The Best Concerts in OC This Week

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Monday, September 15

Let's Drive to Alaska Residency
The Continental Room
Not since 2001: A Space Odyssey have we been handed such an out-of-this-world impression of sci-fi in pop culture. The music of Let's Drive to Alaska is a majestic journey through electronic beats, jazz, and post-rock that ultimately stimulates the mind and soothes the soul. The group, composed of duo Christopher Garcia and Patrick Haag, feed off of each other's musical energies to deliver a sonic postcard from outer space, with eargasms galore. Tonight is their third night playing their residency at Continental Room, which means a chance to see LDTA more than once. Appearing with Time and Energy, Plastic Parade and Technocrat. (Aimee Murillo)

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Tuesday, September 16
Katy Perry
Honda Center
Reigning candy-pop queen Katy Perry comes to the Honda Center this week for a two-night run–so prepare your feisty tween selves for an overload of cupcake bras, pizza bikinis, dancing robots, and more gaudy glittery costume changes than an episode of The Real Housewives of New Jersey. Rife with radio hits, Miss Perry's live shows are equal parts performance art and music concert–expect anything from massive peacock-tails to snowman costumes to surprise celebrity guest appearances. Just her third concert tour, this, dubbed The Prismatic World Tour, has already taken the star to Ireland, Scotland and England, but she's coming home to the States for a run before heading back overseas later this year. Say what you will about her sugar-rush style of bubblegum pop, we definitely commend her for this: a portion of the tour's proceeds benefit UNICEF, Autism Speaks, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and Susan G. Komen for the Cure. (Erin DeWitt)

Wednesday, September 17

Diana Ross
Terrace Theater
As the lead singer of the most successful American vocal group ever, Miss Ross really didn't need to do anything else for the rest of her life. But she did. After shedding (the other girls might say shredding) the Supremes, Ross went on to achieve 11 Top Ten solo hits and acquire an Oscar nod for her role in Lady Sings the Blues. Okay, she also made The Wiz, but no one can dispute that “Ease on Down the Road” is one catchy tune. Unbelievably, Ross has never won a Grammy (the Statler Brothers' “Flowers on the Wall” beat the Supreme's “Stop! In the Name of Love” in one of the great crimes in award show history), but she's still had 70 hit singles in her combined group and solo careers, so, phffft to the Grammys. At age 70, Ross doesn't seem ready to step off the glamour train any time soon, so grab your greatest hits CD, brush up on your lyrics, and get your liquid sanitizer ready for when you're told to reach out and touch somebody's hand–the only downside of a Diana Ross concert, to be sure. (SR Davies)
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Thursday, September 18

Hot Snakes
Alex's Bar
Admit it–when you very first heard that Drive Like Jehu were doing a reunion show, a tiny part of your brain instantly thought, “Is it at Alex's Bar!?” And it wasn't, but that would've made sense, since Alex's has become pretty much the local spot to catch every incarnation (and offshoot) of San Diego's arguably most enduringly famous punk band. And so here come Hot Snakes, the alternate-dimension descendants of Jehu, with storied guitarists/frontfigures Rick Froberg and John Reis and the equally storied rhythm section of Gar Wood, Mario Rubalcaba and Jason Kourkounis–two drummers, you surely know–knocking out some truly bent and mental garage-punk 'n' roll. We think it was the last time they played Alex's that something caught fire, so get ready, because if any band can successfully top one of the most elemental forces in nature, it's these guys. (Chris Ziegler)

Tomorrow's Tulips
The Constellation Room
Tomorrows Tulips are out there on the edge of the Burger Records roster, where known space dissolves and communication with home base starts dissolving into static. (That's where the Cosmonauts hang out, too, by the way.) Their sound is a distant sound, matching a skeletal K Records rhythm section to the annihilated pop of the early Jesus and Mary Chain–you know, when they didn't so much play songs as simply exude them. The Tulips' album-teasing new video (for the upcoming When full-length) attaches the uptempo Teenage Fanclub-style rocker “Baby” to the cryogenically slow-mo zone-out “Glued to You,” which is as romantic as it is tranquilizing. Now and forever, this is the kind of band that will have a particularly potent effect on its listeners–please, heed all warning labels. (Chris Ziegler)

See also
10 Punk Albums to Listen to Before You Die
10 Goriest Album Covers
10 Most Satanic Metal Bands

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