THE SHOWDOWN: Wear your best patchwork pants

POSTED: Monday, November 28, 2011, 1:00 PM

Filed Under: Music The Showdown

CP music critic Brian Wilensky on the week's sure-bet live acts.

Monday: Coming from North Carolina, Black Skies is a trio of hard-hitting, wah pedal-crushing bearded metalheads. One is an unbearded metalhead chick. Their most recent, On the Wings of Time is chock-full of drop-tuned metal guitar riffing and muddy tempos accompanied by deep, gutteral vocals. 8 p.m., $5, with Vaz, JR’s Bar, 2327 S. Croskey St.

Tuesday: Named after Civil War general William Sherman, Philly’s Sherman (the band) plays some dusty booted, Dylan-esque folk rock on From the City to the Sea that could make you yearn for home without leaving. 8 p.m., $5-$7, with Polar Ice Cap, The Dirty Cut & Cantos, North Star Bar, 2639 Poplar St., 215-787-0488.

Wednesday: Billy Martin and John Medeski are back in town to groove on some jams from their 2007 album, Mago. It merely features Medeski’s adventurous Hammond B3 tickling and Illy B’s deep-pocket drumming. When you arrive early enough for Martin’s newest “three parts brass, one part drums,” project, Wicked Knee, you’ll have no one but the dancing shoes that took you there to thank. 8:30 p.m., $18-$20, with Caveman, The Blockley, 3801 Chestnut St., 215-222-1234.

Thursday: The String Cheese Incident jam with the best of them. And in case you missed them on the summer festival circuit and you’re itching for some guitar solos and screaming organ sounds, you’ll be able to get all that without the tents and sunshine. Wear your best patchwork pants. 8 p.m., $35-$45, Tower Theater, 69th and Ludlow Sts., 610-352-2887.

Friday: If a song like “Pickering Bridge” from The Mean’s latest, Zero Zero, doesn’t wrench your heart, you probably don’t have a soul. Their indie folk rock variations aren’t too complex but they’re not around to try to impress you with instrumental movements, they seem to be more of the storyteller type. 9:30 p.m., $8-$10, with The Silence Kit & Lady, Milkboy Philly, 1100 Chestnut St., 215-925-6455.

Saturday: Every time there’s a blues-based, guitar/piano-driven band on the rise, someone somewhere has the nerve to say that said band will save rock ‘n’ roll. It’s a little ridiculous to think that one band could do that. However, J. Roddy Walston and the Business’s stripped down, bottle breaking rock can give that impression. But let’s not jump the gun saying they’re going to lend the hand that saves something that doesn’t need saving. Let’s say these guys rock in the most “rock ‘n’ roll all night and party every day” kind of way (but luckily, don’t sound like Kiss). 7:30 p.m., $10-$12, with Toy Soldiers & Brad Hinton Band, Kung Fu Necktie, 1250 N. Front St., 215-291-4919.

Sunday: Guarantee you’ve never heard a Christmas album like Erin McKeown’s recent Fuck That! Anti-Holiday Album. It won’t be a show for the weak of heart or Bible-pounding, pro-Christmas folk. Look it up yourself, you may not believe what you hear, but she really sounds like she means it. 8 p.m., $24-$34, World Cafe Live, 3025 Walnut St., 215-222-1400.

(brian.wilensky@citypaper.net)

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Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

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