The music of Elbow Coulee is inarguably influenced by the kind of power pop that ran so rampant in the mid- to late-1990s, but it is delivered in a deceptively prickly package. In every song there is a huge chorus, delivered in that particularly bratty, California punk style by lead singer Andrew Tuller. Keeping the songs from dissolving into mainstream radio pap are jagged edges that hug every power chord and triumphant tempo change. It's an effective way of transporting those classic pop sounds into the murkier territory of today's music. There's a kind of restless ambition at work in many of the songs, resulting in delightfully unexpected turns, like the piano that comes twinkling along in "Strangers for Now" to accompany Elbow Coulee's surprisingly sweet harmonies.

[Le Voyeur, with Pocket Panda, Razors and Red Flags, 10 p.m., no cover, 404 Fourth Ave. E., Olympia, 360.943.5710]