Top 5 Shows

1.) Shonen Knife used to be my favorite band –– for a minute. Not long after the all-female Japanese trio that formed in 1981 arrived with a bang into my world about a decade later, bassist Michie Nakatani, frontwoman Naoko Yamano, and drummer Atsuko Yamano got decent at their instruments. All of the rawness blended with quality pop songcraft and completely disarming silliness that defined the musicians was overtaken by moderate technical proficiency and self-consciousness. Though the best Shonen Knife remains the old, Who-influenced Shonen Knife, the band is still kicking, albeit with only one original member, frontwoman Naoko. The new Knife files into Club Dada (2720 Elm St., Dallas, 214-744-3232) tonight (Thursday) with Skating Polly and Dallas’ Party Static, an early-Knife-influenced band but one that’s not nearly as endearing or interesting.

Chances are, you won’t hear this greatness in its original, great form. Growing up sucks.

Tickets are $12.

2.) Former frontman of The 13th Floor Elevators, one of the first psychedelic-rock bands in the states, living legend Roky Erickson returns to Dallas on Saturday, this time at Double Wide (3510 Commerce St., 214-887-6510) as part of the club’s 11th anniversary and with the hyper-intense High on Fire, Denton’s Riverboat Gamblers, and the twangy Derailers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47SI1FddVqY

I bet a lot of the teenyboppers who loved “You’re Gonna Miss Me” bought the album on which the song appears, The Psychedelic Sounds of The 13th Floor Elevators, and were like, “Gee-whiz, Daddy-O. The rest of the album is pretty far out!”

It’s no Trout Mask Replica or Moby Grape –– Psychedelic Sounds’ songs are much more tightly structured and accessible –– but there are a few trippy-dippy moments (and lots of boinging surf guitar and lazing-in-the-grass reveries). Turn on, tune in, drop out indeed.

Tickets are $25.

3.) One of the best nontraditional venues in town, Doc’s Records & Vintage (9522 Camp Bowie West, 817-732-5455) knows how to throw a party. As the bands perform on the indoor corner stage, concertgoers take in the sounds from the folding chairs down in front, from near the kegs by the opposite corner of the building, or from the aisles and aisles of vinyl LPs. It’s quite a sight. And the good folks at Doc’s know that there needs to be some grub for concertgoers to soak up all that free beer with –– staffers grill fajitas and other stick-to-your-ribs goodies on the small back patio within earshot of the stage.

For Doctoberfest this Saturday, things will get started at noon with Crooked Compass. Following the local experimental/instrumental rock band’s first show will be Denton’s Blessin’ at 1 p.m., F-Dub math-rockers Cleanup at 2, Fort Worth/Cleburne’s toughest and most ragged psychedelic surf-punks Fungi Girls at 3, the spacey North Texas duo Wire Nest at 4, and headlining at 5 p.m. the dark, brooding, and loud operatic-goth-metal twosome Pinkish Black.

No cover.

4.) I don’t know much about Phantogram, but the song below is intense and beautiful.

The band will be in Dallas on Tuesday, playing South Side Ballroom (1135 S. Lamar St., 800-745-3000) with Broken Bells, a pretty successful side project of Shins frontman James Mercer and Danger Mouse. Tickets are $36.

5.) Blood of the Sun is back. The Fort Worth stoner-rock band was pretty big in the mid-aughts before going on a then-indefinite hiatus for drummer/vocalist Henry Vasquez to play in and tour with California hard-rock giants Saint Vitus. But now that SV is taking a little break, Vasquez has thrown himself back into BOTS full force. Before both bands play on Sunday in Dallas at Gas Monkey Bar N Grill (10261 Technology Blvd. E., 214-350-1904), Blood of the Sun will be at The Rail Club (3101 Joyce Dr., 817-560-RAIL) on Friday with two Fort Worth acts, The Cosmic Trigger and Volume Dealer, plus Dallas’ Black Summer Rain.

Cover to the Rail show is $10.