A Plus

Though the A-Frames hail from the lush environs of Washington state, the landscape described on their 2005 release Black Forest is barren and charred. Singer Erin Sullivan (credited as "emphysema" in the liner notes) offers deadpan ruminations on a near future, a time after the Terminators take over, with lyrics about experiments gone awry, poisoned air, reading cuneiform — it's the view from the other side of the apocalypse. On the record, jagged, scraping guitar and beats that recall both the dirty metallic thwack of Pussy Galore and the mechanical rhythms of Kraftwerk provide an appropriate context for Sullivan's paranoid, postmodern visions.

Tonight the band is joined by Pterodactyl, a New York-based power trio whose sustained, piercing guitar tones occasionally resemble the winged reptile it's named after. The group's album Blue Jay features drums that sound like they're being played with concrete sticks, the aforementioned guitar cascades, and percussive noiseplosions. But cool, crooned vocal hooks and Deerhoof-ian melodic outbursts help the band’s music truly take flight.

Pyramids open.