Audion, Pezzner, James Grindle, Travis Baron

(Triple Door)

Matthew Dear is best known for his morose, song-oriented tech-house output. But as Audion, Dear produces techno that's jacked up on amyl nitrite and Viagra (sample track titles: "Titty Fuck," "Just Fucking") and imbued with the springiness of Olympic high jumpers' quadriceps. For this tour (dubbed "Hecatomb"), three screens will flash op-art spirals and Möbius strips that pulsate and writhe in time with Audion's throbbing, thrusting techno. It's the closest this upscale dinner theater will ever get to a rave. (Triple Door, 216 Union St, 838-4333. 10 pm, $15 adv/$18 DOS, 21+.)
by Dave Segal

Raphael Saadiq, Anjulie

(Showbox Sodo) Raphael Saadiq's show at the other Showbox (at the Market) on March 5 was one of the best concerts of the year, a throwback R&B revue in the style of the great The Way I See It (Columbia), his 2008 Motown-manqué move. Not that Saadiq is altogether new to retro tinges: 2004's Ray Ray tipped its hat to '70s blaxploitation soundtracks, and his '90s band Tony! Toni! Toné! brought supple old-school flair to new jack swing. The Market show tied it all together with a bow, and in his mustard-colored suit and horn-rim glasses, Saadiq had the ladies screaming. Even if the echo at Sodo is too much, it's worth finding out why. MICHAELANGELO MATOS

Julian Plenti, I'm in You

(Chop Suey) As one of Interpol's staunchest haters, it makes perfect sense for me to preview the Seattle debut of Julian Plenti (Interpol frontman Paul Banks's new project). Well, hate is too strong a word to apply for my feelings toward the wildly popular New York band; indifference and astonishment over how such drab approximations of Joy Division and Kitchens of Distinction have become media/radio/alt-rock sensations would be more accurate. All that aside, Banks's solo debut album, Julian Plenti Is... Skyscraper, treads slightly more interesting ground than does Banks's meal ticket. Now, instead of grayscale, earthbound neo-postpunk, Banks is making grayscale, earthbound neo-postpunk with more electronic and orchestral embellishments. Hey, it's still better than Editors—I'll give him that. DAVE SEGAL