The Five Best Concerts in L.A. This Week

By LA Weekly Mon., Dec. 3 2012 at 3:30 AM

Categories: Los Angeles Concerts

Death Grips -- See Thursday

Tuesday, December 4

The Starvations
THE ECHO
Sometimes you gotta amend "never again" to "just once more," especially when there's a good reason, and this completely unexpected reunion of L.A.'s Starvations didn't come easy. It's a benefit for writer Joseph Mattson, author of a much-acclaimed novel and book of short stories, as well as liner notes for Starvations' front man Gabe Hart's current band, Jail Weddings. As previously mentioned in these pages, Mattson is mired in a truly tragic legal battle with the man who killed his mother. So tonight you can join the good fight. It's led by L.A. greats who chased the same weird ghosts as Charlie Feathers and Nick Cave, who loved 1920s murder ballads as much as choice 1970s punk, and whose indestructible iconoclasm allowed them to survive, and then thrive, for an uneasy decade. This almost certainly will be your last chance to see this band -- but The Starvations were always at their best when it came to last chances. --Chris Ziegler

Wednesday, December 5

Guilty Simpson, House Shoes
THE AIRLINER
Detroit comes to L.A. via rapper Guilty Simpson and DJ-producer House Shoes, both heavyweights in their hometowns and much loved locally, too. The transplanted-to-L.A. fixture House Shoes -- the dude who had a connection with every great dude ever, up to and including Dilla -- finally put out his first album, Let It Go, this summer, and it's full of intricate and idiosyncratic beats and precisely chosen guest spots. And of course Simpson was one of those guest spots, hooking up two tracks between his O.J. Simpson collaborations with the legendary Madlib and the just-out Dice Game with fellow Detroiter Apollo Brown. Between the two of them, this'll be hip-hop at its grittiest and most powerful. That's how they make it in Detroit. --Chris Ziegler

Shuggie Otis
THE ECHOPLEX
The son of the great R&B bandleader Johnny Otis, singer/multi-instrumentalist Shuggie Otis was surrounded by a dazzling blend of influences when he was growing up a wunderkind guitarist. But Shuggie ultimately outdistanced even his dad by virtually inventing his own soulfully groovy form of R&B in the '60s and '70s, creating a kind of psychedelic pop that proved an obvious inspiration many years later for Prince and Lenny Kravitz. A song like "Strawberry Letter 23," from Otis' landmark 1971 album, Freedom Flight, still sounds fresh today, as the singer walks merrily through a blissful garden of bell-like chimes and flurries of intricately whirling, almost proglike guitar. The reclusive musician rarely performs, which makes tonight's gig a very special occasion. --Falling James