Tonight's Show Recommendations

Barcelona, Low vs. Diamond at Neumos, 7 p.m., $12

A few spins of L.A. quintet Low vs. Diamond's recent self-titled debut revealed (to me, anyway) a good-but-not-remarkable guitar-centric indie-rock band with plenty of radio-ready polish. However, the band really shines in concert - I caught them two months ago opening for Santogold, of all people, and they were definitely engaging and compelling enough to win over the electro-pop crowd there to dance. Frontman Lucas Field unleashed a rich tenor that resembled Bono's, with only half the amount of melodrama, and the tuneful quintet pushed through a set of yearning, piano-dappled anthems that flirted with Coldplay territory; when they roughed it up on occasion, it sounded a little bit like the Strokes, too. While those influences might be a bit too obvious on the album, LvsD's melodies and spirit translate much better in the live setting, and it's doubtful you'd regret the experience. Who buys albums anymore, anyway? MICHAEL ALAN GOLDBERG

The Raggedy Anns, By Sunlight, Garage Voice at High Dive, 9 p.m., $6

Over the past 15 years, and probably earlier, Bainbridge Island has turned out a series of creepy (but great) rock bands. When I lived there, the lineage began with PUD, a pretty standard leather n' mohawks punk band. Next came Cold Way Walking, which incorporated a little more Bowie and Cramps (don't worry if you've never heard of these bands; I'm just establishing some historical context). Then, at about the same time, the Holy Ghost Revival and the Dead Science came to be. These bands went on to shape the adolescent tastes of the Gruff Mummies, who won the Experience Music Project "Sound-Off" competition in 2005 and subsequently broke up. The most recent offspring of this gnarled family tree are the Raggedy Anns, a four piece that draws equally from rock and jazz, the Kinks and Django Reinnhardt (while weaned on B.I. Hardcore, these guys have since moved to Seattle). Like Anacortes or Seattle's East Side, Bainbridge is an artistic incubator. Because there's nothing else to do, a few people create something of their own. ERIK NEUMANN