TENDER FOREVER

>>> Friday, July 2

Melanie Valera is Tender Forever - and so are her songs. Not tender in a Hallmark, fuzzy bunny sort of way - or cliché in the slightest - simply tender in the care with which they're mined, crafted and presented, and tender in the themes they present. Once described as both, "a laptop, a long mic cord and almost too much enthusiasm," and, "a kick drum in an empty warehouse while little kids play right outside," Valera, through Tender Forever, has found something real and reassuring in her music, which searches for connection in an ever-more-connected world that just keeps feeling more and more isolated. The crazy thing is: it works - as it will Friday at Northern. - Matt Driscoll

[Northern, with Selector Dub Narcotic, Girls in Trouble, Drum Kit, 9 p.m., all ages, $6, 321 Fourth Ave., Olympia, northernolympia.org]

OLYMPIA INDEPENDENT MUSIC FESTIVAL

>>> Saturday, July 3

Remember Sylvester Park way back, like, 15 years ago? When you were young and defiant and totally comfortable doing anything from having drum circles and smoking jays to making out and getting homemade tattoos? A time when the gazebo was a living room for you and your best buds to laze around and get creative in? Well, that creativity still thrives and is being brought back by a talented handful of bands this Saturday as part of Olympia's second annual Independent Music Festival. Bands like The Hard Way, Glass Elevator and One Nation Undereducated will be rocking the park with unbridled sweaty jams in a fiasco of summer music lovin'. Come get yours at this free, all-ages show. - Nikki Talotta

[Sylvester Park, with The Hard Way, Glass Elevator, One Nation Undereducated, Noah Parriott, Sea of Tides, Oly Mountain Boys, Dry Ink, noon to 9 p.m., all ages, free, Capitol Way and Legion, Olympia]

MIDNIGHT SALVAGE CO.

>>> Wednesday, July 7

Fifteen months ago I went out on a limb and checked out the classic-rock inspired Midnight Salvage Co., which, at the time, had been on the Tacoma scene for scant more than four months. As I wrote back then, what I found was a "rocking alt-country posse that's staking a claim in this town," although, in hindsight, I like the band's personal description of, "the Heartbreakers meet Replacements meet The Hold Steady" way better. While my use of the term "rocking alt-country" is a little embarrassing, I'd like to remove attention from that questionable qualification and point to the fact I was right about one thing: Midnight Salvage Co., now in its second year as a band, has definitely staked a claim in Tacoma. Coming to Jazzbones on Hump Day, Midnight Salvage Co is anchored by the co-creative forces of longtime friends Brason Alexander and Bryan Kiehl, who told me upon first introduction, "We've always kind of had that same love for music. And our differences complement each other." He seems to have been correct, even if I'd like to take back my part about "rocking alt-country." - MD

[Jazzbones, 9 p.m., cover TBA, 2803 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.396.9169]

CHAPPO

>>> Wednesday, July 7

Experimental pop is, to me, an awfully murky term. I suppose it is to pop music whatever progressive rock is to rock music. Faithful readers should know that, whenever faced with a question of progression, I turn to my hippy-dippy dad. Upon being shaken from his "nap-time brain illusion," my father says, "Pop music is a magical, saccharine gnome made of Jujubes and other assorted fictional fruit. It's to be experienced by cattle-milkers with unfurnished teeth." Maybe my dad is right; maybe he's just delusional from lack of Vitamin C. What I do know is Chappo is experimental, but dammit it is pop music. It drags you kicking through the looking glass and onto the dance floor. And you've never danced harder than when you're confused about what you're hearing. - Rev. Adam McKinney

[The Den @ urbanXchange, with Bird by Snow, Us On Roofs, Caulfield and his Magical Violin, 7 p.m., all ages, $5, 1934 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253.722.9987]