Five Opening Bands To Show Up Early For This Week

Fang Island

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Five nights of solid shows and at least one good band to kick off each one. So head out and get your grub 'n' sauce on if you gotta -- but don't dawdle past the start times of these excellent openers:

Tuesday: Weekend with The Mantles and Dimmer at Rickshaw Stop.
S.F. trio Weekend churns out unapologetically noisy, droning shoegaze-psych that recalls the dim punk of Joy Division as much as it does My Bloody Valentine. The band finds beauty in repetitive, hazy textures. Though initially difficult, the group's songs are deeply evocative. And with "Love + Death" listed as influences, you know these guys are just as serious as their forbears.

Wednesday: Snowblink with Owen Pallett at the Independent
The delicate tones of Daniela Gesundheit's voice elicit both a girlish innocence and the equivocations of adulthood. Sounding kinda like Feist -- though Gesundheit's based in Toronto and California -- her chords flutter and sweep over reverby folk struts and sweet acoustic cradles. Sometimes sad, sometimes cheerful, always beautiful -- and with choruses like "Sing Me An Oak Tree" -- Gesundheit's band Snowblink wanders a beautiful line through modern indie-folk. (Download sample tracks here.) 

Thursday: Baths with White Hinterland and Dosh at Bottom of the Hill.
Parked between spacey chillwave and glitchy beatmaking, Will Wiesenfeld makes bedroom pop that feels as right through headphones as it does in the club. His Anticon debut, which comes out next month, will make a hazy, thumping soundtrack to sun-filled summer days. And as for the name, well, Wiesenfeld just really likes taking baths, OK? 

Friday: Fang Island with Red Sparowes and Oxbow at Great American Music Hall.
If Andrew W.K. went Animal Collective, the result might sound like the deconstructed, high-energy party rock of Brooklyn's Fang Island. The band's latest, self-titled full-length kicks off with fireworks, which then morph into chugging guitars, fevered keys, and head-nodding tempos that tussle and ride over each other, but keep a constant positive vibe. Shared vocals sound like a club full of stoked drunk people shouting -- and that elation's worth witnessing.

Sunday: Nurses with The Tallest Man On Earth at the Independent.
This Portland trio plays psych-folk that's both eerie and dreary. Vocalist Aaron Chapman has a wriggly worm of a cry. But even with the alien schizophrenia that its high pitch evokes -- and the dusty-sounding, slightly out-of-tune instruments that back Chapman up -- when Nurses go for it, they can't help but pluck heartstrings.

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