The Big Pink, with A Place To Bury Strangers, Grave Babies, io echo. Neumos, 925 E. Pike St., 709-9467. 8 p.m. $15. The London electro-rock duo The Big Pink is nothing if not grandiose. Robbie Furze and Milo Cordell made an audaciously comprehensive claim by titling their debut album A Brief History of Love. But unlike many of their predecessors, The Big Pink comes through. Somewhere in the simulated cavern of sound, the record manages to observe the full spectrum of love while avoiding complacency or vain sentimentality. Despite the occasional noise-rock approach, melodies take on engaging nuance that matches the enormity of sound. And when they break into the looping aural synth grooves and driving percussion of lead single “Dominos,” just try to convince yourself it didn’t belong on your 2009 best-of list. NICK FELDMANThe Wooden Birds, with The Clientele, Surf City. Tractor Tavern, 5213 Ballard Ave. N.W., 789-3599. 9:30 p.m. $14. The Wooden Birds – a quartet led by the long-lived and much beloved American Analog Set’s Andrew Kenny – are proving to be a reliable band. Last year’s Magnolia, the band’s Barsuk debut, garnered them warm reviews and comparisons to Fleetwood Mac. Now a new EP, entitled Montague Street, is available on the band’s website for free. Montague Street is a collection of four songs written and recorded by Kenny in Brooklyn when he was just beginning to conceive the band that would become The Wooden Birds. Magnolia and Montague Street are both pleasant and delicate, driven by Kenny’s fine, lulling vocals and steady, imperious drum rhythms. The music creates a heady, tranquilizing buzz – an effect that will make a lot of AmAnSet fans happy. ERIN K. THOMPSONSandrider, with Mike Watt + The Missingmen, Lite. Chop Suey, 1325 E. Madison St., 324-8000. 9 p.m. $14. For a hardcore metal band as popular as Akimbo is, it’s a bit strange they don’t play out more often. Luckily, fans of the unearthly loud and brutal trio can get a partial fix tonight with Sandrider. Also a trio, and comprised of Akimbo frontman Jon Weisnewski on guitar, Ruby Doe leader Jesse Roberts on bass and Akimbo drummer Nat Damm on drums, Sandrider are opening for former Minuteman bassist and all-around punk rock icon Mike Watt, who is currently touring with his latest project, the Missingmen. HANNAH LEVINZeke, with Supersuckers, The Hollowpoints. El Corazon, 109 Eastlake Ave. E., 381-3094. 8 p.m. $15. The mythos of all-encompassing evil that surrounds Seattle speed punk freaks Zeke would lead you to believe they crawl into pentagram-lined coffins at the crack of dawn and quickly say their anti-prayers to Lemmy before the goodness of the sunlight burns them whole. Our boys in black have done little to dissuade this theory. From their legendarily crafted rider that promises an appetite for destruction of proportions so epic it makes Dethklok look like pussies (and releases the band from any and all liability) to their commitment to crafting the fastest, loudest, craziest music this side south of heaven, Zeke have taken a persona that could easily been perceived as shtick and owned the hell out of it for the last bazillion years. MA’CHELL DUMA LAVASSAR