What To Do? Tuesday's Pick: The Aversions

​

Nervous Tics, The Aversions, Complaints @ the Knockout

Given their widely held rep as effete, soft-cheese-spreading existentialists, the world's French-speaking people don't get much credit in the rock 'n' roll world. What bands like Eastern Canada's Aversions prove, however, is that a French accent -- even when singing English lyrics -- can be viewed as a strength rather than a weakness: the inherently nasal vocal delivery makes for primo punk snottiness, and the Aversions' canonical garage rock gets an instant attitude injection via the singer's Franco-Canadian inflections. Maximumrocknroll's scene tastemakers recently compared the band's Ex Nihilo Nihil album to the Spits and the Black Lips, saying it walked the "fine line between too much chaos and straight-up rock 'n' roll." Quebecois? Closer to Quebec-core. The Aversions perform tonight with Nervous Tics and Complaints at the Knockout (9:30 p.m., free).

More calendar picks, including "Samuel Goldwyn Presents" at the Castro, here.