Skip to main content
Saturday, Dec. 6
Yasmin Williams is one of the most inventive working guitarists right now. Only 28 years old, the Virginia native stands out in the world of acoustic finger-style guitar by playing her instrument face up on her lap, tapping it as a percussion instrument, and even attaching a kalimba to it, all while regaling the audience with wry, funny anecdotes. After a bizarre kerfuffle with the Trump-run Kennedy Center in New York, she certainly has plenty to tell, but let’s not let that baggage get in the way of the simple delights of her new album, Acadia, her first to be recorded with a full band. The Get Down, 680 SE 6th Ave. 6 pm. $37.90. All ages.
Tuesday, Dec. 9
Mdou Moctar’s fluent language of feedback and distortion is the first thing most people notice about his music, but 2025’s Funeral for Justice stripped away the pyrotechnics and put his songs front and center, many of them laments for the devastation left behind in the wake of French colonization of his home country of Niger. Funeral for Justice showed him to be the rare guitarist equally expressive on electric and acoustic, and while his band has been touring as Takaat and playing stripped-back psych rock, he’s staged a concurrent run of acoustic solo gigs. Polaris Hall, 635 N Killingsworth Court. 7 pm. $32.21. 21+.
Wednesday, Dec. 10
Seattle’s Bell Witch are masters of long-form doom metal. Their incantatory, molasses-slow, and often startlingly beautiful songs typically stretch from a modest 15 minutes to movie-length odysseys that even a single CD cannot contain—and they make you feel those minutes, to the extent that they’re working on a trilogy of albums meant to be heard on loop. In between these punishing projects, they’ve teamed up with Portland’s Aerial Ruin (aka Erik Moggridge) for two self-titled albums of gothic folk as Stygian Bough, the second of which came out this year. Star Theater, 13 NW 6th Ave. 7:30 pm. $26.24. 21+.
