Steve Aoki

Steve Aoki

9 p.m. • Myth • 18-plus • $45-$145

Cake-tossing, crowd-surfing producer Aoki has been the butt of jokes from DJs decrying the commercialized, press-play EDM era. But the polarizing star is laughing all the way to the top of America's mainstream dance culture. The electro-house hitmaker unveiled the first of his two-part "Neon Future" album shortly before his raucous Zombie Pub Crawl performance last fall, with the second half expected sometime this year. Love him or hate him, the Dim Mak boss' infectious festi-rave anthems and collaborations with everyone from Waka Flocka to Fall Out Boy have helped push EDM into the pop-culture consciousness. With hard-style/EDM producer Headhunterz, Caked Up, Dirtyphonics and Reid Stefan. Michael Rietmulder

Blackberry Smoke

8:30 p.m. • First Avenue • 18-plus • $25

Blackberry Smoke surprised the music industry last week when it landed at No. 1 on Billboard's country album chart with its new album, "Holding All the Roses" — a surprise because the Nashville-based quintet sure looks and sounds like a rock band. The members could be cast in a Lynyrd Skynyrd biopic. Musically, they sound like a melding of Joe Walsh, .38 Special and the Georgia Satellites. Their heavy use of fiddle is the only thing overtly twangy. Ah well, they sure beat all the glossy pop acts passing themselves off as country music nowadays. The Temperance Movement and Ben Miller Band open. Chris Riemenschneider

Pert Near Sandstone

Sure, bluegrass music sounds better outdoors on a summer night. Pert Near Sandstone does the best it can in the dead of the cold season with its annual Winter String Gathering, housed in the best indoor space for acoustic music in town and featuring some of the best new bluegrassy acts from around the country that the local pickers could convince to come to Minnesota in winter. This year's lineup features Austin, Texas, one-man string band Possessed by James on Night One and traditional-flavored Asheville, N.C., quintet Town Mountain on Night Two. C.R.

Cheap Girls

9 p.m. • Turf Club • $10-$12