For about 13 years now, the Riffbrokers have quietly been making some of the most sophisticated Southern-rock-tinged power pop around. Led by Nick Millward's distinctive vocals - reminiscent of storytellers like Elvis Costello and Craig Finn - and lyrics that manage to balance hook-y immediacy and blue-collar poetry, the Riffbrokers are virtually unmatched in these parts for humble, dignified substance and timeless riffs. In concert, the Riffbrokers perform with the kind of unshakeable confidence that comes not only from a prolific recording career, but a birth and development in the punk and country scenes of Boise and Seattle. These are workman musicians who never find time to rest on their laurels. That the band's song, such as "Please Forgive the Worst in Me," is a musical and lyrical match against a song such as "Bland, Predictable" - recorded a decade earlier - speaks to the continuing strength of the so-called "unsmashable" Riffbrokers.

NEW FRONTIER LOUNGE, WITH ERIC OLSON, KEVIN BROWN AND THE BELOVED COUNTRY, 8 P.M., COVER TBA, 301 E. 25TH ST., TACOMA, 253.572.4020