MUNA at The Depot
The opening song on Muna's debut album Saves The World, from 2019, is a slow, sweet, plaintive prayer for life, uttered by a young person who wants all of life's progressions and pains to unfold for her. Stylistically, it couldn't be more different from the songs that follow it, but those songs are the unfolding. On the second track (and their most recognizable hit) "Number One Fan," MUNA's lead singer Katie Gavin sings among irresistibly catchy and slick pop beats, "I've been looking at myself in the mirror saying don't leave me now." It's a self-pump-up song, a pep talk that sets the stage for an album that expresses more uncertainty, with heartbreak, unrequited love and melancholy taking the center stage on the album's other standout tracks "Stayaway," "Who" and "Pink Light." Gavin's way of singing, too, is part of what makes MUNA so unique—she has a distinct, deep voice with a lilt that for some reason recalls the '90s, especially when she sings, "I'm just trying to keep my head above wah-ya-ya-ter" on the sweet and sad "Navy Blue." Though the band has been working together since 2013, the debut probably owes much of its listenability to their working with RCA Records on it—a big label that they apparently didn't feel that attached to, because they've since left for Phoebe Bridgers' Saddest Factory Records. There, they've released the successful single "Silk Chiffon," which features Phoebe Bridgers and is a bright, refreshing blossom of a queer love story, one that dares to declare in 2022, "life's so fun, life's so fun." See the band when they play at The Depot on Thursday, Feb. 17 at 7 p.m. The all-ages show is $25 at depotslc.com. (Erin Moore )
Manchester Orchestra at The Complex
Manchester Orchestra, in the truest sense, has grown up with their fans. Frontman Andy Hull started the band when he was still a high-schooler in suburban Atlanta, and the band's 2006 debut I'm Like A Virgin Losing A Child glowed and pulsed with adolescent angst, all raw nerves and quavering uncertainty. But that was just the beginning, and long-time followers have had the distinct pleasure of watching a talented musician blossom into himself more-or-less in real time. Hull has grown from an anxious, isolated teenager to a devoted husband and father, and each release has shown him a more thoughtful and inventive songwriter than ever before. As Hull has matured, so too has his band, gradually shifting from emo-tinged post-punk to confident, austere indie rock, and even sprawling into symphonic rock and Americana territory at points. 2021's The Million Masks of God represents their furthest advance of this process yet: an expansive rumination on love, death and the passage of time, and the band's most intricate studio creation to date. In true Manchester Orchestra fashion, the current tour for The Million Masks of God is finding their stage show more immersive than ever; Salt Lakers can experience it firsthand when the band stops by The Complex Saturday, Feb. 19 at 7 p.m., with fellow indie-rockers Foxing and Michigander providing support. Tickets to the all-ages show are $31 at thecomplexslc.com. (Nic Renshaw)
The War on Drugs, Rosali
The border between rock and singer-songwriter music is a blurry one, and musicians who place themselves near it often do so with a palpable unease. It's easy to understand why: Veer too far in one direction, and the lyricism you cherish so dearly can get swallowed by a sound that's bigger, grander and more noticeable; swing too far in the other, and fans who want a music-above-all approach might lose interest in something that's too personal and intimate to have broad appeal. Adam Granduciel, however, makes the melding of those sometimes-polarized sensibilities feel utterly effortless. Granduciel's band The War on Drugs first struck upon this balancing act on their 2011 breakthrough Slave Ambient, and have spent every album since refining it to a breathtaking degree. The soundscapes they offer up are unapologetically grandiose and lush, marrying heartland swoon and psychedelic drift, but Granduciel's eloquently-expressed anxieties and observations always take center stage, steering the cinematic bombast right towards the listener's heartstrings. Their latest studio outing, last year's I Don't Live Here Anymore, saw The War on Drugs tightening and simplifying their established style, while still mining the rich dichotomy between rock scope and writerly detail. The band is currently touring in support of the album, stopping in for a date at the Union Event Center , Saturday, Feb. 19 alongside fellow Philadelphian songsmith Rosali. The all-ages show is $40.50 at theunioneventcenter.com. (NR)
The Weather Station at The Commonwealth Room
One of the things that seemed to excite critics when The Weather Station (aka Tamara Lindeman) released her 2021 album Ignorance was that she leaned away from her folk roots and into a world of her own creation, made up of swirling, luscious songscapes with a soft, smooth backbone of jazz that paces and races alongside her pondering voice. The album is introspective, but invites you in, because it introspects about things in the outer world, namely climate grief and all its accessories—on the sensuous and hooking opener "Robber," she tells a story of capitalism's failings. A sweeping and deeply affective album to listen to, it's compelling all the way across its seven expansive songs, and if you're already a fan you probably have heard that a collection of songs written at the same time as Ignorance is due out March 4, titled How Is It That I Should Look At The Stars. That's just in time for her to test out the new tracks on her current tour, and with support from another solo artist who's also a genius at putting together luscious, intelligently layered songs. Helena Deland is that artist, and on her 2020 debut album Someone New, she employs her delicate but powerful voice and always sighing breath to tell an often-despondent story of new love—she's less falling than she is stepping slowly into it, testing the bathwater. Both had some of the most interesting albums in indie music the last two years, and their playing together is a beautiful match. See them at The State Room on Saturday, Feb. 19 at 8 p.m. Tickets to the 21+ show are $26 at thestateroom.com. (EM)
Nile at Metro Music Hall
The 2000s were an interesting decade for death metal: with many of the genre's first wave of luminaries having either disbanded (Death, Gorguts, Autopsy) or entered decidedly less-essential phases of their careers (Cryptopsy, Morbid Angel, In Flames), the future for one of metal's most cherished traditions was more than slightly uncertain. However, plenty of bands rose to the occasion with aplomb—not least of all Nile, who stormed out of Greeneville, S.C. around the turn of the century with a savagely technical and intricate take on the genre and a fascination with Egyptology that set them apart from anyone else in the death metal scene. Since their landmark 2002 release In Their Darkened Shrines, they've steadily ascended to the status of elder statesmen of extreme music, producing consistently high-quality albums powered by George Kolias' pulverizing drum work and frontman Karl Sanders' furious drop-A riffage. Nile are currently touring in support of their latest album, 2019's Vile Nilotic Rites, alongside New York metal legends Incantation, who are themselves partially responsible for shaping the crushing sound Nile has spent much of their career expanding upon. Their stop at Metro Music Hall on Monday, Feb. 21 promises to be a can't-miss spectacle for death metal fanatics of all persuasions, especially with Ohioan death/doom upstarts Sanguisugabogg and Texan deathcore fivesome I AM providing support. Tickets to the 21+ show are $25 - $100 at metromusichall.com and doors are at 7 p.m. (NR)