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Thursday, March 13
Western swing has been neglected in the recent country revival, but Asleep at the Wheel makes a case for this countrified big-band style as one of America’s most vital traditions. Affiliated with late rockabilly genius Commander Cody, whose “Hot Rod Lincoln” is a highlight of Asleep at the Wheel’s set, the Texas septet remains one of the most fun acts on the touring circuit 50 years after cracking the country Top 10 with “The Letter That Johnny Walker Read” and nearly 100 years after the birth of Western swing. Aladdin Theater, 3017 SE Milwaukie Ave. 7 pm. $52.51. All ages.
Thursday, March 13
You’ve heard a lot of dance-punk bands, but you’ve never heard one like KOKOKO!, the union of Congolese singer Makara Bianko and French producer Débruit. Bianko’s layered vocals sound like a field recording of a polyglottal protest in a psychic city, and Débruit’s beats are as funky as they are foreboding. Their new album, Butu, is inspired by the nightlife of Kinshasa, the largest Francophone city in the world, and they conjure the wired buzz of that metropolis at night as easily as LCD Soundsystem did New York. Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St. 8 pm. $18. 21+.
Saturday, March 15
Family Worship Center carries itself like one of those daffy hippie cults that might’ve opened a health food store in L.A. around 1968, but their sound is pure blackwater Southern stomp—hardly surprising given that frontman Andy Krissberg started the group in Nashville prior to settling in Portland and growing the group into a neat little tabernacle. Johnny Wheels & the Swamp Donkeys, a blues band from Willamina that claims to be the only group in the state with a quadriplegic frontperson, opens the show. Alberta Rose Theatre, 3000 NE Alberta St. 7 pm. $23. 21+.