soundadvice

WORLD/ROCK Xavier Rudd
With an affected Jamaican accent in his singing and naive hippie optimism in his lyrics, Aussie songwriter Xavier Rudd induces his fair share of cringes. But when he simultaneously works a rack of didgeridoos, a lap slide guitar and varied foot percussion to create a dense wall of driving aboriginal rock — sans outside accompaniment — that seems irrelevant. You'll bob your head, forget your gripes and dig the feat.
--John Vettese
Tue., March 8, 8 p.m., $15, with Jackie Greene, Theater of Living Arts, 334 South St., 215-922-1011.

FOLK/POP Melanie
Decades before Madonna, there was another first-name-only female pop star. And to this day, Melanie remains the Woodstock alumni most closely linked with the hippie-dippy flower-power era she helped define. While it's been a long time since Ms. Safka had a hit — anyone remember her sweetly suggestive 1971 chart-topper "Brand New Key"? — Melanie's still at it, touring frequently with just her trusty acoustic guitar and cache of songs about peace, love and understanding.
--Nicole Pensiero
Sun., March 6, 7 p.m., $30, Tin Angel, 20 S. Second St., 215-928-0770.

ROCK/POP Scatter the Ashes
Ash seems to be quite the metaphor in hardcore-dom, commonly alluding to energy, ruin and survival in chaos. There's From Autumn to Ashes, Up from the Ashes, From Ashes Rise and the like. Problem is all those bands suck. Noir Nashville kids Scatter the Ashes, on the other hand, recognize e-bows can be louder than distortion pedals, harmonics can be more chilling than hollering, and moody layering is often more evocative than humdrum riffs. They're about the only band worth their weight in ashes, and easily the most exciting among Friday's "Epitaph Tour" lineup.
--John Vettese
Fri., March 3, 8 p.m., $15, with From First to Last, Motion Picture Soundtrack and Matchbook Romance, Electric Factory, Seventh and Willow sts., 215-336-2000, www.electricfactory.com.

FOLK We're About 9
One moment they're covering Springsteen's "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)," the next they're singing from the point of view of a reincarnated parking meter. Brian Gundersdorf discursively details time spent working at a mortgage firm just to justify using the word "concatenate" in a lyric, while Katie Graybeal bounces with glee and kicks her shoes into the crowd. If nothing else, contempo-folk trio We're About 9 keeps its shows lively and its crowds guessing about what happens next.
--John Vettese
Fri., March 4, 7:30 and 10:30 p.m., $15, with Fruit, Tin Angel, 20 S. Second St., 215-928-0770, www.tinangel.com.

ROCK/POP USAISAMONSTER
Loud even for a Load band, Brooklyn-via-Charlottesville noise heartthrobs USAISAMONSTER win over impatient audiences with actual songs and surprisingly sweet hooks, then pummel the shit out of them with gritty beardclash and Casio terrorism. The name betrays a bit of the band's bent, but if poli-sci discourse is a bother, no worries: It's way too loud to parse anyway.
--Nick Sylvester
Fri., March 4, 9 p.m., $8, with Tracy and the Plastics and Dyskenesia, Vox Populi, 1315 Cherry St., fourth floor, 800-594-TIXX.