THESE LIVE SHOWS WORK >>>

Hell's Kitchen Tacoma - Downtown. Melvins, Totimoshi. 21+. 8 pm. $16-$20.

• The uninitiated may best know the Melvins by their creation of the dubious sub-genre known as sludge-rock. Marked by its definitional sluggishness, sludge-rock favors hard, plodding, perfect-head-banging metal over all else. It's the kind of music where you either commit to the possible whiplash that may result from such emphatic head-banging, or you just don't get it, man. The Melvins, more than their many imitators, established an antsy desire to never fall into a predictable groove - in career trajectory as well as song structure. Read my thoughts on this band here. – Rev. Adam McKinney

Imperial Dragon Tacoma - Sixth Avenue. S.R.O. swing band. Music from the 30s and 40s. All Ages. 7-9 pm. NC.

The Royal Lounge Olympia - Downtown. The Greta Jane Quartet jazz. 21+. 9:30 pm. NC.

The Swiss Tacoma - Downtown. Dana Lupinacci Band blues. 21+. 8 pm.

LINK: More live music and DJs tonight in the South Sound