Shows of the Week: The Nation Needs a Shot of Amyl and the Sniffers

Friday, March 21

There’s a new wave of continental European music somewhere between art pop and uncanny ambient sound design, and 31-year-old Danish violist Astrid Sonne found herself at its forefront when she added vocals to her lopsided, lumbering compositions on last year’s Great Doubt. Its best songs juxtapose naked expressions of desire with melodies that could be repurposed from a Windows 95 approximation of an Anton Webern piece; it’s not most people’s idea of pop, but in the Wild West musical climate of the mid-2020s, a major indie star could sound like anything. Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St. 5 pm. $20. 21+.

Sunday, March 23

Singer-songwriter and accordionist Pascuala Ilabaca has spent her life absorbing musical traditions from around the world, from American pop and rock to the folk music of her native Chile and the Hindustani classical music she studied in India. The music she creates in turn with her band Fauna is polyglottal, joyous and remarkably singular. It’s easy to create a mishmash that signifies that we’re all neighbors on the same globe, but it’s harder to do what Ilabaca does, which is to meld them into a mature and singular vision that sounds like it’s always made sense. The Old Church, 1422 SW 11th Ave. 6:30 pm. $30. All ages.

Tuesday, March 25

Maybe it’s our embarrassment about the state of the union or just good old-fashioned cultural tourism, but it seems like a shot of Australian barminess is something this weary nation could use. Enter the exhilarating, terrifying Melbourne punk band Amyl and the Sniffers, whose new album, Cartoon Darkness, presents them as a Southern Hemisphere answer to the speak-sing post-punk that’s become one of the British Isles’ most profitable musical exports. It’s the kind of shit-kicking pub rock you want to wave in the face of anyone who thinks guitar music is dormant. Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W Burnside St. 6:30 pm. $35. All ages.