YARN OWL

>>> Friday, May 20

At first blush, Yarn Owl sound perilously similar to other backwoods-embracing, beard-sporting, indie-folk poseurs like Fleet Foxes. In my mind, there is nothing really wrong with those kinds of bands (despite the arguments you could make about their credibility - if credibility need ever really be present in a discussion about music - but that's a whole different can of worms), except for the precious delicacy with which they approach their often anemic work. Yarn Owl, thankfully, shake these comparisons by the second song on the band's debut LP, Montaña Y Caballo, at the first entrance of electric guitars and jittery keyboard flourishes. Yarn Owl strive for a bigger sound, a more diverse one, and they do well at achieving those goals. It's a reassuring breath of legit pastoral fresh air, which, these days, comes few and far between. - Rev. Adam McKinney

[Northern, with Takhoma, Camp Wisdom, Benoit Pioulard, 9 p.m., $6, 321 Fourth Ave., Olympia]

SWEET WATER

>>> Friday, May 20

Sweet Water has played Hell's Kitchen before. In fact, a simple search of the Weekly Volcano's database reveals a Sweet Water show at Hell's Kitchen almost a year ago, in April of 2010. Not that I was searching the databases trying to find old copy to steal for this week's issue or anything ... OK, crap, so I was. I admit it. Then I thought to myself, "You know, Matt, that shit's just not right. You've been into Sweet Water since junior high, since Mr. Fishback's shop class at Edgemont. You really going to just dig up some old copy and cop out like a punk? Nah, man, you're not. It wouldn't be right. If you do, you'll always regret it ... kind of like that time you got drunk the summer before ninth grade and puked all over Nikki Greenough's house. Not cool, man. Not cool ..." - Matt Driscoll

[Hell's Kitchen, with High Noon Horizon, Gebular, Under Sin, 9 p.m., $8, 928 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253.759.6003]

THE HARD WAY

>>> Saturday, May 21

The Hard Way share a name with what is perhaps one of the most ridiculously fun action movies ever. The Hard Way, the movie, is big, dumb and silly, and it stars Michael J. Fox as an actor researching a role as a cop by going on a ride-along with hard-boiled detective James Woods. Right about the third scene-chewing moment with Woods yelling at Fox about the manner in which he eats hot dogs, you get that The Hard Way is winking. Similarly, the Hard Way, the band, has a rock ‘n' roll bravado that starts out as slightly off-putting, until you begin to hear the sense of humor that they have about themselves. Two or three songs in, the Hard Way become totally endearing. - Rev. AM

[Capitol Theater Backstage, with Glass Elevator, The Soft Bombs, Mongo MT, 9 p.m., $5-$10, 206 Fifth Ave. SE, Olympia, 360.754.6670]

MAD RAD

>>> Wednesday, May 25

Seattle's Mad Rad don't know when to quit. Between the end of their monstrous West Coast tour with Mash Hall and their new Mountain State Tour with State of the Artist, they took exactly two days off. And given how hard these dudes supposedly party, that's even more of a Scanners-worthy head-‘sploding revelation. But hey, more power to them, especially since they're partnering with Volcano contributor and local hip-hop heavy-hitter Rockwell Powers for this Hell's Kitchen gig. Posters for both tours have featured titanic, freakish threats: a brontosaurian sea monster with a maiden in its jaws and a pterodactyl chomping on its throat, a Kong-esque gorilla giant fending off a pack of bloodthirsty lions, another maiden firmly in its grasp. Though they might not be monsters themselves, I'm starting to think P Smoov, Terry Radjaw, Buffalo Madonna and DJ Darwin might be some kind of mutants, blessed with supernatural inexhaustibility and powers of rhyme. - Jason Baxter

[Hell's Kitchen, with S.O.T.A, Rockwell Powers, Friday Knights, Q Dot, 9 p.m., $5, 928 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253.759.6003]