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THURSDAY, DEC. 1:
Say what you will about The 1975—and opinions are polarized, to say the least—but the English pop-rock group is nothing if not fearless and audacious. How many other arena-packing bands have people who’ll dine on a hunk of raw meat onstage? Not Maroon 5, that’s for sure. With sterling ‘80s-style hooks and a U2-sized conviction that they’re the most important band in the world, The 1975 is so big in every sense of the word that Moda Center seems the only place in Portland that could hold them. Moda Center, 1 N Center Court St. 7 pm. $45.50. All ages.
FRIDAY, DEC. 2:
Cloud Nothings’ early albums, like Attack on Memory and Here and Nowhere Else, were bellwethers for the 2010s’ shift in indie rock away from bookish Brooklyn prestige and psychedelic haziness toward the rawness and expressiveness of emo and pop punk. But influence alone doesn’t make a great rock band—Cloud Nothings just plain rip, and across seven albums they’ve stayed true to the promise of rock ‘n’ roll, embracing what the Fall’s Mark E. Smith called “a mistreating of instruments to get feelings over.” Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St. 9 pm. $22.50. 21+.
SUNDAY, DEC. 4:
In the anarchic universe that was the late-’90s music industry, a Chapel Hill, N.C., swing band called Squirrel Nut Zippers ushered in a movement of bands looking earlier and deeper than rock ‘n’ roll for inspiration. The “swing revival” didn’t last long, and neither did the Zippers, but in 2007, leader Jimbo Mathus brought the band back—this time with an increasing focus on the music of New Orleans, a city that epitomizes the Zippers’ aesthetic of “the old, weird America.” Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell St. 8:30 p.m. $35. 21+.
