Clinic

Clinic bears an unfortunate, much-mentioned resemblance to the Beatles—they're a four-piece band from Liverpool—but the similarities end there. Where the Beatles specialized in litanies of pop ditties that metamorphosed into universally-loved opuses, Clinic plays with proportions to see how many different song recipes you can concoct with the same basic set of ingredients: distorted surf guitar and an appreciation for churchy organ and muted metal power riffs, to name a few biggies. Known for wearing surgical scrubs and masks during performances (it's a long-standing tradition), the costumes function almost as disguises for the foursome, who want to offset the public's tendency to worship the singer and ignore the rest of the band. Clinicians Ade Blackburn, Brian Campbell, Hartley, and Carl Turney take the democratic approach, constantly swapping instruments and sharing songwriting duties. And even though the oft-bizarre chord amalgamations hardly resemble each other, even though the contents of Do It!, the band's fifth full-length record, shows the progress the band's made in their 11-year evolution, Clinic retains their unique sound. With Shearwater. Neumo's, 925 E. Pike St., 709-9467. 8 p.m. $13 adv. SARA BRICKNER
Fri., May 16, 8 p.m., 2008