LIVE MUSIC TONIGHT IN THE SOUTH SOUND >>>

Dawson's Bar and Grill Tacoma - South. Fingertips. 9 pm. NC.

Forza Coffee Company Gig Harbor Gig Harbor. Joe Cugno & Mike Shea. 7-9 pm. NC.

Jazzbones Tacoma - Sixth Avenue. Blues Theater Presents: Guitar Shorty. 8 pm. $15-$18.

Le Voyeur Café and Lounge Olympia - Downtown. Cosmopolites, Skrill Meadow. 9 pm.

• As of press time, I'm not even sure if I like the Cosmopolites, but they do, blessedly, give me pause. What I know for sure is that they're compelling. There's something at once cheesy and subversive about the music they make. Blending a syrupy mixture of light jazz and provocative experimentalism, the duo arrives at something akin to progressive rock (which can essentially be synonymous with the more divisive "jazz fusion" label), but with a giddier, geekier bent. Read Rev. Adam McKinney's interview with the Cosmopolites in the Music & Culture section.

Maxwell's Restaurant + Lounge Tacoma - Downtown. Lance Buller Combo. 7 pm.

Midnight Sun Olympia - Downtown. Captain Jack Fest 2014 featuring The Straws, Hot Hoodoo, Mosquito Hawk, Captain Algebra, Them Dogs, Tidals, Fruit Juice, Wauby, A Friend. All ages. 4:30 p.m. $5.

Rhythm & Rye Olympia - Downtown. Oly Mountain Boys. 9 pm.

Rialto Theater Tacoma - Downtown. Hawaiian Heritage: George Kahumoku Jr., Stephen Inglis, Waipuna. All Ages. 7:30 pm. $19-$39.

Stonegate Pizza Tacoma - South. Led Zeppmen. 9 pm.

Ted Brown Music Company Tacoma - South. Rock and Roll Clinic with guitarist Jerry Miller. All Ages. 6-8 pm. $5.

Treos Tacoma - Old Town. Mike Couloules. All Ages. 7 pm. NC.

• I can't remember when I met Mike Coucoules. Years and years ago at Cole's in Ruston is my guess, well before it burst into flames, before his auto accident benefit jam at Seafarers Sports Bar in 2006, and before I became a groupie when Coucoules played bass in Malcolm Clark's blues trio. For certain I wasn't in the picture when Coucoules picked up a guitar at 14, studied Hendrix, Cream, Zappa, CS&N and Steve Miller during high school, before a friend turned him on to jazz and CTI Records. "He showed me some jazz chords and changed my world. He told me I was going to be a good musician because I had a lot of feeling, something that took years to understand. My music is all about feeling, from the heart," Coucoules tells me. He's shared his heart with too many bands to count over the last 40 years, and holds a piece from every one, but his heart grew three sizes when he met horn player John Croarkin during a gig with the Blues Bentley Band. Blown away by Croarkin's chops and comps, Coucoules knew he was the missing piece to the CD churning in his head. The resulting Latin jazz blues country CD can be purchased, and the duo heard live, the next two nights.

Uncle Sam's American Bar & Grill Spanaway. 18th Birthday Bash, with Hambone Blues Band, Amigos. 9 pm. NC.

LINK: More live music Friday, April 11 in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area