Some love for some locals

After a wonderful string of benefit gigs for Haiti relief, some local musicians are putting on a couple cool shows for a pair of hometown dudes this weekend:

1. Friday at First Avenue: A charming cross-section of bands are teaming up to help a guy who has been helping them all these years, local sound engineer Matt Lindquist and the Twin Cities Community Trust. Matt was laid up in the hospital for more than a week with an H1N1/pneumonia double-whammy, and like so many self-employed music professionals he didn't have adequate insurance to cover it. His benefit lineup features thundering sludge-metal duo Gay Witch Abortion (headliner, slated for 11:50 p.m.), electronic-rock poets Halloween, Alaska, (9:40), U.K.-centric Current favorites Idle Hands (11:05), dark folk-rock ensemble Mursik (10:25), stormy power trio Story of the Sea (9:00) and eclectic folkie Tal Tahir (8:30). The show will include lots of raffle items and really should be quite a blast. Cover is $10.

2. Sunday (Valentine's Day) at Yellow Tree Theater in Osseo: A month and a half after selling out the Cedar for their "Alt-Country-Delete" CD party, Americana favorites Romantica picked this special little venue to throw a benefit for their drummer Jim Orvis, who also has medical bills piling up (and can't play gigs) due to complications from a dislocated atlas. The band's original skinsman Mark Hedlund is filling in. Here's info on the theater, just about 25 minutes northeast of Minneapolis. Showtime is 8 p.m. Here's how to get the $15 tickets.