Waco Brothers with Pit Stop @ Cedar Cultural CenterIf you think not touring has been rough for your band, just think how hard it must have been on Jon Langford, the most restless man in alt-country. The Wacos seem to have hung up their recording spurs in 2016 with the excellent Going Down in History. Now Langford, Dean Schlabowske, and the other bros are back on the road, with setlists drawing from RESIST!, a 2020 compilation of their quarter-century together. A not-exactly-best-of, it features the band at its fieriest and politically committed, closing with "Bad Times (Are Coming Around Again)." They recorded that one in 1995.

Stablemates: Dale Alexander, Gary Raynor, and Jay Epstein @ Crooners

Red Hot Django Peppers @ Crooners

Joyann Parker Band @ Crooners

I Am Woman — Hear Me Roar @ Dakota

Mellow Cassette, the Freeturnals, John Forrest and Model Citizens @ Driftwood

Blood Red Shoes with Mz Neon and Lumari @ Fine Line

They Might Be Giants @ First AvenueJust a couple pandemic-fucked years behind schedule, John Flansburgh and John Linnell were all set to bring the 30th anniversary anniversary of their 1990 album Flood to town. Then Flansburgh broke seven ribs in a car crash this spring. Thankfully, he's healed and TMBG's two-night, two-venue stand is finally back on. (For fans of sitting, there's an even more intimate show at the Fitzgerald tomorrow.) Both shows are two sets: One featuring Flood in toto, another selecting from their four-decade career of songs that transform the ephemeral into the essential.

Malamanya @ Granada

Barley Jacks @ Hook and Ladder

Willie Wisely @ Icehouse

Pod Blotz, JT Whitfield, Feel Free Hi Fi, Collin Gorman Weiland @ Icehouse

Amanda B. Perry (Album Release) @ KJ’s Hideaway

TVBOO @ The Loft

Poolboy (Album Release) @ Mortimer’s

Jagged Edge, Ginuwine @ Orpheum Theatre

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard with Leah Senior @ Palace Theatre

STARDUST, The Federales, and Cole Diamond @ Palmer’s

In Rainbows: 15th Anniversary Tribute @ Parkway

Boyfriend with XINA and Little Lizard @ 7th St Entry

Gabe Barnett & them Rounders, Dark Bunny, Clare Doyle @ 331 Club

MELT-BANANA and No Age with DREAM_MEGA @ Turf ClubSupposedly the venerable Japanese noise-rockers in MELT-BANANA have an album in the works, which would make it their first since fetch in 2013, but I'll believe it when I hear it. In the time since, remaining M-B members Yasuko Onuki and Ichiro Agata have reconstituted the shape-shifting outfit as a duo. No Age is still the two-man guitar-drum unit it's always been, and no band has balanced anarchy and form or abrasion and tune so precisely, engagingly, or consistently over the past decade. Their latest, People Helping People, strays into abstraction a little, but they've earned the self indulgence.

The Challenger Disaster Conspiracy, The Grande Machine, The Havana Sleeve @ Underground Music Cafe

Dead Boys with the Briefs, Suzi Moon, Fret Rattles @ Uptown VFW

Door 35 with Montclair, Mik Cool @ White Squirrel

Saturday, October 15

Chloe Moriondo with Dreamer Isioma @ Amsterdam

Courtney Yasmineh and her Americana Cowboy Band @ Aster Cafe

Luther Vandross Tribute @ Bunkers

The Lowest Pair with Laurel Premo @ Cedar Cultural Center

Prudence Johnson and Tim Sparks @ Crooners

Vintage Cruise @ Crooners

Gypsy @ Crooners

Nachito Herrera & Karen Briggs @ Dakota

Earload and Friends @ Driftwood

The Rose @ Fillmore

Monolink with Liam Fitzgerald and Bad Sandy @ Fine Line

Alvvays, Slow Pulp @ First Avenue — FEATURED IN EVENT HORIZON

The Might Be Giants @ Fitzgerald Theater (see Friday's listings)

Katey Bellville and Those SOBS @ Icehouse

Little Trios @ Icehouse

Tarli + Afrogeode & the Gemstones + Graydon Francis @ Icehouse

Gypsy Mania Hot Club Quintet @ KJ’s Hideaway

World Jazz Collegium with the Alden Ikeda Quartet @ KJ’s Hideaway

King Princess with St. Panther and Ken Doll @ Palace Theatre

Catfish Troy Band, Ginny & The Fizz, and Jackie Dean @ Palmer’s

The Nitty Gritty with DJs Brian Engel and Blue Funk @ Palmer’s

Faouzia with Carmen DeLeon @ 7th St Entry

Blunts & Blondes @ Skyway Theatre

Gabe Barnett & them Rounders, Black Wine, Serious Machine @ 331 Club

Elton & Billy ⏤ The Tribute with Zachary Scot Johnson and friends perform Carly Simon @ Turf Club

Hot Lunch, Zippo Man, Civil Decline @ Underground Music Cafe

Feed The Dog, Buffalo Galaxy, Gin Mill Hollow @ Uptown VFW

The Bronx, the Chats @ Varsity Theater

John Forrest and the Model Citizens with Suburbica @ White Squirrel

Sunday, October 16

Swing Brunch with Patty & the Buttons @ Aster Cafe

William Duncan and Friends @ Crooners

Mick Sterling and the Stud Brothers @ Crooners

Anat Cohen Quartetinho @ Dakota

Super Duty, Shotgun Ragtime @ Driftwood

Storytime @ Icehouse

Colores Flamencos @ Icehouse

Crosstown Open Jam @ KJ’s Hideaway

Butter Boys (October Residency) @ Mortimer’s

Cornbread Harris: Church of Cornbread @ Palmer’s

West Band Social Club @ Palmer’s

SimpleGifts with Billy McLaughlin — Harvest at The Parkway: A Tribute to Neil Young @ Parkway

The Deer, Val Son @ 7th St Entry

Safar @ 331 Club

St. Paul Songwriter Rounds @ White Squirrel

Monday, October 17

Dr. Mambo’s Combo @ Bunkers

Sidewalk Cafe @ Dakota

Metric @ FillmoreFor some of us, no album summed up the frustrated bad vibes of the Iraq War era like 2003's Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?, which somehow linked the hipster era's stale retooled retro musical styles and bombastic military chic and leftist disillusionment into a sturdy, resilient dance-rock. Metric haven't quite channelled their moment in the years since, but they've soldiered on with a persistence summed up by two standout tracks on their latest, Formentera: the ten-minute pulsing opener "Doomscroller" and the self-explanatory "I Will Never Settle."

Carbon Leaf @ Fine Line

L7 with Fea @ First AvenueA little less versed in feminist theory than their riot grrrl peers and more steeped in the sleazy hard rock of L.A. than most alt-rockers of any gender, L7 burned through the '90s on pure sardonic fuck-offery, their politics rooted in hands-off-asshole whether fending for themselves in the pit or standing up for their since eroded reproductive rights. Their 2019 comeback album, Scatter the Rats, didn't quite have the smell of their old magic, but their live shows have been as killer as ever.

Brian Nichols’s Jazz Mondays @ Icehouse

Eloise with Michal Leah @ 7th St Entry

“Womenfolk Presents” The Good Time Gals @ 331 Club

The Roe Family Singers @ 331 Club

Matt Arthur Contraption @ 331 Club

Augustana @ Turf Club

Butch Walker @ Varsity Theater

Sciurus Sequencia: Jazz and Creative Music Series @ White Squirrel