DAVID LIEBE HART, SWORD OF A BAD SPELLER, MR. PLOW, BLOOD MOUSE, MATT DANGER
(Panic Room, 3100 NE Sandy) The 60-year-old musician and puppeteer David Liebe Hart has been a cult figure in Los Angeles for years, earning a reputation as a cast member on the LA-based public access show Junior Christian Teaching Bible Lesson Program and as something of a more endearing, 21st-century Wild Man Fischer, performing regularly in public spaces like the entrances to the Hollywood Bowl and La Brea Tar Pits. He claims to have been abducted as a child by a race of aliens called Korendians, an experience that makes its way into his songs. Hart's big break, however, came when he became a beloved regular on Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, where his B-rate ventriloquist shtick epitomized the comedy duo's post-cultural marriage of the mind-numbingly normal with the horrifyingly surreal. MORGAN TROPER Read our article on David Liebe Hart.


SYNESTHETICA: VINNIE DEWAYNE, WISHYUNU, RADIATION CITY DJS, DJ THUMPER
(Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison) Vinnie Dewayne's hip-hop is music made for a late-night car ride over the St. Johns Bridge, alone. His wordy, deeply introspective lyrics and the densely packed beats he raps over make it seem like Dewayne is in the backseat of your car, pouring out the depths of his insides in the form of gritty short stories about the St. Johns neighborhood and a Portland entirely different from SE Division and Burnside 26. His songs draw the line of emotional reality in that he depicts his everyday struggles of bearing witness to violence (from police and others), poverty, and relationships, while reminding you he's not just a documentarian but another person in the story struggling to understand his own role. Dewayne is coming off a triumphant PDX Pop Now! set and soft release of his latest mixtape, The St. Johns Scholar. CAMERON CROWELL


LIV WARFIELD
(Doug Fir, 830 E Burnside) That Liv Warfield is playing a smaller venue like Doug Fir is a wonder. She and her band could, and have, commanded much larger stages, and her voice alone can fill arenas. A longtime Portland resident and alum of Prince's New Power Generation, Warfield has been making music in this city for nearly 10 years, but her most recent album, 2014's The Unexpected, might as well be her unofficial debut. With Prince as executive producer and the NPG horns backing her up, The Unexpected brings together R&B, funk, and rock 'n' roll in a way that few performers have pulled off since Tina Turner's reign. Warfield is doing us a hometown favor with this intimate show. Take advantage while she's still feeling generous. SANTI ELIJAH HOLLEY


INSTITUTE, ARCTIC FLOWERS, VEXX, THE OINTMENT
(Black Water Bar, 835 NE Broadway) Austin, Texas' Institute churn out a lowbrow, glue-sniffing (and Glue-bred) hybrid of hardcore and skeezeball garage, mood music for the terminally stupid. That the anarchic, transgressive foursome named themselves Institute seems to be a sly joke: The only guiding principle here is a lack of organization. They're joined by Vexx, a raging four-piece from Olympia led by the fist-clenched, cross-eyed cries of Mary Jane Dunphe. Her whirlwind sturm-und-drang oscillates between moments of taunting and inward strife, self-destruction and pure outward chaos. The theme of the night, if anything, is the reclamation of body and self through degradation. There's strength in the knowledge that you can hurt yourself more than any enemy. MAC POGUE


THE ATLAS MOTH, VATTNET VISKAR, SOL, MURSA
(Ash Street Saloon, 225 SW Ash) While most metal bands are one-trick ponies with regard to the feeling they create (anger and aggression), the Atlas Moth have a much broader range. While they began in the sludgy Eyehategod vein, the Chicago band branched out on their second album, 2011's An Ache for the Distance, juxtaposing raspy, black-metalish screams and clean singing, swirling post-rock guitars and doomy riffs into proggy songs that were at times reflective, triumphant, mournful, and cathartic. On third album The Old Believer, released last year by Profound Lore, Atlas Moth are even moodier—combining the heaviness of Neurosis, the spacey atmospherics of Pink Floyd, the emotional weight of Deftones, and the hypnotic dreaminess of Slowdive. KATHLEEN RICHARDS Also, read our article on Vattnet Viskar.


ROBIN BACIOR, SARA JACKSON-HOLMAN, JOHANNA WARREN
(Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi) See My, What a Busy Week!


FIREWORKS, WEATHERBOX, DRY JACKET, OF CONFIDENCE
(Analog Café, 720 SE Hawthorne) Weatherbox—San Diego singer/songwriter Brian Warren's solo-project-disguised-as-a-band—has changed quite a bit since its debut LP American Art, a shouty, impetuous latter-day emo pièce de résistance. It's tempting to say that Warren has "matured" (as hackneyed as that expression is when describing an artist's evolution), and the project's mellower direction certainly isn't for everyone. A former emo musician suddenly donning an acoustic guitar can inspire Dylan-goes-electric levels of skepticism and enmity from fans of the genre, and for good reason—see "I Will Follow You into the Dark." Last year's Flies in All Directions is Weatherbox's latest effort, and it's a solid collection of poppy, wide-eyed, punk-dyed Weakerthans-core that sees Warren exchanging the last remnants of his callow rage for a heightened melodic sensitivity and dainty lettered wordplay. It might not be his best, but it's probably for the best. MORGAN TROPER See All-Ages Action!