WEDNESDAY: The Black Lillies bring their Knoxville-bred newgrass/Americana to the 8X10. Chicago punk band 40oz.Sidekicks play the Sidebar with Seasonal, Barriers, and Vague Ocuplanes. Wendel Patrick and Erik Spangler’s monthly night of hip-hop exploration the Boom Bap Society returns to the Windup Space.

THURSDAY: Japanese trippers-in-chief Acid Mothers Temple glaze over at the Ottobar with Phantom Family Halo, Clang Quartet, and a rare outing of Baltimore’s Mopar Mountain Daredevils. Slash opens his current/upcoming U.S. tour at Rams Head Live with Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators. Cave-punk beast Hollywood returns to its roots at the Sidebar with the Hall Monitors. Nu Directions Chamber Brass busts up/breaks down chamber music at An die Musik. Sac au Lait does Dixieland at Joe Squared Station North.

FRIDAY: George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic don’t quit for nothin’ at Rams Head Live. Horror-punk band Blinding Eye Dog plays the Sidebar with the Silverhounds, Wrath of Typhon, and fellow terribly named band Bukkake Party Tonight. Boister, a Baltimore 10-piece including local brains from the All Mighty Senators and Crack the Sky, along with John Dierker, Anne Watts, and many more, perform a benefit for MusiKNOW at An die Musik. Swedish singer/songwriter Ane Brun performs at Baltimore Soundstage; later, at the same club, Kid Ink takes over with Emilio Rojas. Kinobe and the African Sensation do Ugandan roots music at the Creative Alliance. Korn is “lulz” at the Fillmore in Silver Spring. Modern classical thinker and Xylosynth performer Shayna Dunkelman shares a bill at the Red Room at Normal’s Books and Records with Michael Carter’s Preshish Moments. Mike Pinto “blends reggae, ska, and dub styles, but still enjoys the smooth sounds of an acoustic guitar” at Towson’s Recher Theatre.

SATURDAY: Buck Jones and Porkchop host the fifth and third editions, respectively, of the King and Queen of Baltimore dance contests at Sonar. The performance night of the Videopolis out-film celebration takes over the Metro Gallery with west-side ghost-clatter duo Nautical Almanac, Kristen Anchor, Christine Ferrera, Adam Schwarz, and Meg Rorison. Behemoth reps the Polish death-metal old-school at Rams Head Live with Watain, the Devil’s Blood, and In Solitude. The Jon Wood Band does jam-fusion at the 8X10 with the Rez. Charisma Wooten, Stef Scaggiari, and Mark Russell take on a large swath of the 20th-century American songbook at An die Musik. Downtempo producer Emancipator performs at Baltimore Soundstage with heyday Ghostly International standard-bearer Dabrye. Baltimore hardcore band Stout sobers up at Charm City Art Space with Bracewar, Turnstile, Dead End Path, and many more. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra does Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7 at the Meyerhoff. Composer and experimentalist Mary Jane Leach delivers a lecture and demonstration at the Red Room. Don’t miss: Lower Dens celebrate the release of their near-perfect and long-awaited post-pop, post-human opus Nootropics at the Ottobar with Celebration, Violens, and Sprayer. (Discloser: Lower Dens’ Nate Nelson is the Short List’s roommate.)

SUNDAY: Old Man Gloom, a post-doom (?) supergroup of dudes from Isis, Converge, and Cave-In, gives the Ottobar another round of winter. Rusted Root gets, uh, sent on its way at Washington, D.C.’s 9:30 Club. Christian nu-/rap-metal band P.O.D. gives praise at Rams Head Live with Red. City Paper contributor Geoffrey Himes’ monthly songwriters series Roots Café returns to An die Musik with June Star’s Timothy Bracken and singer/songwriter Michael Beresh. UK, a short-lived (circa 1977) prog supergroup of dudes from bands like Yes and Roxy Music, reunites at Baltimore Soundstage. Classical Revolution does a string-centric “chamber jam” at Joe Squared Station North. New-folk songwriter Luke Roberts performs at the Golden West with Soft Cat and Adam Lempel.

MONDAY: Boston rock band Phone Calls From Home is just in it to help people, OK, at Sonar with Glory Days, My Girl Friday, and more.

TUESDAY: The Go-Gos still got the beat, possibly/hopefully, at Rams Head Live. Thee Lexington Arrows bring their broad garage/rock/rockabilly amalgam back to the Sidebar with Kill, Baby . . . Kill!. Landis Expandis and DJ Napspace’s Dig weekly returns to Joe Squared Station North. Don’t miss: Will Redman’s the Compositions do very strange things to/with chamber music, improv, and composition at the Red Room with the duo of Peter Evans and Travis Laplante.

WEDNESDAY: The giant brain of indie-pop songwriter Andrew Bird squeezes and squishes into Rams Head Live. A Fallen Blue Police Benefit Concert takes over Baltimore Soundstage with Randy Jackson, AJ Pero, Steve Augeri, and more. Tatsuya Nakatani reinvents percussion several times over at the Red Room with John Berndt. Blues/psych-rock trio Mount Carmel comes down heavy on the Golden West Café with Endless Boogie and the Convocation. Don’t miss: Composers Ronald Pearl and Paul Moravec deliver two different takes on Shakespeare’s The Tempest at An die Musik with help from the Atlantic Guitar Quartet and more for another edition of the Evolution Contemporary series.

IN THE WINGS: Canadian songwriting rising-star City and Colour comes to Rams Head Live May 30 with David Bazan. (For more information visit ramsheadlive.com or call [410] 244-1131.) Maryland Death Fest, indeed the best-in-North America celebration of extreme metal, returns to Sonar May 24 through 27. (For more information visit sonarbaltimore.com or call [410] 783-7888.)

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