17FRI
Safe Ground Sacramento benefit
Luna’s Café & Juice Bar, 7 p.m., $7-$10
Good music often has a good cause behind it. That’s certainly the case with the fourth Safe Ground Sacramento benefit concert this Friday at Luna’s Café & Juice Bar. This show features performances by G.P. Bailey, Nick Embly, Sal Valentino, Marty Taters, Carly DuHain, Joe Kye, Darin Bradford, Malorii Rainwater, Sandra Dolores, Jenn Rogar, Wasteland, the Jackie Carroll Jazz Trio and Steven Payan. Basically, it’s all singer-songwriters, except for the jazz trio and Payan, who’s an emcee in Mentes Diferentes. Proceeds will go to Safe Ground Sacramento and the Sacramento Homeless Organizing Committee, both organizations that strive to help provide the Sacramento homeless population with a place to be. 1414 16th Street, www.lunascafe.com.
—Jonathan Mendick
17FRI
Chatham County Line
The Palms Playhouse, 8 p.m., $15
North Carolina is bordered by four states and the Atlantic Ocean, suffers through hurricanes and is home to the Appalachian Mountains, the Blue Ridge Mountains and the four young guys who comprise Chatham County Line. Five of the band’s six albums are with Yep Roc Records, including IV (2008), featuring “Birmingham Jail,” written in memory of the four young girls killed in the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church. Dave Wilson, John Teer, Chandler Holt and Greg Readling bring their state’s flag, a single microphone, mandolin, fiddle, banjo, pedal steel guitar, piano and some of the best harmonies since Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young or Simon & Garfunkel. 13 Main Street in Winters, www.chathamcountyline.com.
—Trina L. Drotar
17FRI
Slow Motion Dive
Shine, 8 p.m., $5
Local indie trio Slow Motion Dive isn’t technically an instrumental band, but it’s close. The vocal work just really isn’t the centerpiece of the music. Some of the songs are completely instrumental, while others are just punctuated with occasional vocal lines. There is, however, still a lot going on. The interplay between the lush guitar arpeggios; the driving bass parts; and the vibrant, groove-rich drumming makes for an interesting concoction. The sound is raw and minimalistic and marries psychedelic rock and ’90s twee pop. It’s almost shoegaze in how the trio tinkers with atmosphere and sound, but it has a lightheartedness to it not typically associated with the genre. 1400 E Street, www.facebook.com/slowmotiondive.
—Aaron Carnes
18SAT
Crude Studs
The Colony, 7 p.m., $5
Fueled by influences like the Stooges, Judas Priest and Thin Lizzy, and also featuring erratic jolts of aggression and in-your-face bravado is Sacramento thrash-punk band Crude Studs. With a voice unmistakably comparable to X-Ray Spex’ Poly Styrene, vocalist Sophia Flores leads this pack of musicians that includes Bobby Khan on guitar, J.B. Thomas on drums, and Nich Lujan on bass. Formed in 2012, Crude Studs perform anywhere and everywhere, from basements at punk-rock house shows to supporting longtime veterans in Youth Brigade last December at Midtown Barfly. Bad Daddies, Class System, Fiscal Cliff and Oakland’s No Business will also join. 3512 Stockton Boulevard, www.facebook.com/crudestuds.
—Steph Rodriguez
18SAT
Dead Winter Carpenters
Auburn Event Center, 7 p.m., $10-$15
The Dead Winter Carpenters are like musical chameleons because their music fits comfortably into a number of genres. Take their newest release, the Dirt Nap EP, for example. If you like a bit of bluegrass, then “Bootleg Jack” will be your cup of tea. If rip-roaring country is your thing, then “Long Arm of the Law” will do you just fine. And “West Shore Town” spends a sizable chunk of its five-plus minutes playing like a classic Americana number before taking on a sinister rock ’n’ roll edge toward the end. The Dead Winter Carpenters have a penchant for keeping you guessing, and Dirt does nothing to change that. 145 Elm Avenue in Auburn, www.deadwintercarpenters.com.
