DON'T STOP

>>> Friday, March 4

Friday night at the Midnight Sun in Olympia, the DNTSTP! crew will bring Olympia the best local hip-hop show of the year. You can count on this one to be packed from front to back the entire night thanks to DNTSTP! and some of Olympia's most exciting and popular hip-hop acts. With Olympia's Never Sleep, Night Fox, Free Whiskey, Messy Club, Q-Storm and Mark Spade all hitting the stage, you've already got enough reason to believe there will be a house-party-style atmosphere and a mosh pit full of hipsters, rowdy college kids and some of Olympia's most beautiful women. Now, what if Seattle's own Mash Hall were thrown into the mix?  Well, you'll have the opportunity to find out because Gatsby, Bruce Illest and the rest of Mash Hall will be making the trip down from the 206 for the night to rock Olympia for the first time in well over a year. Don't sleep on this show, Olympia. And if you think you got what it takes - come stand in the front row. - Nic Leonard

[The Midnight Sun, Mash Hall, Free Whiskey, Night Fox, Never Sleep, Messy Club, Q-Storm and Mark Spade, doors at 8:30 p.m., all ages, $5 after 10 p.m., 113 Columbia St. NW, Olympia]

THE BIG JOHN BATES GRINDSHOW

>>> Friday, March 4

There are some bands that have clearly spent a lot of time fantasizing about the live show they would one day unleash on the public. If the members of the Big John Bates Grindshow were younger, it might be permissible to imagine them in school, tracing the word "Grindshow" over and over in their spiral notebooks. In a vein similar to acts like That Handsome Devil and Reverend Horton Heat, BJBG is a celebration and perversion of a variety of genres, including rockabilly, bluegrass and punk, with Big John presiding over the sordid affair in a black top hat. Effort has been made to give the impression of a dark, traveling carnival, and that effort translates to one hell of a sloppy, fun live show. - Rev. Adam McKinney

[Hell's Kitchen, with James Hunnicut, Hot Roddin Romeos, Angel and the Carwrecks, 9 p.m., $5, 928 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253.759.6003]

BOY AND BEAN

>>> Friday, March 4

As much as a non-mainstream, somewhat fledgling all-ages venue in Tacoma can, the Peabody Waldorf is killing it right now - booking show after show of pure awesomeness. And - perhaps more importantly - the venue is providing yet another place for fostering Tacoma's burgeoning arts and indie music scenes; another locale sure to someday go down in Tacoma hipster lore. This weekend, the powers behind the Waldorf bring Boy and Bean to the stage with the Warren G. Hardings also lined up. According to the Peabody Waldorf's Facebook page, event organizers expect "bluegrass, folk, swing and some good ol' country," noting that the bill is one close to their hearts. Also, expect special guests not limited to, but likely to include, members of Apricot and the Beginners, Eggplant and the Slumberjack. - Matt Driscoll

[The Peabody Waldorf, with The Warren G Hardings, special guests, 8 p.m., all ages, $6, $4 with SOTA ID, 746 Broadway, Tacoma]

MASTERS AND JOHNSON

>>> Monday, March 7

Masters and Johnson are a young band with an adult name (William Masters and Virginia Johnson were pioneers in the field of sexual research, duh). The handle fits, though, as the duo's songs have the erratic, spastic energy of a desperate spermatozoon navigating the treacherous obstacles of the fertilization process. A Masters and Johnson song will start in one place and - half a dozen atypical, kneejerk guitar-and-drum maneuvers later - end up somewhere else entirely. Their music is full of orgasmic climaxes and colossal walls of distortion, but also has the capacity for lulling, post-coital ambient passages and the aforementioned hyperactive noodling (they cover all the "bases," if you will). Masters and Johnson are a force to be reckoned with - just don't confuse them with Portland band Magic Johnson, let alone Earvin "Magic" Johnson Jr. himself. - Jason Baxter

[Northern, with This City Defects, guests, 8 p.m., All Ages, 321 Fourth Ave., Olympia, northernolympia.org]