The Guide to The Week's Concerts 

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YES, PLEASE: Ghostface, The Ramblers, Hege V and Phil Lee, Pacific Before Tiger

EH, WHATEVER: Devil Doll, The Misfits

VS.: Dinosaur Jr vs. Thrice

INTRODUCING: Calico Haunts

LAST WEEK'S PARTY: Enon

SONG OF THE WEEK: Jon Shain's "Silvertone"

YES, PLEASE

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11.27 GHOSTFACE @ CAT'S CRADLE

• Watch Ghostface's video for "Run" on YouTube

Both Ghostface and the Scion-sponsored Metro series have become Cat's Cradle regulars over the past two years, and tonight they come to Carrboro together. Expect energy, as shows from the Wu member with the consistently best solo records generally start in earnest and dovetail into entropy: The Ghostface-supporting Theodore Unit should get a lot of action tonight, which is fine as long as Ghostface uses them to deliver a frantic version of his cop-chase epic "Run." If typical Ghostface fashion holds, an onstage show-ending dance party will get so dense the performers will get lost among the shaking hips. The Rhythm Roots All-Stars join Ghostface onstage, and DJ spins before the set. Sign up for free at www.scion.com/livemetro. 9:30 p.m. —Grayson Currin

11.24 THE RAMBLERS @ THE CAVE

Every year around Thanksgiving, you can catch Jim Watson, Bill Hicks and Mike Craver playing like it was 1973. Of course, just as in '73, a lot of the time they'll sound like it's 1933. And with these gifted musicians and skilled tune-excavators, that's something to be thankful for. 8:30 p.m. —Rick Cornell

11.24 HEGE V & PHIL LEE @ HIDEAWAY BBQ

The son of a sheriff (Lee) and the son of a Grand Ole Opry member (V, which rhymes with Lee), these two were making rocking country-conscious music long before the phrase alt-anything entered the music vocabulary. Some 20 years down a lot of roads, they're still at it with pioneer spirit. Call this one the Mighty King of Love in the House of Tears. Jason Eady opens. $10/ 9:30 p.m. —Rick Cornell

11.24 PACIFIC BEFORE TIGER @ NIGHTLIGHT

Vibes for Nightlight: Greensboro's Pacific Before Tiger builds long-form keyboard-structures that tap the legacies of Austrian Christian Fennesz and German Max Richter, gathering repeated passes above wafts of electroacoustic hum. Promute turns an aggressive eye toward similar influences, slowly shifting themes through noise and ambience over long sets. Openers Gray Young show melodic post-rock promise. $5/ 10 p.m. —Grayson Currin

EH, WHATEVER

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11.28 DEVIL DOLL @ HIDEAWAY BBQ

Nothing's fundamentally wrong with Colleen Duffy becoming the pin-up model character Devil Doll to sell concert tickets or records. Let's just be clear: This Los Angeles sideshow is a complete novelty act, a Britney Spears stand-in for the rockabilly set who plays tame R&B and amateur punk with a smidgen of attitude just strong enough to sell the old-school act emanating from her leopard prints and stilettos. The players add more to the songs than her high-school-talent-show "sultry vocals": She's covering a lack of substance with flawless skin and skimpy gowns. And, sexy or not, that's superficial, no? $10/ 8:30 p.m. —Grayson Currin

11.27 THE MISFITS @ VOLUME 11 TAVERN

The Misfits were cartoonish when they first appeared, and 30 years has only transformed the horror-movie glyphs, adolescent angst and punkabilly rumble into a kitschy, low-grade knock-off of the Cramps. While Jerry Only keeps the name alive and ex-Black Flag guitarist Dez Cadena adds cred, it's difficult to imagine a band so wedded to the persona and spirit of its lead singer as the Misfits. Long-departed frontman Glenn Danzig's resonant bellow was unique, while the churning surf-punk sound that's their legacy has been replicated more than the hamburger, with equal success. How's "Where Eagles Dare" without the special sauce? Fine, one supposes, if you don't mind ground chuck. With Slugnut and Motorbilly. $22-$25/ 8 p.m. —Chris Parker

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 28

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DINOSAUR JR

From: Amherst, Mass.
Since: 1984
Claim to fame: Marshall stacks and indie rock

Beyond is the fourth album in 22 years from the classic lineup of Dinosaur Jr and its first since 1988's untouchable BUG. It's also one of the year's best surprises: A tight, punchy 50 minutes, Beyond preserves Dinosaur artifacts like loudness and some of the smartest guitar parts indie rock's ever produced while adding a sweetness previously parlayed into Dinosaur aggression. Frontman J. Mascis continues to pick up the pen as a perpetual outsider, too, so the sentiment he expressed in 1988 on "Freak Scene" remains largely unchanged on "Crumble" or the searing "Almost Ready." Look for the winks in Dinosaur's sadness. Openers Awesome Color love the Stooges and heavy psychedelics. At LINCOLN THEATRE for $25-$28 at 8 p.m.

VS.

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THRICE

From: Irvine, Calif.
Since: 1998
Claim to fame: Post-Radiohead hardcore

The Alchemy Index Vols. I & II is the first half of the fifth album from California's Thrice, collecting the first two installments of song cycles using fire, earth, water and air as metaphors and mechanisms for lost-love laments. Lavishly illustrated in a two-disc, 12-song, 48-minute package, Vols. I & II finds frontman Dustin Kensrue going deep, writing in first person as a firebomb raining over Dresden or comparing a lover to the ocean "because it gives and it takes away." There are no winks here. Instead, there are only the sighs of a band whose songwriter gives his feelings planetary importance and asks them to make him edgy with chain-gang chants or digital textures. All the laughs are on the outside. Openers mewithoutYou are sort of charming. Headliners Brand New are not. At DISCO RODEO at 7 p.m. for $23.50. —Grayson Currin

INTRODUCING...

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11.27 CALICO HAUNTS @ THE CAVE

When Alex Iglehart moved to Chapel Hill last year, he was ready for a small town with rock clubs and record stores and bands. He'd been shuffling around from band and band, city to city for 15 years, and he needed something smaller than his last stop, Baltimore. Appropriately, the sound he had in mind for his more easy-going environs was gentler than the rock he was used to playing, a reticent Leonard Cohen tongue plied over broad, acoustic Stones strides. He soon met Snatches of Pink/All Night/Strugglers member Nikos Chremos, who encouraged him to return to an electric approach with this new acoustic material. "That's what I have always done," says Iglehart. The band played its first show in front of a packed Raleigh house with Patty Hurst Shifter, but it took the quiet route with Funeral Parlor Blues, its debut album. Iglehart says that recording is now serving as a demo, and he plans to have another record ready to go by March. 10 p.m. —Grayson Currin

LAST WEEK'S PARTY

11.14 ENON @ DUKE COFFEEHOUSE

Still smoldering from the release of Grass Geysers...Carbon Clouds, Enon played a blistering set of quick guitar bursts ("Mirror, Mirror") and slow-grinding hooks ("Mr. Ratatatatat") to a grateful crowd. Bassist/vocalist Toko Yasuda and drummer Matt Schulz laid down the tracks; guitarist/vocalist John Schmersal leaped onto the train. Neon-green Fender in hand, Schmersal (formerly of Brainiac) combined the rough spontaneity of Jack White with the technical dexterity of Eddie Van Halen. Australian openers Love of Diagrams—led by their own lightning rod of a guitarist and seeming Schmersal protégé, Luke Horton—thrilled as well. —Matt Saldaña