The Five Best Concerts in OC This Week

Monday, January 28
The Who
Honda Center

Sit up and take notice, you who love the most classic of all rock. The Who are playing in Orange County this week. Yeah, you read that correctly. Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend are coming to Anaheim to perform the iconic album Quadrophenia in its entirety along with some classic Who standards. That means songs like “Baba O'Riley,” “Behind Blue Eyes,” “Heaven and Hell,” “I Can See For Miles,” “My Generation,” “Pinball Wizard,” and “You Better You Bet” played live, wild and electrified, they way they were always meant to. Along with Pete's brother Simon Townshend on guitar and backing vocals, the rock legends are joined by Zak Starkey on drums and Pino Palladino on bass. Do. Not. Miss. This.– Erin DeWitt

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Wednesday, January 30
Emilie Autumn
The Glass House

Singer, violinist, poet, pink-haired victorian chanteuse Emilie Autumn comes back to play the Glass House this week with her all-female backing band The Bloody Crumpets–and it's been a big year for the gothic beauty. She released a new album, Fight Like a Girl, over the summer and announced an ambitious theater project to debut the three-hour musical version of her autobiographical novel at London's West End theatre. But her live shows are a thing of marvel–equal parts performance art and mad violin laced up with burlesque. This is pop gone a little crazy–industrial grit, polished melodies and dark lyrics over tea and cookies.–Erin DeWitt

Thursday, January 31

Free the Robots
Constellation Room

Free The Robots founder (and Crosby impresario) Chris Alfaro is one of the most agile and idiosyncratic beatmakers in greater LA–he's got anything-goes and an everything-rules record collection, and his compositions come from some kind of crazy alternate world where krautrock, psychedelia, hip-hop and dub all happened at the same time in the same place. No new album out yet, but just-out single “Ophic” (with Feeding People's Jessie Jones singing) overlaps Portishead with Dilla and Eastern-European new-wave film and points at even greater things for FTR in 2013. He's joined at this show by friends from/members of the mighty My Hollow Drum. —Chris Ziegler

Friday, February 1

Riders in the Sky
Long Beach Terrace Theater

Westerns are gritty, dirty depictions of a wild time. A time when man dared to fulfill his destiny with chewin' tabaccy and wide brim hats. A time when music consisted of fiddle playin', boot stampin' and gun fire. Country and Western band Riders in the Sky shows a different side of the Wild West. This music and comedy quartet forego dusty chaps in favor of brightly embroidered cowboy shirts, choosing the Woody from Toy Story route rather than Clint Eastwood. And together, Ranger Doug “the Idol of American Youth”, Woody Paul “the King of the Cowboy Fiddlers”, Too Slim “the Man of a Thousand Hats” and Joey “the Cowpolka King” delight audiences with their accordion, stand-up bass, acoustic guitar, old-timey fiddle and timeless jokes. — Amanda Parsons

The Coltranes
Unit B Studio

Describing their style as a “biker bar beatdown,” the Coltranes' sound is raw, heavy, fast and freaky. Hailing from So Cal's wine country (Temecula), they forgo melody in favor of unbridled intensity. Their singer calls to mind the work of Steve Albini as he drones and screeches over arrangements that call to mind a slew of punk bands from the Misfits to the Butthole Surfers. It's a sonic smorgasbord that's sure to see a seething pit. —Brandon Ferguson

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