THE AFGHAN WHIGS
8 p.m. • Varsity Theater • 18-plus • sold out
Twin Cities fans will be treated to what looks like the most intimate show on the Afghan Whigs' first tour in 13 years, which has been going strong and earning rave reviews all summer. Some of the seeds for their reunion were actually planted at their local venue of choice, since singer Greg Dulli and Minneapolis-based guitarist Rick McCollum got together on stage there a few years back during a gig by Dulli's post-Whigs group the Twilight Singers. Their Cincinatti-bred band doused the grunge era with heavy doses of dark soul music via such classic albums as "Gentlemen" and "Up in It," and they always blew audiences' wigs off live. CHRIS RIEMENSCHNEIDER
GET OUT TO VOTE MN
6:30 p.m. • First Avenue • 18-plus • $5
The Get Out to Vote concert, co-organized with U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison's re-election campaign, offers the biggest assemblage of Twin Cities hip-hop talent outside of May's annual Soundset festival. Rhymesayers labelmates Slug and Brother Ali, who just got together on stage at First Ave three weekends ago for Ali's release parties, will pair up again to top off the show. Some of the scene's other most topical rappers also perform, including Dessa, I Self Devine, Los Nativos and MaLLy, while Plain Ole Bill and Kevin Beacham will DJ. C.R.
ROYAL THUNDER
8:30 p.m. • Mill City Nights • 18-plus • $10
If this Atlanta quartet is the first metal act Mill City Nights has booked in its "Nether Bar," the corporate-backed club could've done a lot worse. The female-fronted classic metal revivalists hang melodic doom grooves on '70s-style riffs, rubbed in a bluesy sludge like a Black Mountain-Mastodon hybrid. A head-banging history isn't a prerequisite for enjoying the witchy wall of vintage guitar rock that buttresses the Southern metallers' full-length debut. Local grind trio Ambassador Gun, which has a promising new LP on Prosthetic Records, and Blue Ox open.MICHAEL RIETMULDER
