Carrboro
Clutch, Wino
Cat’s CradleToo often, hard and rock are mutually exclusive: Those that bring the heat know nothing about a groove, and many rockers sound staid compared to progenitors from Deep Purple and Black Sabbath to Monster Magnet and Kyuss. This bill definitely brings both, though: Headliners Clutch seem to only improve with age, harnessing cage-match guitar theatrics into a charging blues boogie, all ridden bareback by singer Neil Fallon’s growling fury. There’s a crispness to the band’s slashing riffs that contrasts the over-fattened throb of its peers, producing cleaner, surgical exit wounds palatable to non-stoners. Wino is the brainchild of Scott Weinrich (St. Vitus, Spirit Caravan), whose solo debut, Punctuated Equilibrium, is retro enough to be described as Deep Sabbath. In the wake of bass player Jon Blank’s recent death, he will be performing acoustic. Former Underoath frontman Dallas Taylor’s Maylene & the Sons of Disaster comes on strong enough to challenge Clutch, but with an even deeper boogie that betrays Southern roots. With Righteous Fool at 8:15 p.m. for $25. Chris Parker
Raleigh
The Kickass
Slim’sThis three-band show is the audio equivalent of shooting steroids midweek, and whaddya know? You don’t have to be a professional baseball player to get into the club: Perhaps the only downside to Valient Thorr’s success is the infrequency of gigs by The Kickass, the splintering instrumental trio featuring Benjamin Earl, who riffs in Thorr but rhythms here. Like Don Caballero mainlining cotton candy syrup, The Kickass stretches its excursions down 10-minute hallways, prickly guitar notes and an army of shifting beats bouncing through the mix like a dozen pinballs. Adam’s Castle of Brooklyn is dynamic and sidewinding, the thick fuzz bass and big swinging drums the caboose pushing you along the ascendant piano’s unexpected rails. Openers Me You Us Them sounds like Foo Fighters leaping off of solid-state amps and onto a dozen cheap distortion pedals. Pay $5 at 9 p.m. Grayson Currin
