Fugazi Live DVD Screening/Wednesday, June 27
“This is not a Fugazi show,” says the event invitation. It’s a reference to the smirking bootleg shirts and stickers that proliferated as a result of the D.C. hardcore band’s famous policy to not make or sell merch, and in that sense it’s entirely appropriate. Tonight’s screening will be not of the (excellent) official tour documentary, Document, but rather of a bootleg recording of Fugazi’s 1999 all-ages show at the now-defunct DV8—two hours long, with material from End Hits, Red Medicine, and beyond. I was there, 18 and stupid, but whether you were or not, this screening will be, as the invitation also says, “the next best thing.” With performances by Strong Killings, Blood Orange Paradise. Sunset Tavern, 5433 Ballard Ave. N.W., 784-4880. 9:30 p.m. $6. ERIC GRANDY
A Drink for the Kids/Thursday, June 28
Ooooooooh, well, if it’s for the kids! The last thing Erin K. Thompson needs is another excuse to tipple. I recently left the office for an hour and came back to the smell of vanilla vodka (to the person who left those sample bottles at the office, we now see that they were a team of Trojan horses) and a particularly chatty clubs editor. And Eric Grandy? This SW contributor needs another drink like I need another strip of bacon on this breakfast burger. But if it’s for the kids, then how can we say no? The pair of lushes will be holding court at Linda’s tonight, where all the proceeds from the sales of Ninkasi Brewing Company beer and Fremont Mischief vodka and whiskey are going straight to the Vera Project. You don’t need another drink, but the kids need a place to rock without having to contend with tipsy critics. Linda’s Tavern, 707 E. Pine St., 325-1220. 7 p.m. Free. CHRIS KORNELIS
Queen Extravaganza/Thursday, June 28
It’s been 21 years since Freddie Mercury died, and it’ll be another couple of years before Mercury, a biopic starring Sacha Baron Cohen, will be released, but Queen fever never dies. This year, drummer Roger Taylor personally assembled a nine-piece band called Queen Extravaganza, currently touring a grandiose stage show that includes a two-hour set of 40 Queen songs. It’s not the real Queen, but then the real Queen is never going to happen again. In April, the band, with Taylor and Brian May, performed “Somebody to Love” on American Idol; the lead vocalist, Nashville’s Marc Martel—who was discovered via a YouTube video of himself singing that song, which reached more than six million views—sounds chillingly like Mercury. His stunning vocals are what make Queen Extravaganza a fitting tribute to the original. Showbox SoDo, 1700 First Ave. S., 652-0444. 8:30 p.m. $29.50 adv./$35 DOS. All ages. ERIN K. THOMPSON
Truckasauras/Thursday, June 28
Truckasauras’ rough-hewn, analog electronic sound (only sometimes 8-bit) and trash- Americana image had them pigeonholed from day one, so no wonder they’re attempting to diversify in 2012. Rather than just drop their third album and play shows to support it, they’ve set up an ongoing series of live events—not just “standard” Truck shows but also DJ nights and audio/video experiments—designed to gradually tease out and release what will become an album titled 2012, as well as to screw with the divide between live shows and the studio, the artist and the audience, etc. (They’ve also collaborated on the excellent new track “Bothell Trance,” a 15-minute arc of 8-bit Steve Reichian gamelan, for the ICA Soundworks show in London.) Some of these events are better than others, but a “sausage party” featuring punked Truck alias Dingus and the Buttfucks promises a good ol’ time. With Lord Chillum, Fab Rick. Barboza, 925 E. Pike St., 709-9467. 8 p.m. $5. ERIC GRANDY
***EDITOR’S PICK
The Cigarette Bums/Thursday, June 28
This raw, road-loving quintet could be categorized alongside garage-punk Burger Records bands like Pangea, Mean Jeans, and Seattle’s own Night Beats, but the Cigarette Bums separate themselves with the folksy, rollicking quality of their songs. Their latest is a three-song release called Rough Cuts, available on their Bandcamp page for free download, featuring the frisky, fast-riffing, and entirely pleasurable standout track “Boots.” And though the Cigarette Bums hail from Los Angeles, they’ve already cemented the Northwest’s place in their history by releasing a record called Live in Tacoma: Nothing but the Hits, recorded at the New Frontier Lounge late last year. With Pony Time, Silicon Girls, So Pitted. Funhouse, 206 Fifth Ave. N., 374-8400. 9:30 p.m. $6. (The Cigarette Bums also play the Comet Tavern on Sunday, July 1.) ERIN K. THOMPSON
El-P/Sunday, July 1
Absolutely no one should have been surprised by the delicious heap of rap that El-P served listeners last month: his most recent solo album, Cancer 4 Cure, and Killer Mike’s entirely El-P–produced R.A.P. Music. Each record the Brooklyn MC/producer has painstakingly chiseled from his radioactive brainspace over the past decade and a half has given hip-hop at large a well-placed jolt at a time when many had found themselves tired of what they were being fed or apathetic about the scene altogether. The material on both C4C and RM is a shot in the arm in the form of amped-up electro-rap instrumentals and deranged storytelling/political criticism, which will act as the caffeine boost you’ll need to get hyped as fuck at a show that will probably only vaguely resemble the rap shows you’re used to seeing. With Killer Mike, Mr. Muthafuckin eXquire, Despot. Neumos, 925 E. Pike St., 709-9467. 8 p.m. $18.50. TODD HAMM
Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival/Tuesday, July 3
What does Independence mean to you? Does it mean knocking off work after lunch and getting shitfaced in a heavy-metal parking lot in Auburn? Does it mean going shirtless with jeans and black boots? Does it mean flashing your tits at Lemmy when Motörhead takes the stage? Does it mean bearing witness to half of the Big Four? Does it mean hopping aboard a bullet train to Cold One City? Does it mean wearing a hockey mask when it’s not Halloween? Does it mean waking up in a cow pasture at 3 a.m. with an empty handle of Jack in your hand? This concert portends all those definitions, and is therefore the essence of freedom. With Anthrax, Slayer, Motörhead, Slipknot, The Devil Wears Prada, As I Lay Dying, Asking Alexandria, White Chapel, High on Fire. White River Amphitheatre, 40601 Auburn-Enumclaw Rd., Auburn, 360-825-6200. 1:30 p.m. $30–$85. All ages. MIKE SEELY
