The Five Best Concerts in L.A. This Week

By LA Weekly Mon., Nov. 26 2012 at 3:38 AM

Categories: Los Angeles Concerts

Lynette Peluso

Spirit Vine -- See Wednesday

Monday, November 26

Everyone Dies in Utah
WHISKY A GO GO
Post-hardcore bands don't dwell in some dark kingdom where only battering-ram beats, gurgled vocals and de-tuned guitars are tolerated. While plenty brutal, many of these acts also are influenced by the dance-music genres dominant amongst their peers. The Texas sextet Everyone Dies in Utah cradles airy arms-aloft melodies, escapist harmonies and nightclub-evoking electronica amidst desolate riffs and raw-throated wrath -- summoning irreverent Dayglo undertones all-too-welcome in what can be an overly grim genre. With such song titles as "Bed, Bath and Beyoncé" and "So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish," they're willfully flippant, but Danny Martinez's bestial screech and the band's repeated rhythmic muggings still are unsettling in their premeditated ultraviolence. --Paul Rogers

Tuesday, November 27

Bela Fleck and The Marcus Roberts Trio
CATALINA JAZZ CLUB
Banjoist Bela Fleck has almost singlehandedly redefined what was previously an instrument confined to bluegrass and Dixieland music, garnering a total of 13 Grammys along the way. Born and raised in New York, Fleck has performed over the last three decades in jazz, rock, classical, folk and other musical genres while gaining recognition as the finest banjo player in the world, most often at the helm of his own band, The Flecktones. Tonight Fleck begins a four-night run at Catalina Jazz Club in Hollywood in yet another unusual musical combination: joined by a trio led by blind pianist Marcus Roberts, who burst upon the jazz world as a member of the Wynton Marsalis groups of the 1980s. The pair are touring in support of a new album, Across the Imaginary Divide. --Tom Meek

Wednesday, November 28

Spirit Vine
THE ECHO
The Echo Park tribe Spirit Vine are obsessed with "wine, weed, witches, warlocks ... wombs, windows" and other weird words that start with the letter w. Their music is suitable witchy and bewitching, as keyboardist Jaquelinne Cingolani belts it out in a mournfully moody yet powerful voice, while guitarist Gabe Pacheco cuts up little chunks of glowing ice cubes that hiss and spark when they brush up against Cingolani's keening vocals. Like The Duke Spirit, Spirit Vine construct songs that aren't short and bubblegum-cute. Instead, tangled and serpentine guitar lines unwind slowly while Cingolani chants hard and heavy incantations like "Cold Living." But the band also has a coolly melodic side on such pretty tunes as "Pluto Why," which nonetheless rockets into the ether, leaving behind a trail of psychedelic sparks. --Falling James