Karl Blau, LAKE, Shana Cleveland, Manners

(Josephine) I am 'finding my voice' in imitating sounds of men of African descent," Anacortes musician/producer Karl Blau writes on his MySpace page. "I am thinking of myself as a sound mirror to this continent and its many voices distributed throughout the earth." It's a ballsy statement for a white Pacific Northwesterner to make. But coming from Blau, a prolific, openhearted catalyst in the K Records/Knw-Yr-Own creative axis, the declaration seems like a sincere mission statement earned from years of craft, collaboration, and exploration. DAVE SEGAL

Steely Dan

(Paramount) America's preeminent perv-jazz rockers light up the Paramount for two nights to showcase two of their beloved albums. Tonight brings Aja, the long-songed, smooth-jazz-dabbling hit of 1977. Tomorrow night brings 1976's The Royal Scam, a lesser hit but a better album, packed with more of the twisty, brainy, slightly queasy-making pop that made the band's first five records one of the great runs in rock. Both nights' sets will feature an array of hits from nonfeatured LPs. Expect pristine musicianship and lots of old honkies getting down. DAVID SCHMADER

...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, Future of the Left, Born Anchors

(Neumos) Future of the Left put on the best performance at the Capitol Hill Block Party this year. Despite the fact they played Neumos the same time Beth Ditto and company took the main stage, they packed out the venue and inspired a sweaty mess of fans to thrash around to their post-rock battle cries. But FOTL deliver more than an amazing live performance. They're also known for heckling back at the hecklers, adding another element of entertainment to their show. No one heckled at Block Party, so they had to make due with finding humor in other observations. Example: Regarding the amount of sweat dripping down his entire body halfway through the set, bassist Kelson Mathias proclaimed, "I feel like an elephant has come on me." Gross. And hilarious! MEGAN SELING

A Hawk and a Hacksaw

(Sonic Boom Ballard, 7 pm; Tractor) One of the best things to happen to music in the last few years is the surge of competent, spirited traditional music (see also: Beirut, Orkestar Zirkonium). A Hawk and a Hacksaw have the same wind instruments and accordions that the other purveyors of Balkan folk music have, but they've got some tricks that other bands don't have: Nobody else has thought to mix Middle Eastern strings, for instance, into a traditional waltz. And nobody else has a percussion section that booms in quite the satisfying way that A Hawk and a Hacksaw do. Their experiment with blending nontraditional international vocal and instrumental tricks into the sound feels respectful and innovative. PAUL CONSTANT

Butthole Surfers, Psychic Ills

(Showbox at the Market) The classic '80s Butthole Surfers lineup—Gibby Haynes, Paul Leary, Jeff Pinkus, King Coffey, and Teresa Taylor—will appear for this tour, meaning we can expect a vertiginous tour through some of that decade's most absurdly outré, brain-bonking psych rock, if all goes according to plan. Will Haynes set his hand on fire and spew spontaneous surrealistic brilliance? Will Coffey and Taylor still be able to bang the tubs in time? Will Leary still peel off those searing, acidic leads? Will the scabrous Sabbath homage "Sweet Loaf" be accompanied by those lovely synchronized leg kicks? Will "Lady Sniff" befoul the air? We wait on tenterhooks in anticipation. As for the openers, Psychic Ills remain one of our time's slyest psychedelic seducers, as their last Seattle gig made crystal clear. DAVE SEGAL

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