CHICHARONES

Friday, April 24

Pork products are amazing. I realize this watching my Jimmy Dean Vermont Maple Syrup flavored breakfast sausages sizzle in the pan at breakfast. There they lay, my pretty little pig fingers, dancing back and forth as the pan’s heat sears through the casing and cooks the little blobs of ground-up fat and meat. It’s that surreal blend of savory and sweet aromas emanating from the pan that gets the salivary glands going — anticipating the greatness that will come. It’s kind of like seeing the Chicharones flyers all over downtown Olympia. Having tasted the Chicharones’ high-powered show before, an experience that only comes from the combination of the right ingredients, namely Oldominion’s Sleep and Anticon’s Josh Martinez, we can but wait in a drooling stupor for the flavor to arrive in our ears and satisfy our hunger for dope hip-hop — which will happen Friday at the Clipper. Like I said, pork products are amazing. — Owen Taylor

[The China Clipper, Chicharones with Language Arts Crew, Junkyard Gang, the Elements, DJ Deadbeat 9 p.m., $5, 402 E. Fourth Ave., Olympia, 360.943.6300]

OLYMPIA SPRING ARTS WALK/CAPITOL CITY GUITARS

Friday, April 24 and Saturday, April 25

Hooray! It’s time for Spring Arts Walk in downtown Olympia! The bars are full, the art abundant, and my fave: Capital City Guitars has a tradition of hosting outstanding local musicians in front of the store. Hell Yeah! More head bangin’ and booty shakin’ in the streets! Capital City Guitars should be crowned number one bad-ass for participation. (Don’t be mad, Procession of the Species — you have your own category.) Throughout the last 13 years, this little guitar shop has held steadfast to providing a place for musicians to plug in, be loud and entertain the masses for free. Headliners on Friday are the heavy Bacchus and old-school metal band, Christian Mistress — a relatively new Oly band getting hype for its ’80s metal vibe. For easier listeners, relatively speaking, Saturday’s lineup includes the Siderailers and Brian Feist Blues Band. See you there. — Nikki Talotta

[Capital City Guitars, Bacchus, Christian Mistress, the Siderailers, Brian Feist Blues Band, others, music starts at 5 p.m., no cover, 108 Fourth Ave., Olympia, 360.956.7097]

THE TOUGHTIMES

Saturday, April 25

You know how people sometimes say blues is for old folks? Yeah, well f*** that noise. The Toughtimes defy such thought. Created in 2000 by cousins Nick Santos-Carter and Anthony Estrada, The Toughtimes breathes life into a genre many believe has already seen its best days. Reaching a younger crowd with the blues isn’t always easy — unless, of course, you call it rock and roll, but The Toughtimes have found a way. “Young folks and grown folks alike dig the hell out of what we’re doing,” Estrada once told me (and by “once told me” I mean told me in an interview about a year ago). “It seems like people are shocked at first by the sound that our raggedy three-piece band is putting out, but after the initial shock, it seems like butts start moving and feet get to tappin’.” Check out The Toughtimes this Saturday in between Irish Car Bombs at Doyle’s. — Matt Driscoll

[Doyle’s Public House, 9 p.m., no cover, 208 St. Helens Ave., Tacoma 253.272.7468]

DR. KNOW

Saturday, April 25

Of course Bobble Tiki knows Dr. Know is led by ex-childhood actor Brandon Cruz, who many similarly flat-bottomed folks of Bobble Tiki’s age no doubt remember from the TV show The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, or perhaps even the Bad News Bears movies with Walter Matthau. This goes without saying. When it comes to television trivia, Bobble Tiki is second to none. But even though Bobble Tiki is keenly aware of Cruz’s child acting credentials, the band he fronts — Dr. Know — is actually more important. Dr. Know’s place in the annals of punk rock are secure, having emerged from the legendary Oxnard, Calif., “Nardcore” scene in the early’80s and gone on to influence a whole generation of punk. The Nardcore scene and the bands that made it famous, like Stalag 13, Ill Repute, Agression, False Confession and RKL, continue to reverberate today, which is why band’s like Dr. Know continued to get booked at Hell’s Kitchen, and rowdy — if aging — punks continue to show up. And it’s not all old hat — Dr. Know is scheduled to release a new record, Killing For God, sometime this month. — Bobble Tiki

[Hell’s Kitchen, Dr. Know with Broken Oars, South 11th, the Assassinators, Cyanide Destruct, 9 p.m., $7, 3829 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.759.6003]