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WEDNESDAY, DEC. 14:
If In Rainbows is your favorite Radiohead album for its tight, funky, live-band feel, The Smile might just be your favorite Radiohead side project. With virtuoso British jazz drummer Tom Skinner (Sons of Kemet) in tow, the Radiohead creative nucleus of Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood indulges in paranoid, pristine-sounding, rhythmically tricky avant-rock that’s as straight ahead as it’s possible for music this ambitious to be. Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway. 8 pm. $59.50. All ages.
THURSDAY, DEC. 15:
94.7FM’s ongoing December to Remember series brings some of the biggest stars in alt-rock to the Crystal Ballroom, none bigger—at least in sound—than Los Angeles’ Silversun Pickups. Heirs to Smashing Pumpkins’ angsty, ambitious wall-of-sound approach, but with a gentle disposition and cryptic lyrics compared to Billy Corgan’s abrasive temperament, the Pickups are somehow soothing and crushing at once. Find out why they’ve been alt-rock mainstays for the better part of two decades. Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W Burnside St. 8 pm. $38. All ages.
TUESDAY, DEC. 20:
If you’ve heard a sad, lonesome soul voice belting from passing car windows and portable speakers on the MAX, it’s likely Rod Wave’s. The Florida artist feels like the culmination of the post-Drake turn in hip-hop toward both singing rappers and raw, unvarnished emotional expression. He’s as much a crooner as an MC, one of the most popular practitioners of what’s become half-jokingly known as “pain rap”—and his upcoming Veterans Memorial Coliseum concert promises catharsis on a massive scale. Veterans Memorial Coliseum, 300 N Ramsay Way. 8 pm. $45.50. All ages.
