HEARTLESS BASTARDS
9 p.m., Sticky Fingerz.
Her voice has been compared to Janis Joplin’s and PJ Harvey’s, neither of which sound right to these ears, though each vocalist summons deep bursts of feeling by swinging between quiet and howling. Which is what Erika Wennerstrom does really, really well. She could almost be a less breathy, more rangy Cat Power — bluesy and oddly beautiful — but thankfully, the Heartless Bastards are far from dour. The Cincinnati trio kicks out brawny, head-whipping rock somewhere in the same sonic geography as the Black Keys. A new album, on Fat Possum — the band’s third — appears to be in the works, so look out for new songs. Up-and-coming indie-folk singer/songwriter Langhorne Slim opens the show. Early in his career, he called himself the bastard child of Hasil Adkins. He’s much smoother now than his former fake father, but there’s still quite a bit of mischief in his songs.
Here’s “All This Time.”