The Short List: This Week's Recommended Shows

Ra Ra Riot ~ Wednesday, February 25

It's no fluke that Ra Ra Riot went from playing gigs around Syracuse University's campus to headlining a national tour in less than a year's time. The five-piece indie-rock band is an absolute joy to see live. Lead vocalist Wes Miles possesses a melancholy croon that drips with sincerity. And cellist Alexandra Lawn and violinist Rebecca Zeller manage to awkwardly dance—er, hop about—while playing their respective instruments. (Check out a YouTube clip of the band playing The Late Show with David Letterman and you'll see what I mean.) Since releasing their critically acclaimed debut LP The Rhumb Line (Barsuk Records) last year, Ra Ra Riot has become a beloved favorite on the indie circuit. Yet they still come off like a handful of eager (and slightly geeky) college kids rocking out to earn some beer money—which makes them all the more endearing. With Cut Off Your Hands, Telekinesis. Neumos, 925 E. Pike St., 709-9467. 8 p.m. $12.50. All ages. ERIKA HOBART

Red Bull 45's ~ Thursday, February 26

Part DJ competition and part history lesson, the Red Bull 45's pits four jocks against each other spinning only seven-inch 45-rpm records for a max of four minutes at a time. The goal is for each jock to match the beat of the previous performer so that, in theory, the music never dies; rather, the DJs feed off of, and build on, one another's methods. This is no easy task, especially in an era when many DJs rely on programs such as Serato Scratch Live to do most of the heavy lifting, like matching beats. Set to do battle are Seattle's Supreme La Rock and Jake One, Las Vegas' John Doe, and Spokane's James Pants, with special guest DJ Nu-Mark of Jurassic 5 on hand to spin, too. Trinity Nightclub, 111 Yesler Way, 447-4140. 9 p.m. Free.KEVIN CAPP

Earth, Sir Richard Bishop, James Blackshaw ~ Thursday, February 26

Ready for your guitar-induced hypnosis? U.K.-based James Blackshaw uses a 12-string Guild to create acoustic music that billows like sheets in the wind. Inspired by '60s acoustic revolutionaries from the Takoma label (John Fahey, Robbie Basho), Blackshaw's music sounds like a fluttering of quickly plucked notes, but it's also deceptively minimalist and mesmerizingly pretty. But where a Zen calm can be found amid Blackshaw's dazzling flourishes, Earth evokes Zen calm by playing almost nothing. Guitarist Dylan Carlson is proving himself a master of evoking Western desolation via his hollow-bodied electric. Like a gloomier Bill Frisell, Carlson plays solitary notes that seem to lift themselves up like ghosts from his fretboard and dissipate into thin air. Rounding out the bill is former Sun City Girl Sir Richard Bishop, who since about the turn of this century has been proving himself a master of acoustic idioms. By spending 30 minutes hunched over his instrument, Bishop can take audiences damn near anywhere he pleases—listening to him is like embarking on a kaleidoscopic globe-trot through his multiple styles, languages, and obsessions. Tractor Tavern, 5213 Ballard Ave. N.W., 789-3599. 9 p.m. $12. BRIAN J. BARR

Jeff Lorber with Christian Scott and Kyle Eastwood ~ Thursday, February 26 through Sunday, March 1

True, Jeff Lorber is responsible for introducing the world to the Seattle saxophonist who became known as Kenny G. But before the G-ster went solo and began to suffocate instrumental funk with the feather pillow of smooth jazz, Lorber and his Northwest fusion band were making smart, tight, grooving music that even managed to bring out the best in Kenneth Gorelick. In the 30 years since, Lorber has always remained a cut above his G-like brethren on KWJZ. Smooth jazz, the keyboardist told me recently, "is one of the few ways an instrumental artist can get their music heard. There's definitely some Muzak stuff. You toss your lot in with that and hope for some of the benefits." Tonight Lorber teams up with a couple of younger musicians who also play accessible, pulse-driven non-jazz that's got more intelligence than the usual smooth dreck: Christian Scott is a New Orleans–bred trumpeter with a gorgeous tone and deft ideas; Kyle Eastwood (son of Clint) is a bassist who goes for more of a round sound than the usual thumb-popping style. Playing tunes from all three leaders, this quintet should help you forgive Lorber for what he, inadvertently, has wrought. Dimitriou's Jazz Alley, 2033 Sixth Ave., 441-9729. 7:30 & 9:30 p.m. Thurs.–Sat., 7:30 p.m. Sun. $28.50. All ages. MARK D. FEFER

Kinski ~ Friday, February 27

When you write about music in Seattle, Chris Martin is one of the best dudes to run into at shows. With his arms crossed and beer in hand, Martin will happily lean over and tell you everything he knows about whatever band happens to be onstage at the time, what new band in town is worth checking out, and what records he purchased recently. But his über-music-fan tangents often deflect attention from his own great band, Kinski. An instrumental four-piece, Kinski's mission is to marry pop and hard rock, emotion and experimentalism, but forever divorce repetition and boredom. One of the few bands that could play a riff over and over, Kinski delivers with that '70s hard-rock thrust, but allows it all to breathe by opening their songs up to psychedelic explorations. As they pummel their Sabbath-esque riffs with a machine-like intensity, the natural audience reaction is to bob heads and curl lips into extreme guitar-face. But when you least expect it, Martin & Co. switch gears on you by diffusing the air with hazy space-ambience. With AFCGT, Treetarantula. Comet Tavern, 922 E. Pike St., 323-9853. 9 p.m. $7. BRIAN J. BARR