Visqueen, Throw Me the Statue, Little Cuts

(Crocodile) Visqueen traffics in a highly pleasurable blend of hard-crunching melodic guitar rock—imagine a woman with the voice of an angel and a Cheap Trick fixation hijacking the Fastbacks (whose Kim Warnick once played in the band) to re-create the Muffs' cover of Kim Wilde's "Kids in America" and you'll hear Visqueen. What makes the band unique is Flotard's voice, an unassumingly awesome instrument with what seems like half a piano's worth of notes at its disposal. High notes that would tempt Corin Tucker to herniate herself, Flotard snatches from the air with ease. And in a live setting, you see how effortlessly it all comes to her—even when hollering, she's smiling, breezily navigating any vocal melody she sets for herself. Between her band's impeccably executed blasts of music, Flotard made cracks about the rain-splashed mic providing complimentary electrolysis for the sea-hag hairs on her chin. (Along with the angel voice, Flotard is known for her freewheeling stage banter.) DAVID SCHMADER

The English Beat, Get Down Moses

(Showbox at the Market) Ska's second wave emerged from a period of economic crisis. In the late '70s, the UK, like the rest of the West, was deindustrializing and shifting from social democracy to a neoliberal order. This shift put a lot of pressure on the urban poor, and from this pressure emerged the 2 Tone sounds of the Specials, the Selecter, and the English Beat. 2 Tone was not just a fusion of British punk rock and Jamaican ska (the parent of reggae)—it was also, and more crucially, a fusion of working-class whites and working-class blacks. In the English Beat, for example, Ranking Roger's toasting channeled the spirit of the new working class (black immigrants from Jamaica) and Dave Wakeling's singing channeled the spirit of the old working class. With this winning combination, the English Beat generated a lot of energy, a lot of excitement that is still with us today. CHARLES MUDEDE

Undertow, Unbroken, Strain, Balance of the World, the Helm, Marginal Way

(El Corazón) Tonight's four top-billed bands broke up in the mid-'90s. Seattle's seminal Undertow ditched the breakneck speeds and positivity of late-'80s straight-edge hardcore in favor of half-time beats, heavy riffs, and emotional bloodletting. San Diego equivalents Unbroken were even bleaker, with their recurring theme of depression eventually proving all too sincere with the suicide of guitarist Eric Allen. Strain and Balance of the World were also highly revered players in the small and isolated Pacific Northwest scene. While the show is a celebration for the grown-up "kids" and the youngsters who missed it the first time around, the addition of current locals the Helm and Marginal Way makes the event a passing of the torch as much as a nod to the past. BRIAN COOK

Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground, Coconut Coolouts, Unnatural Helpers, the Girls, Final Spins, Erik Blood, Telepathic Liberation Army, Born Anchors, Katharine Hepburn's Voice, Little Cuts

(Sunset) Katharine Hepburn's Voice are like a sedated version of the Blow, but with just as much charm; Coconut Coolouts are fun garage rock; Telepathic Liberation Army are an all-girl post-punk outfit featuring members of Shoplifting and Diamond Cut Diamond; and Kay Kay close out the day on a lighter, happier note with their wondrous explosion of vaudevillian pop songs about how awesome everything is (except for California; they hate California). MEGAN SELING

Dethklok, Mastodon, Converge, High on Fire

(WaMu Theater) High on Fire: a gnarly, howling tornado of ferocity that take the chops and aesthetics of '70s metal to modern extremes. Converge: a classic Boston band that transcend the confines of hardcore with powerful iconography, exceptional technique, and unabashed rawness. Mastodon: perhaps the most vital contemporary metal band, worshipped by both the fickle press and the Heavy Metal Parking Lot crowd. And the band that plays over these three enormously influential acts? Dethklok—the fictitious metal band from Adult Swim's Metalocalypse cartoon. Now, I know the show is very popular with the metal community and the fans assert that the songs are actually pretty good, but at the end of the day they're still a joke band. The concert is a must-see, and a must-leave-early. BRIAN COOK

Thee Satisfaction, Fatal Lucciauno, Spaceman, SK, GMK, Fresh Espresso, Grynch, Champagne Champagne

(New York Fashion Academy) Thee Satisfaction could not have picked a worse time to leave Seattle. Just as things are picking up for the eccentric hiphop group, just as their new and excellent album, Snow Motion, is released, just as everyone I know is talking about the album (even Rich Jensen, a former Sub Pop executive and cofounder of Up Records, is e-mailing me about the album), Thee Satisfaction up and move to San Francisco, whose hiphop scene is not making much noise at the moment. Not over there but right here, the capital of the Pacific Northwest, is the place to be for now. CHARLES MUDEDE

Datarock, Esser, Mad Rad, Kav, DJ Darwin

(Nectar) Datarock: Love the red tracksuits and oversize shades; don't love the Red album you Norwegians just dropped. Compared to your first album, 2005's Datarock Datarock, which filtered some of Devo and Talking Heads' most appealing qualities (jittery danceability, memorable tunesmithing) through 21st-century Scandinavian sensibilities, Red is a slick, facile, cheesy romp through the radio dial/MTV agenda of the '80s, an unseemly revel in the icky, coke-encrusted-mustacheness of it all. We get it, Datarock: You love the Smiths, Naked Eyes, a-ha, Simple Minds, the Call, and melodramatic dance-pop acts. But you're not really adding anything worthwhile to a musical decade whose homages were played out at least three years ago. Still, I want your damn tracksuits. DAVE SEGAL

And there's always more in our complete music calendar listings.