, tracers of psychedelic country), transmitted in a post-Pavement world. The Bros. latest, Auditorium, retains the band's trademark warmth and laid-back aesthetic, while increasing the orchestration and slowing the pace even closer to a crawl. Wilco fans are highly encouraged to check out tonight's show (the Bros. have been around just as long as that revered alt-country outfit, by the way) so long as they don't expect much dancing. CASEY JARMAN. 9 pm. Someday Lounge, 125 NW 5th Ave., 248-1030. $8. 21+. Map

David Valdez

  The Cave, 636 SW Jackson St., 274-4294. Map

Was (Not Was), Tahoe Jackson & the Love Bullies Diaries

[BIZZARO DANCE] Was (Not Was), the brainchild of brothers-de-plume Don and David Was, has always been an wild mix of disparate styles—from the debut 1980 single "Wheel Me Out," a hypnotic piece of late disco, to the last charting single, 1992's "Shake Your Head," a light, Manchester-house ditty with actress Kim Basinger singing the chorus and Ozzy rapping the verses (not kidding). The group's latest album, Boo!, finds the original lineup exploring classic, brassy soul without forgetting its unique electro-funk backbone. JIM SANDBERG. 9 pm. Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell St., 284-8686. $20 advance, $23 day of show. All ages. Map

Sunday May 18top

Makana (1 pm)

  Borders-Beaverton, 2605 SW Cedar Hills Blvd., 644-6164. Map

Clinic, Shearwater

[DOCTOR INDIE ROCK] For some bands, change is a necessity. It’s nearly impossible, and almost redundant, to try to make the same record twice—also the reason, we suspect, so many sophomore efforts are adorned with totally unnecessary string sections and mini-song suites. Listening to Clinic’s new release, Do It!, you get the feeling that after 2000 breakthrough Internal Wrangler singer Ade Blackburn sighed, took off his band’s signature surgical masks, and said, “Ah, fuck it.” The band's sound hasn’t changed as much as it's shifted in the last eight years; songs like “Memories” and “The Witch” still stutter and twitch with a weird energy—built on fuzzy, serpentine guitar riffs, old keyboards and nary a verse-chorus structure in sight. Best off all, each track sounds like it was recorded with layers of gauze around the microphones, giving enough distance for listeners to notice what’s changed—and, thankfully, what hasn’t. MICHAEL MANNHEIMER. 9 pm. Doug Fir, 830 E Burnside St., 231-9663. $13. 21+. Map

Eli Reischman (5:30 pm); Jean Ronne (9:30 am)

  London Grill, 309 SW Broadway., 228-2000. All ages. Map

Curbstock: Norman Sylvester Band, Three Leg Torso, Boka Marimba, Hutch & Kathy, Blue Skies For Black Hearts, Darby O'Gill, The Victoria, Rubber Pencil, The Audience, State of Mind Crew (11 am)

[ECLECTIC FEST] See Here Comes Your Fan. 11 am. Oaks Park, Southeast Spokane Street And Southeast Oaks Park Way., 233-5777. $15 advance, $20 day of show. All ages. Map

Monday May 19top

Battlehooch, Magic Johnson, Hornet Leg (7 pm)

[SPAZ JAZZ] Building a noisy monster on a backbone of rhythmic drumming and a funky low end, Battlehooch sounds like an ungodly jazz beast, loose and furious at a summer music festival, tearing up some punk band and maybe half of !!! in its horrible jaws. This San Francisco sextet is what the Mars Volta might have been like if it had no money, didn't take itself so seriously and had a guy who could play some HORN! JIM SANDBERG. 8 pm. Artistery, 4315 SE Division St., 803-5942. $5. All ages. Map

The Saurus, Illmaculate, Ostrichhead, Richie Cunning, Rob Rush

[CHAMPIONSHIP HIP-HOP] I've witnessed firsthand what two-time World Rap Champions (it's like the WWF, basically, but with rhymes) the Saurus and Illmaculate can do to an opposing crew. They can humiliate and embarass the best MCs the world has to offer. But tonight—though it'd be a shame if they didn't fuck around with some freestyling—is not a rap battle. Rather, Illmac and the Saurus will show what they can do when they trade in unamplified and unaccompanied freestyles for a spotlight and a beat. With Illmac, the results have been striking. Sandpeople's smallest member packs a big punch on the mic, and he proves his musical thoughts stretch far beyond an opponent's weight problems. The Saurus raps about rapping an awful lot, but that in itself is still something to behold. Bring the kids! CASEY JARMAN. 8 pm. Berbati's Pan, 231 SW Ankeny St., 248-4579. $7. All ages. Map

Tokyo Police Club, Smoosh, We Barbarians (Main Theater); Chris Ayer (Balcony)

[PUNKY] For all their recent tastemaker reputations, even the most enviable Canadian bands still retain a whiff of what used to be known as propriety. Take, say, Tokyo Police Club. For all the Toronto quartet's helpless buzz and punk-funk frisson, its debut, Elephant Shell, rocks blink-and-you'll-miss-them songs, a frontman clearly embarrassed by the term, and lyrics—vocal sneer notwithstanding—incapable of swagger. And, from the band's shimmering single "Nature of the Experiment," it expects fans to be familiar with tessellation—another archaic Canadian custom once known as education. JAY HORTON. 9 pm. Hawthorne Theatre, 3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 233-7100. $13.50 advance, $15 day of show. All ages. Map

Coheed and Cambria, Baroness

[NEW EMO] Last year’s third volume of Coheed and Cambria’s ongoing sci-fi concept career (the album title would take up the remainder of this page) found the band edging ever closer to the unabashed rock opera its muse increasingly threatens—and far more prog metal than its upstate New York emo beginnings would ever have intimated. C&C concerts should be deluged by both heshers and Star Wars acolytes instead of the inevitably dissatisfied indie faithful murmuring that eclecticism and insanity needn't be quite so ickily sourced. JAY HORTON. 8 pm. Roseland, 8 NW 6th Ave., 219-9929 (Grill), 224-2038 (Theater). $22.50 advance, $25 day of show. All ages. Map

Tuesday May 20top

Bill Beach & Brasil Beat

  Benson Hotel, 309 SW Broadway., 228-2000. Map

EL-P, Dizzee Rascal, Busdriver

[UNDIE RAP+GRIME] Def Jux label head/producer/MC El-P presides over a stable of snarling undie rappers who hew to a claustrophobically verbose aesthetic, their tumbleweed flows submersed in murky, depressive beat soups. As 2007's I'll Sleep When You're Dead demonstrated, El-P himself is the pick of this hyper-literate litter, channeling political discontent into fiery-if-clunky future flows and turgid productions as filthy as your average Blade Runner streetscape. Accompanying El-P tonight is Dizzee Rascal, a new Def Jux signee and a guiding light in the U.K.'s formerly hyped-to-the-skies grime scene, and Busdriver, a schizophrenic, collaboration-happy spitter whose lingual inventiveness seems to know no bounds. RAYMOND CUMMINGS. 9:30 pm. Berbati's Pan, 231 SW Ankeny St., 248-4579. $20. 21+. Map

Dead Meadow, Subarachnoid Space, Rebel Drones

[STONED RAAAAWWWK] Washington, D.C.'s, Dead Meadow inhabits a lysergic intersection where folk, metal and rock meet; the band has spent its entire career leaning toward one genre extreme or another. On Old Growth, released earlier this year, DM even dabbles lightly in country-western and blues tropes. Through it all, guitarist/vocalist Jason Simon's woozy wastoid warble and questing lyrical larks have remained a comforting constant, as if to serve as a reminder that the responsible use of killer acid and primo kind bud aren't limited to any particular music scene. RAYMOND CUMMINGS. 9 pm. Doug Fir, 830 E Burnside St., 231-9663. $10 advance, $12 day of show. 21+. Map

Sean Wagner

[SINGER-SONGWRITER] I cracked open a can o' snark from the WW music cave's cupboardful last January when evaluating local artist Sean Wagner, based on a few amateurish MySpace recordings (which I likened to Jack Johnson's johnson-jacking oeuvre). But—à la the weird Stockholm Syndrome that overcomes American Idol contestants pining for a kind word from Simon—I got a nice email from young Mr. Wagner disavowing said early work and asking if I'd listen to his latest, to see if I thought it still deserved such scorn. I'm happy to report that Wagner's new debut EP, Long Lost Photograph, shows considerable improvement; I'll take Wagner's current Costello craving over that Johnson jones any day. JEFF ROSENBERG. 8 pm. Mock Crest Tavern, 3435 N Lombard St., 283-5014. Free. 21+. Map