Rock Picks: Acid Mothers Temple, Kate Maki, Marissa Nadler, Mirah

Bamboozle Left at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater

This annual two-day emo-punk blowout hasn’t been around as long as its New Jersey counterpart, but Bamboozle Left organizers are already futzing with a proven formula: Stick around for Sunday’s headlining slot this year and you’ll be treated to a set by 50 Cent, a rapper whose career of late consists pretty much of blasting Kanye West, the emo-est man in hip-hop. That said, the remainder of Bamboozle Left’s lineup is more or less business as usual: Fall Out Boy and the reunited Get Up Kids top Saturday’s bill, while Deftones, Taking Back Sunday and the Used will warm up the crowd for Fitty on Sunday. Undercard acts worth seeking out include prep-rap goofball Asher Roth, prog-opera dudes Forgive Durden and local noise-rock troublemakers the Bronx. (Mikael Wood)

Kate Maki, Great Lake Swimmers, Travel by Sea at Spaceland

There’s such a wild and wondrous depth to Kate Maki’s On High, from last year, that you have to wonder from where it sprang. It sounds like the Canadian singer/songwriter’s 10th album, so confident and personable is it. But it’s just her third, and her first with American iconoclast Howe Gelb on the knobs and strings. On High is one of those secret little records that you pull out when trying to impress your know-it-all geeky friends. Why? It’s a stunning mix of country, rock, blues, folk and whatever that constantly surprises, and there’s a good, but regrettable, chance that they haven’t heard it. “To Please” is a stutter-step denial that features what sounds like pingpong balls as percussion; “Message Forgot” is a mournful waltz that suggests a lost Patsy Cline hit; and “Don’t Look Down,” a duet with Gelb (best known for his long-running Giant Sand project), feels like an argument between a shrink and his stubborn patient. This bill, presented by Aquarium Drunkard, should be great from start to finish. (Randall Roberts)

Also playing Saturday:

GRACE WOODROOFE at the Hotel Café; ARTURO SANDOVAL at the Luckman Fine Arts Complex; TORTURED SOULS at the Roxy; JOHN WESLEY HARDING, EUGENE MERMAN at Largo at the Coronet; SHARAM, DJ REZA at Avalon/Bardot Hollywood; KAYHAN KALHOR, BROOKLYN RIDER at Royce Hall; OMAR SOSA at the Jazz Bakery; PUSCIFER, INTO THE PRESENCE at Club Nokia.

SUNDAY, APRIL 5

Puscifer at Club Nokia

Puscifer is Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan’s latest side project, but unlike A Perfect Circle, it’s most definitely not an opportunity to flex the radio-rock muscles he largely ignores in his day job: On Puscifer’s 2007 debut, “V” Is for Vagina, Keenan and a varied cast of collaborators (including Jonny Polonsky, Primus drummer Tim Alexander and Josh Eustis of Telefon Tel Aviv) kicked out a set of dark-and-steamy cabaret-funk jams about guns and Jesus. The group played its first live gigs in February at the Pearl at the Palms in Las Vegas, a setting that by all accounts suited the left-field multimedia extravaganza Keenan has cooked up. Model-turned-actress-turned-singer Milla Jovovich took part in the Vegas shows; cross your fingers for a repeat performance here. Also Saturday. (Mikael Wood)

Also playing Sunday:

STEVEN SEVERIN at the Echo; OLD CALIFORNIO, I SEE HAWKS IN L.A., WHISPERING PINES,OMAR SOSA at the Jazz Bakery; ASHER ROTH at the Key Club.

MONDAY, APRIL 6

Playing Monday:

THE HENRY CLAY PEOPLE, MIKE WATT & THE MISSINGMEN, READY THE JET, THREE MIGHTY ANGELS at Spaceland; FOOLS GOLD at the Echo; THE BIRD & THE BEE, JULIETTE COMMAGERE at the Echoplex.

TUESDAY, APRIL 7

Marissa Nadler at Hotel Cafe

The whys and wherefores of one Marissa Nadler will be forever clothed in mist, and a listen to her catalog of gothically ghostly tales — echoing across the moors — does not give a clue. The Boston singer-guitarist’s new Little Hells disc on Kemado is her most bloodcurdlingly cogent statement yet, a phantastic journey into a seemingly lonely psyche that gazes out the attic window of a decrepit old house and ponders the cycles of life, this “River of Dirt” that has always been and will always be. You’ll want this music to never end, almost perversely, as Nadler echo-croons so ethereally over artfully plucked acoustic guitar, the shapes and colors of her melancholy muse shifting so subtlely as to suggest, best severe and complex emotions that we’ve possibly never recognized in this or previous lives. Old-world obsessivists Joanna Newsom or Faun Fables might have tapped into similar musical roots (where Joni Mitchell reigns supreme), though you’d be forgiven for projecting a degree of inheritance from the medieval sounds filtered through the early-’70s English folk crew, such as Pentangle or the Fairports (which Nadler claims to have only recently discovered). This is that shiveringly faraway music that lingers damply, but you’ll be grateful for its persistence in the end ... the end ... the end. (John Payne)