The Walkmen’s distinctly bittersweet take on turn-of-the-century New York guitar rock is at turns blissful and brutal, a dynamic best captured on their 2004 album Bows & Arrows and its seething single “The Rat.” After persistent, early buzz, stock fell in the band as they oversaturated the market with two 2006 releases, the place-holding A Hundred Miles Off and the oddity Pussy Cats, a track-by-track remake of a Harry Nilsson album, but the band rebounded with last year’s return-to-form You & Me, and The Walkmen retain their reputation as a must-see live act (just ask anyone who saw them at the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago this weekend). Over the years, opener Cass McCombs, a Baltimore singer-songwriter, has dialed down the overeager arrangements of his early records in favor of stripped-down, fromthe-heart folk songs. His barren new album, Catacombs, contains some of his finest work yet.
The Walkmen w/ Cass McCombs
Tonight @ Turner Hall Ballroom, 8 p.m.
