The Mountain Goats

Growing significantly since their beginnings in the early '90s as a lo-fi folk group that recorded straight into a cassette-tape boom box, The Mountain Goats get sadder and sadder every year. 2005's The Sunset Tree was an autobiographical account of child abusescathingly dedicated to singer-songwriter John Darnielle's actual stepfather, who Darnielle notes made the album possibleand 2006's Get Lonely followed a particularly bad breakup. The band’s latest, Heretic Pride, takes a break from the painful autobiographical storytelling of their last three albums to tell some painful stories about fictional characters instead. Opening tonight for the Mountain Goats’ 8 p.m. show at the Pabst Theater is Kaki King, who uses her sepia-toned folk songs as a vehicle for some truly impressive guitar work.