Live! Tonight! Not Sold-Out!

Want to see some live music tonight? Here are your best options, curated by the Willamette Week music staff.

FRIDAY, NOV. 13

Joanna Gruesome, Tony Molina, King of Cats

[LUNATIC MUSIC] Joanna Gruesome is a cute noise-pop band from Wales, where everyone is cute because they talk funny. I always thought noise-pop was pop-punk for 22-year-olds, and it might be, but Joanna Gruesome seems like they have some fans nearing their mid-20s, so I could be wrong. Tony Molina, on the other hand, is a nightmare wrapped in a lunatic buried 100-feet deep in a hellhole. A veteran thug from the desolate, maniac streets of the South Bay—San Francisco's terrifying neighbor—he has emerged from the confusing early 2000s with his dignity, and riffs, fully intact. Everybody knows guitar leads are the single most important part of a rock song, and Molina pukes them out with hard precision. Every chump nerd record collector compares this street king to Thin Lizzy and the Replacements, and for once, those fucking nerds are right. BRACE BELDEN. Analog Cafe & Theater, 720 SE Hawthorne Blvd. 6 pm. $14. All ages.

Widowspeak, Quilt

[INDIE POP] About the only thing Brooklyn's Widowspeak has done wrong over the course of the last few years is cover Third Eye Blind's "How's It Gonna Be"—that wretched song had been long dead until these indie darlings went and dug up its corpse. That gaffe notwithstanding, Widowspeak is producing some of the best indie-pop out there. Mildly hallucinogenic and incredibly melodic, the duo's latest effort, All Yours, is a legitimate album of the year candidate. Show up early for Quilt, a supremely talented psychedelic folk-rock band from Boston. MARK STOCK. Bunk Bar, 1028 SE Water Ave. 9 pm. $15. 21+.

Glen Hansard, Aoife O'Donovan

[IRISH FOLKIE] Once was a surprisingly good film, but it was Glen Hansard's soundtrack that made it an Oscar-winning standout in 2007. The breadth of the Irish singer-songwriter's catalog—particularly his recent LP, Didn't He Ramble, and his work with Swell Season—is just as tender, filled with poetic lines and an understated warmth that prevails even when the incursion of horns and melodrama threaten to disrupt their elegance. Behind the impassioned folk ballads and hymn-like blues lies a gleaming sense of optimism, which, though straightforward, rarely fails to support his emotive performances. BRANDON WIDDER. Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W Burnside St. 8 pm. $35. All ages.

Tops, Puro Instinct, Is/Is

[AUTUMN SWEATER POP] Last fall, Montreal quartet Tops quietly released one of the decade's best indie-pop records—an album I didn't think too much of at first but find myself continually coming back to, especially as the air gets crisp and the days get shorter. Picture You Staring puts singer Jane Penny's smokey-cool voice front and center, ditching the reverb so many young bands favor and replacing it with bright, jangling guitars and cold synth presets. It's beguiling pop music, and the group's new single, "The Hollow Sound of the Morning Chimes" points in an even darker direction, with a waltzing beat and slow build that bubbles but never really boils over the course of seven seductive minutes. This is perfect fall music for people who miss the warm weather but aren't really that sad. MICHAEL MANNHEIMER. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St. 9 pm. $12. 21+.

Crazy Jane Prevails

[FEMMES MUSICALES] Although not affiliated with the Siren Nation festival that's going on at the same time, these annual Cascadia Composers concerts featuring female Oregon composers similarly strive to showcase the musical talents of women creating music in the classical tradition. Several works in this year's lineup were inspired by nature, including Lisa Marsh's "Dark Waters," triggered by a shrine to a pair of teenagers swept out to sea at the Oregon Coast; Stacey Philipps' "Prevailing Winds"; Elizabeth Blachly-Dyson's composition about spring in the Northwest's fir forests; and Christina Rusnak's evocation of the Cascades and the people who settled the area. Other compositions by Bonnie Miksch, Cynthia Gerdes, Liz Nedela, Jan Mittelstaedt and Jenn Binkley draw inspiration from women's experiences and history. BRETT CAMPBELL. Lincoln Recital Hall at Portland State University, 1620 SW Park Ave. 7:30 pm. $20. All ages.

Liz Vice, Pilgrim

[GOSPEL SOUL] If you can make it singing about Jesus in Portland, you can make it singing about Jesus anywhere. So it won't be long until Liz Vice, Portland's reigning queen of gospel-soul, is everyone's queen of gospel-soul. Consider this your warning to see her in a relatively small place while you can. McMenamins Mission Theater, 1624 NW Glisan St. 8 pm. $15. 21+.

Scott Amendola Band featuring Nels Cline, Jenny Scheinman, Jeff Parker, and John Shifflett

[GROOVE MASTER] Scott Amendola is the real deal. A drummer who first rose to jazz popularity in the '90s holding down the groove as a member of famed Bay Area jazz-funk all-stars T.J. Kirk, Amendola has for years surrounded himself with a rotating cast of jazz luminaries, crafting interesting originals—and even one particular compelling duet of Lorde's "Royals"—in the process. Tonight, the light-handed groove master brings four such musicians with him to Portland, who will play everything from softly shuffling blues numbers to funky backbeat bangers. With Wilco guitarist Nels Cline and violin master Jenny Scheinman in the mix, this is not a show you'll want to miss. PARKER HALL. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave. 9:30 pm. $20. 21+.

Redray Frazier, Goldfoot, DJ Klavical

[R&B] Read our review of Redray Frazier's new Blood in the Water EP here. Secret Society, 116 NE Russell St. 9 pm. $10. 21+.

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