The best Twin Cities concerts this week: 2/20-2/26

Like fellow Louisiana native Lucinda Williams, Mary Gauthier sings with a molasses drawl moist with glistening droplets of emotion and has an extraordinary ability to etch pain and hardship into noirish Southern gothic fables. There's a stark eloquence in her poetry ("Clouds are spreading like bruises on the evening sky") and sinewy elegance in her haunting alt-country music, usually streaked with fiddle and steel. Gauthier writes finely detailed, metaphor-rich tunes about hobos, death row, drinking, and life on the fringe, often using her own circumstances as raw material. Her last studio album, The Foundling, for instance, revolves around questions of identity arising from her adoption as an infant. On her latest, Live at Blue Rock, recorded in Texas, Gauthier leads a lean trio through a smart assortment of her most memorable tunes, delivered with fearless intimacy and the raw power of naked emotion. Trampled By Turtles' Dave Simonett will also perform --Rick Mason
AA, $20, 8 PM

Now 17 years removed from his alt-rock radio hit "Novocaine for the Soul," Mark Oliver Everett and his chameleonic band Eels have the luxury of recording for a sizable and fervently devoted fan base that appears to be willing to follow them wherever Everett's peripatetic muse points next. On Eels' 10th album, Wonderful, Glorious, that predominantly means a rather schlocky retread of the garage-rock stomp that defined 2001's Souljacker, one of Eels' least memorable full-lengths. While Everett can still do hang-dog balladry better than almost anyone in the business -- countrified ditty "On the Ropes" is yet another classic -- his latest stabs at "rocking out" feel increasingly tired. That hardly matters for tonight's First Avenue gig, however, as Everett's notorious for throwing out the rulebook in concert. With Nicole Atkins. --Rob Van Alstyne
18+, $27.50, 8 PM 

7th St. Entry
Originally an inspired collision of African rhythms and psych-pop melodies, the Ruby Suns have since morphed into a decidedly less world-music minded outfit -- unless you define the world as a European discotheque circa 1985. Sole band mainstay Ryan McPhun leaned on "it" indie producer of the moment Chris Coady (Grizzly Bear, Beach House, etc.) to similarly super-size and specify his sound on new album Christopher. In its best moments, like toast-to-Robyn album opener "Desert of Pop," the result is an irresistible sugar rush of synthetic sounds that would have dominated Reagan-era New Wave radio shows. With Painted Palms.  --Rob Van Alstyne
18+, $10-$12, 8 PM

E-40 / Too $hort
Epic
E-40 was on the money when he said that his career defies logic: Since his start with the Click way back in 1990, E-40 independently rose to prominence thanks to his hustler sensibility and wholly distinct style. With a gigantic backlog of underground classics and mainstream successes, he's done the opposite of slow down as he approaches the wrong end of 40 years old. Since 2010's excellent pair of Revenue Retrievin' albums, which dropped simultaneously, he's continued that trend and even upped the ante to a dumbfounding five full-length albums in 2012 -- two with long-time co-consiprator and fellow West Coast ambassador Too $hort. $hort, the timeless dirty-rap pioneer, has continued to mine his signature freaky pimp raps to great effect. With Audio Perm and J-Fly. --Jack Spencer
21+, $25-$50, 10 PM

G-Eazy with Skizzy Mars and Kids Like Us
7th Street Entry 
New Orleans Beats
AA, SOLD OUT, 5:30 PM

Julian Lynch
Icehouse
If more musicians studied ethnomusicology, a guy like Julian Lynch wouldn't be so rare. Currently working on his Ph.D. in anthropology at UW-Madison, Lynch is wildly open about the instrumentation, time signature, and feel of his avant-pop songs, but never loses a focused approach. His outcomes shift into jazz, acoustic psychedelia, synthesizer-based trippines, and brassy world music. In all cases, familiarity creeps below the surface of songs awash in the cleverness and harmonies one used to hear in Animal Collective's early records, and perhaps a few by Crosby, Stills & Nash. Not yet sold? Just look at how his albums score on Pitchfork, you snobs. So far, this is his only announced show to promote his latest Underwater Peoples-based full-length, titled Lines. With Web of Sunsets and DJ Soft Abuse.--Reed Fischer
AA, $8, 10 PM.

Why? with Astronautalis and Sarah Winters
The Fine Line Music Cafe
Fiercely Chopsy
AA, $15, 6 PM

Red Baraat
Cedar Cultural Center
Dubbing its raucous, teeming sound Brooklyn bhangra, Red Baraat is a ferocious dhol'n'brass octet that mashes together the brass band tradition of Northern India, jazz, dub, ska, hip hop, the rousing spirit of New Orleans's funkified brass movement, and contemporary urban attitude. Sunny Jain, who leads the band and plays dhol (a handheld, conga-like Punjabi drum), played cutting-edge jazz with such heavyweights as Vijay Iyer and Rudresh Muhanthappa before deciding to stir crowds into sweaty furies with RB's highly contagious stew in 2007. The group's second studio album, Shruggy Ji, is a joyous maelstrom of muscular horns (six strong, driven by sousaphone and bari sax), marauding improvisations, complex rhythms, and ragged, adrenalin-laced vocals. It's celebratory music that's sneakily cerebral, equipped to ignite a party on any continent. --RIck Mason
AA, $15, 8 PM

Testament
First Avenue 
Though not one of the hallowed Big Four, Testament have certainly been more reliable over their three decades than Metallica, Anthrax, Slayer, or Megadeth -- umpteen lineup changes notwithstanding. Since releasing 1987's The Legacy and the next year's The New Order -- one of the greatest freshman-sophomore punches in metal history -- the Berkeley-founded thrashers have never stumbled. Last summer's Dark Roots of Earth, the band's 10th album overall, might not add any new ridges to the band's legacy -- riffs are stacked on top of riffs on top of riffs, while tempos rarely dip below 140 BPM -- but the thing has its moments. "Rise Up" was one of the most confident metal anthems to emerge in 2012, and Alex Skolnick's fretboard-charring solos on closer "Last Stand for Independence" pretty much typify why dude is worshiped by every last Guitar World subscriber. With Overkill, Flotsam and Jetsam, and 4ARM. --Mike Madden 
18+, $25, 5 PM 

Aby Wolf: "Wolf Lords" CD Release Show with Lizzo, Young Baby and Demographics
7th Street Entry
Groove Oriented 
18+, $8/$10, 10 PM