Redneck Girlfriend's self-given description incorporates many utterances of stuff like "yee-haw!" and references to Yankees. The band seems to be about creating the illusion of country music - shrouding it over hard rock hearts and delivering it in a blistering fury. But for as much as the band embraces this surface sound, Redneck Girlfriend manages to cut to the real essence of country music, in much the same way hip-hop possesses many of the same ethos as classic country. Redneck Girlfriend is about drinking beers and having good times, even as they squint their eyes in manly ways to keep from having a teardrop land in one of those beers. In the end, though, it's about that lively rolling sound, and Redneck Girlfriend delivers it in spades. 

[Hell's Kitchen, with Aces Up, Stone Evergreen Travelers, the Graceland 5, 6 p.m., $7, 928 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253.759.6003]