BIG BAD VOODOO DADDY

Friday, April 3

So the saying goes: “It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing,” and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy is all about “that swing.” Since the band gained notoriety in the 1996 cult film Swingers, the 8-piece has been hard bopping in zoot suits and Fedoras for Gen X-ers who dig on big band swing. These cocktail-cool cats don’t only play high-energy jazz, they live it, and the proof is in the pudding. Friday the band will be at the Pantages in Tacoma. Consider it good news, because Big Bad Voodoo Daddy is money, baby. Money. — Tony Engelhart

[Pantages Theater, 7:30 p.m., $29-$59, 901 Broadway, Tacoma, 253.591.5890]

GUNS & ROSSETTI

Friday, April 3

Guns & Rossetti is pretty much everything a true rock and roll band should be. Led by the moderately iconic Dick Rossetti (he of Comb Over, Squirt, Root Barrels and, of course, formerly 107.7FM “The End”), Guns & Rossetti has the bases covered. Solid, crunchy riffs? Check. Tongue-in-check sarcasm? Check. Abundant swagger? Check. Songs about douchebag boyfriends and telling “your man to suck it”? Check. While Guns & Rossetti may technically call the lush and fruitful hills of Renton home, there’s just something about this band that’s so Tacoma. Don’t believe me? See for yourself. — Matt Driscoll  

[The New Frontier Lounge, with Lund Bros, The Ilovemyselfs, 9 p.m., $5, 301 E. 25th St., Tacoma, 253.572.4020]

GLASS CANDY

Wednesday, April 8

I remember the Treasure Chest. I remember the one-seat ferris wheel at Yard Birds, right by the popcorn machine. I remember Especially Yogurt and Yo-Yo-A-Go-Go. All night raves in A-Dorm. Kudos to the Brotherhood for keeping it Olympia. It took a drop-dead bombshell’s frustration at the jukebox to point it out. “It’s just so local,” she said with disdain, “sometimes you want bar music. You never hear any f***in’ Doobie Brothers here.” Oh, she’s pretty when she’s angry, kind of like Glass Candy and their infectiously melodic and melancholic grooves. It’s somewhere between Madonna and ‘Til Tuesday, and it’s wrapped up in leotards and empowering energy and it doesn’t really care what you think about what it’s doing, ‘cause it’s gonna do it anyway, buddy. Kind of like Olympia. — Owen Taylor

[The Brotherhood Lounge, with Fleshtones, Grab The Bat Killer, Desire, 9 p.m., $6, 119 Capitol Way N., Olympia, 360.352.4153]

GODS OF THUNDER

Thursday, April 9

Gods of Thunder make a living pretending to be KISS. They wear all of the appropriate makeup, play all of the appropriate riffs, and make all of the inappropriate jokes. I wonder if they even have a Vinnie Vincent look-a-like that stands in for the drunken Frehley look-a-like three fourths of the way through the show? Will they play any of the songs from the album Dynasty in which Anton Fry, a session drummer, played all of the drum tracks for a violently inadequate Peter Criss? Is their tour bus lined with posters of other tribute bands like Rain, KISSexy (a five-piece all-female KISS tribute band), or the only band that makes it hard for me to hold food down — KRY? You won’t know unless you go see them. — Chuck Dula

[Hell’s Kitchen, with Atomic Outlaws, Divide the Day, 8 p.m., $10, 3829 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.759.6003]

INDIAN VALLEY LINE

Thursday, April 9

Is it just me or is alt-country dead? Dead in a good way, I mean. Dead the way postmodernism is dead. Not because the art failed, but because it outlived its name. Because it was a name built for failure, a name coined obsolete. When the alternative rescues that which it supposedly alternates from, it becomes it. So don’t call Indian Valley Line alt-country. Or roots rock. Or Americana. Throw away the affixes and go see their show at The New Frontier. Listen to the syrup-sweet guitar of Ryan Lynch, the gunshot drums of Emo Ben, and Bubba’s (I refuse to say honest and heartfelt) honest and heartfelt vocals. And don’t leave without their new full-length, Peggy, Sonoma and a Boxcar. — Mark Thomas Deming

[The New Frontier Lounge, with Goldfinch and Molly Rose, 9 p.m., 301 E. 25th St., Tacoma]