Also playing:
JOHN PISANO, GILAD HEKSELMAN at Vitello's.
PHOTO BY PATRICK CURTET
Laurent Garnier: See Saturday.
Barry Adamson: See Wednesday.
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wed 1/18
Barry Adamson
HOTEL CAFÉ
He's not quite a legend, but he oughta be, given his crucial role in shaping some of the most important music of the last three decades or so. Barry Adamson was the bass player whose memorable lines graced righteous art-punks Magazine back in the late '70s–early '80s, then went on to stints with Nick Cave's Bad Seeds, Iggy Pop, the Gun Club and David Lynch. Not just a supremely stylish instrumentalist, he's also the creator of a series of noirish solo albums that absolutely reek of atmosphere and a strangely troubling dynamism — Adamson is a mysterious person you always want to know more about. His 10th solo studio album is called I Will Set You Free, it's out in February, and he'll be premiering material from it in this rare L.A. appearance. —John Payne
David Garrett
CLUB NOKIA
Like your orchestra gigs dashed with a bit of hair-band raunch? Ever find yourself wishing Kirk Hammett would lay down the ax and instead ignite a mosh pit with a fell swoop of a violin bow? Well, oddly enough, you're in luck. German violinist David Garrett — a Juilliard grad who at 14 became the youngest soloist signed to prestigious classic label Deutsche Grammophon and joined the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra three years later — has put a classical spin on seminal rock classics. Guns N' Roses' "November Rain," Metallica's "Master of Puppets" and many other surprising gems get the genre-melding treatment on his absurdly enchanting 2010 album, Rock Symphonies. And Garrett's live gigs are even more surreal: Expect to hear "Smells Like Teen Spirit" with staccato violin trills. It's just how Kurt imagined it, right? —Dan Hyman
Also playing:
DAVID VALDEZ GROUP, MIKE SCOTT TRIO, PLAYS MONK at Blue Whale; AUGUSTANA, GRAFFITI 6 at El Rey Theatre.
thu 1/19
Call Us Forgotten
COBALT CAFÉ
At first glance, this Portland quintet is just another synchronized-bouncing-and-flailing metalcore mob. But its metal is in the details: supercompact, compressed riffs; kick drums chattering like anti-aircraft artillery; seamless, Swiss-movement shifts between moods and grooves. If all this sounds a little clinical, fear not. Vocalist Josh Oliveri has sufficient venom and variety to put a human face (or indeed, many faces) on his band's almost mechanical instrumentation. And just when you think you've got CUF's number, the guitars billow great plumes of epic ambition, which transcend the work of mere hands and heads. Much has been made of CUF's demographic-targeted Internet self-marketing campaign but, mercifully, what they're selling is more passion than product. —Paul Rogers
Also playing:
BAMBU, ROCKY RIVERA at the Echoplex; OWEN at the Troubadour; RAYA YARBROUGH at Vitello's; CHRIS MINK DOKY & THE NOMADS at Catalina.