Mates of State, Friday, April 17: The music written and performed by Mates of States is a metaphor for the ideal marriage. Vocal are sung in harmony and the instrumentals are tender without sounding melodramatic, resulting in songs that are both upbeat and layered. These aren’t cheesy love songs about the world’s most perfect relationship; they’re compositions that reflect a focus on happiness and appreciation more than tension and disputes. This then raises the question: Is the real-life marriage between Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel, the only two members of Mates of States, truly as harmonic as the band’s music? It’s a hard question to answer, but songs like For the Actor give some indication. In tandem, Gardner and Hammel sing: You put your life on hold as we interest one another/ Two steps closer to the level I imagined/ I remember when it poured and you sang to me in summer/ It’s a fantasy. If only all musicians aE” and lovers aE” could be so happy. With Black Kids, Judgment Day. Neumos, 925 E. Pike St., 709-9467. 8 p.m., $20. Note by PAIGE RICHMOND

Vetiver, Saturday, April 18: Originally starting out as a one-man vehicle for singer/songwriter Andy Cabic, Vetiver morphed into a revolving-door consortium before settling on a relatively stable lineup for its last two albums. CabicaE™s working relationship with Devendra Banhart may make it all too easy to place Vetiver under the banner of Underground Folk Played By Modern-Day Bohemians With Long Beards, but Cabic clearly has a voice of his own. Over time, the one-time indie-rock guitarist has incorporated more electric instrumentation, but rather than simply switch between acoustic and electric modes, the band uncovers a vast middle ground in-between. Cabic has also managed to preserve the materialaE™s quiet intensity, even as the band has grown around him. Of course, with such a laid-back attitude to bandmates coming and going, it makes sense that the music has a similarly laid-back, unhurried feel. VetiveraE™s music has a lilting, pastoral quality thataE™s well-served by CabicaE™s affinity for warm, 1970s production techniques, but itaE™s totally unfair to think of the band as a retro act. CabicaE™s emphasis on craft may reach to the past, but the final product feels startlingly contemporary. Meanwhile, the highly astute musical interplay between guitarist Sanders Trippe and drummer Otto Hauser, now core members, helps anchor the music and provides the added attraction of a band dynamic to both the bandaE™s new album, Tight Knit, and the live show. With Richard Swift, Black Whales. The Crocodile, 2200 2nd Ave. 8 p.m., $12. Note by SABY REYES-KULKARNI

Yonder Mountain String Band, Saturday, April 18: Yonder Mountain plays high-energy, highly improvisational mountain music with a modern twist. Like an old fashioned hootenanny, the atmosphere at a Yonder Mountain show is infectious, particularly when bassist Ben Kaufman and mandolin player Jeff Austin launch into epic, groove-laced breakdowns. The percussive throb of bass and sweet, thrilling ring of mandolin provide the perfect amount of tension, spiraling around each-other, climbing higher and higher like a shepherd scale. ItaE™s like auditory THC, which is sure to make Yonder Mountain String Band near and dear to the heart of any true noodling jam band fanatic. With Sam Bush, Baby Gramps. Showbox at the Market, 1426 1st Ave, 628-3151. 8 p.m., $22.50 adv, $25 dos. All ages. Note by NICHOLAS HALL

The Toadies, Saturday, April 18: No, it’s not your imagination: There is a 1990s musical revival happening in America, and there’s no sign of it stopping. After two break-ups and numerous band members’ solo projects, Jane’s Addiction reunited last year with the same original line-up. Now, the band is playing Sasquatch next month. And recently aE” this may also be a sign of the apocalypse aE” Limp Biskit announced its members would again join forces to tour and record a new album. And, as further evidence, alt rockers Toadies have also reunited. Most people’s understanding of the band focuses around the song Possum Kingdom. (You know, that one that starts with the majorly distorted guitar riff, and a chorus that goes: I promise you/I will treat you well/My sweet angel/So help me, Jesus.) For all intents and purposes, the songs off 2008’s No Deliverance aren’t that much different from Toadies’ biggest hit. The single, Song I Hate, is incredibly similar to Possum Kingdom: Starts out with guitar but no vocals, then segues into lyrics about love with a totally bitchin’ chorus. So, for anyone considering seeing Toadies simply for nostalgia’s sake, it won’t be much different than listening to the soundtrack to Empire Records aE” on cassette. With People In Planes. El Corazon, 109 Eastlake Ave. E., 381-3094. 8 p.m., $20 adv., $23 dos. All ages. Note by PAIGE RICHMOND

Christoper Guest, Michael McKean & Harry Shearer, Monday, April 20: When I first saw This Is Spinal Tap in high school, I thought it was an actual documentary. Seeing it again today, I cringe at the obliviousness of my youth. A record label head named Sir Eaton-Hogg? A song called aEœSex Farm WomanaE? An album called Smell the Glove? Dana Carvey and Billy Crystal as mime waiters? Paul Shaffer as an inept Midwestern promoter? Howard Hessman as a big-shot band manager? Fran Drescher cast as something other than the most annoying woman on the planet? The clues were all there, staring me right in the faceaE”and yet I still believed. Why? Simple: The members of Tap, expertly played by Waiting for Guffman and Best In Show comic laureates Christoper Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer, were utterly credible as big-haired, age-of-excess Brit rockers. Now, stripped of their garish costumes, theyaE™re touring aEœunwigged and unpluggedaE behind the tunes produced by Tap and the Folksmen from 2003aE™s A Mighty Wind. Given the acoustic setup, theyaE™re unlikely to crank it up to eleven. But what theyaE™re sure to deliver is peerless stage banter interspersed with surprisingly competent musicianship. Paramount Theatre, 911 Pine St., 877-STG-4TIX, 8 p.m., $32-$52. All ages. Note by MIKE SEELY

Protest the Hero, Monday, April 20: This Canadian metal outfit combines sincere cerebral inquiry into topics like archetypal feminine goddess energy and its manifestations in global consciousness with the goofball stoner charm of, say, the Scooby Doo gang. Yes, for all that Protest The Hero pines for the re-feminization of the planet (thataE™s the bandaE™s description of its latest album, Fortress, not ours), there are undoubtedly lots of fart jokes going on on the tourbus. Self-avowed nerds who claim to hate nerds just like themselves, the members of PTH have nonetheless managed to channel their enthusiasm for sci-fi and fantasy into a vision that rises far above your typical Star Trek/Stargate cliche. ThataE™s because, if Tommy Chong and Terence McKenna ever had a lost love child, it would be bassist and lyricist Arif Mirabdolbaghi, a aEœlapsed MuslimaE of Iranian descent who claims his parents are fine with his affinity for the magic mushrooms which grace PTHaE™s t-shirts. Mirabdolbaghi strives to examine gender-equalizing metaphysics without sounding like a pussy-whipped New Age sap. The Genghis Khan, boiled-in-oil imagery doesnaE™t hurt, nor does the bandaE™s uncanny ability to playfully ape New Wave Of British Heavy Metal hallmarks (like operatic Maiden-style vocals) without sounding camp. In PTHaE™s nimble hands, cliches get worked into a thrilling, highly original display of muscular prog-metal wizardry. And unlike most metal bands who get all serious on you, itaE™s fun too. With Misery Signals, The Number 12 Looks Like You, Scale The Summit. El Corazon, 109 Eastlake Ave. E., 381-3094. 7 p.m., $13 adv., $15 dos. All ages. Note by SABY REYES-KULKARNI

Vienna Teng, Tuesday, April 21: By now, itaE™s well documented that pianist/singer/songwriter Vienna Teng landed on Letterman and NPR just a few months after quitting her software engineer job. Since then, Teng has made good on the fairy-tale start to her career by building up a rabid following that has, of course, grown at a steady rate that hasnaE™t thrust her headlong into fame. Teng openly draws from the confessional, introspective style of Sarah MacLaughlin and Tori Amos, but also favors the outright-pop songwriting of, say, Billy Joel. She also prefers to apply her classical training to the music discreetly, so that the casual listener can focus on the hooks, while more focused listeners can glean its sophistication over time. On her fourth album, the just-released Inland Territory, Teng and bandmate/co-producer Alex Wong veer away from the jazz production style of previous album Dreaming Through The Noise for a more abstract, experimental pop sound. Naturally, Inland sees Teng gazing inward as usual, but also asking unsettling — and rather compelling — questions about the world around us. With Paper Raincoat. Triple Door Mainstage, 216 Union St., 838-4333. 6:30 p.m., (all ages), 9:30 p.m., $20 adv., $25 dos. Note by SABY REYES-KULKARNI

Eddie And The Hot Rods, Tuesday, April 21: Remember Ryan Adams getting all persnickety about dudes coming to his shows and yelling aE˜Summer of aE˜69aE™? Though it may have been done to get a rise out of his famously bratty ass, I have to believe its first occurrence was accidental. Some confused middle-ager showed up by mistake and genuinely thought he was seeing Bryan Adams. I bring this up because I imagine it also happens routinely here in the States to Eddie and the Hot Rods. They had the misfortune of becoming famous in one of the least notable eras in British music: the mid-seventies wasteland between glam and punk, and the band is better known for its ex-membersaE™ various post-band projects (like, say, a couple of little bands called the Damned and Stiff Little Fingers). Secondly, they are outfamed in America by Eddie and the Cruisers, (a faux band from a bland aE™80 pic staring a bunch of old folks playing teenagers), most remembered for its John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band soundtrack, and dooming these blokes to hear aEœPlay aE˜On the Dark SideaE™!aE nightly.With The Hollowpoints, Primadonna, Creem City. El Corazon, 109 Eastlake Ave. E., 381-3094. 7 p.m., $12 adv, $14 dos. All ages. Note by MAaE™CHELL DUMA LAVASSAR