For Your Ears

With finals coming up, everyone needs a study break regardless of whether they’ve actually been studying.

For some, this will mean endless house parties, bar parties, graduation parties, “I hope I’m graduating” parties, “damn, I almost graduated” parties and “at least six more years of college to go” parties.

For others, this will mean sitting alone in the dark playing Call of Duty online and pretending those people you know from Xbox Live count as friends. But for the more cultured, “study break” means one thing: concerts. So the Daily Lobo presents a guide to the best live music between now and the end of the semester.

Lightning Bolt
VFW Hall (Santa Fe)
All ages
$10
Noise-rock band Lightning Bolt comes to our fair state to spread its gospel of jazzy/metally/hard-rocky awesomeness. It’s hard to describe how these guys sound, but suffice to say, they play fast. If moshing like the possessed is your thing, it will be well worth it to grab the Rail Runner to Santa Fe to see the band work its magic.

Thursday
The Octopus Project
Launchpad
All ages
For all you hipsters who were disappointed that the Octopus Project didn’t show up for its scheduled Launchpad show last month, the venue is offering you a chance to flaunt your true, ironically mismatched colors in a special make-up date.
This may be the most hipster event to come to town for a while, so hop on your fixie and ride down to the Launchpad. They’re playing with some band called the Gatherers and some other band called Daffodil Megasaurus, but I guess I’m not deck enough to know about those bands.

Saturday
Justin Hood
Launchpad
All Ages
$10
Local electro-hip-hop artist/rapper Justin Hood is dropping his new album, The Falling Season tonight. The promo video (available on YouTube), features music by the Bloody Beetroots and is surprisingly awesome.
The flier, featuring an oddly creepy picture of a teddy bear, advertises six other Albuquerque acts playing with Hood, so the show should be well worth the price of admission. Show up early to get a free CD, available for the first 150 through the door.

April 26
Social Distortion
Sunshine Theater
All Ages
$35
Although $35 is a ridiculous asking price to see a bunch of aging punks, Social Distortion should put on a good show. It’s a seminal band in the modern punk scene, which you can take as a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how you feel about Blink 182.
Actually, that may be a bit harsh. Social Distortion certainly isn’t a bad band, and it did a lot to bridge the gap between punk and traditional rock-and-roll. If you can afford the tickets, it’ll be a worthy history lesson, if nothing else.

April 30
Prozak
El Rey Theater
Price TBA
21
Billed as “The Hitchcock of Hip-Hop,” Prozak plays a mildly interesting form of ultra-violent horror-hip-hop along the lines of Tech N9ne (who has been featured on some Prozak tracks.) He’s also a frequent collaborator of Fiestas headliner Twista. If mainstream rap isn’t angry or violent enough for you, this one will probably be worth seeing.

May 13
Revolver Magazine’s “Hottest Chicks in Hard Rock – Hell Hath No Fury Tour”
Launchpad
$15
All Ages
I’ve never heard of any of these bands (In This Moment, Straight Line Stitch, System Divide and Sister Sin), but Revolver magazine, which is sponsoring the tour, generally knows what it’s talking about in the realm of hard rock. Plus, the promo photos feature some genuinely hot chicks — it’s a definite bonus that this show is all ages because that’s a serious selling point if you’re a 15-year-old boy.

May 9
Papa Roach
Sunshine Theater
$33
All Ages
Papa Roach? Really? I’m stunned … I can’t believe this band is still a thing. What is this, 1999? And how could they have the gall to charge $33? I feel bad for complaining about Social Distortion’s ticket prices now. Maybe $33 is what they’ll pay you if you show up and pretend to like them. Seriously, if Papa Roach is your thing, I can’t help you.

May 19
System of a Down
Hard Rock Casino
All Ages
$32 and up
It’s good to see these guys are still around, as the band brings a particular weirdness to the hard-rock/metal scene that would be sorely missed if it stopped doing its thing.
The band’s political viewpoint seems right-on, too, even if it’s a little hard to decipher — at least it’s singing about something other than mass murder, a rarity in this type of music (I’m looking at you, Slayer). This show is sure to offer plenty of elbow-throwing, mosh-pit opportunities, making it the perfect way to work off all that pent-up aggression you’re feeling toward your professors for making you write stupid term papers when you should be attending shows.