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Thursday, Oct. 3
ANOHNI has spent the past 25 years reducing listeners to quivering heaps of emotion with her tear-jerking vibrato, yet she put out her best album just last year. Rejecting the baroque trappings of early releases in favor of warm live-band soul provided by her newly reformed band the Johnsons, My Back Was a Bridge For You to Cross is both her most accessible and most uncompromising release—and possibly the most affecting record of pop songs on an environmental theme since Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On. Aladdin Theater, 3017 SE Milwaukie Ave. 7 pm. $55–$65. All ages.
Saturday, Oct. 5
Philadelphia trio Spirit of the Beehive evokes an overwhelming torrent of information through distorted samples and demonic sound effects. Their new album You’ll Have To Lose Something is more panic-attack music than vibe music, but it feels like the right sound for psychedelic rock in the 2020s. Maybe it’s the sound of your neurons firing, maybe it’s just the constant thrum of everyday life, but it’s as gorgeous as it is terrifying. Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell St. 7 pm. $20. All ages.
Saturday, Oct. 5
Chris Forsyth’s new trio BASIC, with fellow guitarist Douglas McCombs and drummer Mikel Patrick Avery, takes its name and sound from a 1984 album by cult-favorite guitar hero Robert Quine (Lou Reed, the Voidoids) and percussionist Fred Maher. That album’s hypnotic minimalist sound polarized audiences upon release, but Forsyth not only gets it but uses it as a basis for astral jams that bring Quine’s vision into the 21st century. Support comes from local convention-averse guitar hero Marisa Anderson. Star Theater, 13 NW Sixth Ave. 866-777-8932. 8 pm. $20. 21+.