This week, choose from a variety of touring bands to check out all over town: Nervosas performs at Melt, Low takes the stage at Off Broadway, Peelander-Z invades the Demo and more. Note: Though not in our critics' picks this week, Three 6 Mafia also performs in St. Louis this week. More info on this show in our list of the best hip-hop shows in St. Louis this month.
Miniature Tigers Monday, March 24, 8 p.m. w/ Total Slacker, Flashlights @ The Firebird - $10-$12 By Christian Schaeffer From this 2011 show preview: Having survived a mid-'00s barrage of blog-buzz hosannas and an estimable amount of MySpace clicks, Miniature Tigers deserves some kind of endurance prize for coming through smelling rosy. Charlie Brand's kaleidoscopic pop songs tend to suffer from borderline personality disorder, but he shows a Shins-like delicacy in unpacking life's miniscule moments of elation and confusion.
DJ Mahf Tuesday, March 25, 10 p.m. @ Pin-Up Bowl - free By Blair Stiles From the 2013 RFT Music awards: DJ Mahf works from some place in his brain that pumps out enough enthusiasm to make his work look easy. Performing with a chilled zeal, the Indyground DJ interplays dense minutes of thumping samples with crackling movie clips and fine-tuned, one-and-two-handed scratches. He has already banged around Kansas City's spirited Middle of the Map Festival with labelmate Brett Gretzky, crossed the northern American border and cut and pasted for Red Bull's Thre3style competition this year. Whether live or replayed through Indyground's streaming footage, Mahf exudes the enjoyment he feels: In tempo he bobs at the waist, moving faster in the moments when he is inundated with the floor's energy, always looking pleased. It is Mahf's obvious enjoyment of his craft that puts his sets so squarely in the spotlight.
Doom Town Wednesday, March 26, 8 p.m. w/ Nervosas, Staring Problem @ Melt - $7 By Jimmy Eberle This is going to be Doom Town's last show ever, so put on your fanciest burial clothes/accessories and see what happens when you get funeral-drunk at a place that serves booze and waffles. Prepare to be sucked into a vortex of insanely catchy gloom-punk as you participate in the send-off for one of the only St. Louis punk bands who've made it to Europe. Also, breakfast food, plus alcohol, plus slam-dancing? A winning combination, to be sure. Can't imagine anything that could go wrong. This will also be the final stop of Columbus, Ohio post-punk band Nervosas current tour. Let's make sure it is one they don't soon forget.
Lake Street Dive Wednesday, March 26, 8 p.m. w/ Ages and Ages @ Old Rock House - $15 By Roy Kasten Any hope that humanity will soon put the nauseating trend of the selfie behind us is a pipe dream, but that doesn't mean bad self portraits couldn't be the subject of a good song -- in popular music, after all, anything can. Brooklyn, New York's Lake Street Dive gets it. Its new, aptly titled album Bad Self Portraits turns narcissism into country blues courtesy of singer Rachael Price, whose weathered sensuality bears more than passing resemblance to Bonnie Raitt, and whose band makes a virtue of sonic modesty. Piano, horns, organ and call-and-response vocals rise and fall like dust in sunbeams, even when breaking into full-on Exile on Main St. decadence.
Low Thursday, March 27, 8 p.m. @ Off Broadway - $15-$18 By Mike Appelstein Twenty years is a long time for a band or a marriage to stay vital, but Low's Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker have managed both of these achievements. Over ten albums they've slowly broadened their band's stately, melodic approach even while branching out into such challenging side-projects as Black-Eyed Snakes and Retribution Gospel Choir. For its most recent album, The Invisible Way, Low has partnered for the first time with producer Jeff Tweedy of Wilco. Considerably more spare and acoustic than Low's other recent work (including 2011's excellent C'mon), The Invisible Way nonetheless never quite sounds comfortable or relaxed, hitting you with lyrics like "Now they make you piss in a plastic cup" just as you're feeling captured in the reverie.
