[SOFT ROCK] + FRI, FEB. 13

In 1983, I was a high school sophomore who spent many a weekend traveling to Oklahoma colleges for interscholastic speech tournaments. I was usually in vans full of neurotic drama geek girls, the only kind of girls to whom I knew how to talk. And if there is one song I associate with that histrionic time in my life, it was a 1983 fixture on pizzeria jukeboxes across the country: "Making Love Out of Nothing at All." That ballad, warbled by Russell Hitchcock of Australian soft-rock stalwarts Air Supply, was written by songwriting powerhouse Jim Steinman and actually features two members of the E Street Band. It remained at #2 for three weeks, boxed out of the top spot by another Steinman opus, "Total Eclipse of the Heart." It was a freaking epic time on the radio. And if none of this means anything to you, then you, my friend, are not in your mid-40s. But for some of us, the sound of Air Supply is the sound of first love. So here we are, Air Supply, the ones that you love, just when we thought we were over you. Sniff! Single tear. {CHRISTIAN CARVAJAL}

AIR SUPPLY, 8:30 p.m. Emerald Queen Casino, 2024 E. 29th St., Tacoma, $30-$65 at Ticketmaster, 888.831.7655

[FOLK PUNK] + TUES, FEB. 17

After a brief respite from holidays that are improved by the consumption of mass quantities of alcohol, we have arrived at another doozy: Fat Tuesday, and the kickoff of Mardi Gras. It is always my suggestion to avoid the crowds during amateur nights like St. Patrick's Day and New Year's Eve, but if you insist on subjecting yourself to hordes of unruly revelers, you can do worse than catching a Fun Police show while you're at it. One of Tacoma's quintessential bar bands, the Fun Police always put on a hell of a show, with their dizzy folk-punk that incorporates elements of Americana and ska. Boasting a million members that will cram onto the Half Pint Pizza Pub's tiny stage, the Fun Police promise a glorious mess of a show. {REV. ADAM MCKINNEY}

THE FUN POLICE, w/ the Chrono Bats, 7:30 p.m., Half Pint Pizza Pub, 2710 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, $3, 253.272.2531

[DOOM ROCK] + WED, FEB. 18

Holy North American Motor Highway (also known as Holy Motors, if you're into the whole brevity thing) make experimental chamber rock that comes steeped in an intangible feeling of dread. Their only release, Live at Paper Street, contains two epic-length songs recorded in a kitchen in Olympia. In the liner notes, the refrigerator's ever-present hum gets a credit. In some ways, Holy Motors remind me of a long-gone Reeks and the Wrecks, a long-gone Bellingham experimental group, if some of their manic tendencies were sanded away and the doom was allowed to rise to the surface. For a long time, you can only tell that there are drums in the room because of the vibrations ringing off of the cymbals; when the drums finally comes crashing in, Holy Motors just about burn that kitchen to the ground. {REV. AM}

HOLY NORTH AMERICAN MOTOR HIGHWAY, w/ Sawtooth, the Loud Potions, 8 p.m., Deadbeat Olympia, 226 N. Division St., Olympia, $5, 360.943.0662