Around the triangle: standout concerts of the spring season

Between programming from Duke Performances, DUU and Duke’s arts-related academic departments, the university will play host to a vibrant and diverse collection of performance offerings over the spring semester. But to take full advantage of the Triangle area’s emergence as a hotbed of musical talent, students must venture beyond campus. Here’s an overview of a few of the exciting musical acts coming to venues in Raleigh, Durham or Chapel Hill during the spring.

Feb. 4: Theophilus London at Cat’s Cradle

The Brooklyn-based rapper/fashion icon/Morrissey devotee had his coming-out party last year, when he released debut album Timez Are Weird These Days, which featured Tegan and Sara and Solange Knowles and a production assist from Dave Sitek, and made a sizable splash with a performance at the Cannes Film Festival. Like many of his contemporaries, London is equally comfortable singing a hook as he is laying down verses. But his eclectic tastes in backing tracks—Timez swung back and forth between sparse, 808s and Heartbreak-inspired electro-pop and the sort of neo-soul that Sitek’s been making during his day job with TV on the Radio—and his hipster-idol good looks could find him a niche audience.

Feb. 4: The Mountain Goats at Haw River Ballroom

Since relocating to Durham in 2006 after being active on the west coast for 15 years, John Darnielle and the Mountain Goats have become a veritable Durham institution: they’re regular performers at local venues and released their last two stellar albums, The Life of the World to Come and All Eternals’ Deck, on Laura Ballance’ and Mac McCaughan’s Chapel Hill-based Merge Records. But their status as hometown favorites belies the band’s stature as a nationally beloved act. Darnielle is, by any measure, one of American folk music’s most accomplished and inventive lyricists; the Mountain Goats’ concerts are nothing short of a religious experience for devoted fans. This may not be their last date in the Triangle for a while, but there’s no time like the present, either.

Feb. 12: Sharon Van Etten at Cat’s Cradle

Van Etten’s early LPs, Epic and Because I Was in Love showed off the Brooklyn singer-songwriter’s ace in the hole: a voice at once intimate and expansive, capable of evoking all the emotions that her lovelorn lyrics promised on the page. Since their release, she’s drawn comparisons to Neko Case and Chan Marshall, as well as endorsements from fellow indie darlings Bon Iver and the National. On Feb. 7, she’ll release a long-awaited follow-up, Tramp; her audience at Cat’s Cradle will have the opportunity to hear one of the first performances of her new material five days later.

Mar. 3: Craig Finn at Local 506

Recess caught up with War on Drugs frontman Adam Granduciel last October ahead of a previous tour date in Raleigh, and the Philadelphia-based folk-rocker talked about an affinity for North Carolina that the band developed while recording parts of their standout album Slave Ambient in Asheville. That album was one of last year’s revelations: classic songwriting in the vein of Tom Petty or Fleetwood Mac, put through a wash of synth-driven, slow-moving atmospherics. This year, Granduciel and co. return for a well-deserved victory lap at Lincoln Theatre, and give area residents one more chance to hear their brand of neo-retro Americana.

Mar. 21: Neon Indian at Cat’s Cradle

Don’t blame Neon Indian for the backlash. Sure, they were there at the beginning of the “chillwave” movement, but it’s hardly Alan Palomo’s fault that his synth-heavy psychedelia inspired so many lesser imitators. 2009 debut Psychic Chasms was a zeitgeist-capturing moment, a highlight of a deadbeat summer that specialized in woozy, languorous pop music. The band’s 2011 follow-up Era Extraña never quite matched its predecessor’s chemically induced highs (“Should’ve Taken Acid With You,” natch), but Palomo smoothed out Chasm’s rougher edges by creating some strong, easily accessible pop music, like “Suns Irrupt” and “Halogen (I Could Be a Shadow).”

Mar. 23: Youth Lagoon at Cat’s Cradle

Trevor Powers has no use for irony or for playing it safe, and we’re all better for it. On Youth Lagoon’s debut The Year of Hibernation, the Boise, Idaho twenty-something shot for the moon on a shoestring budget, writing one huge, life-affirming chorus after the next, each made more epic for the obvious production limitations. It’s the sort of music that translates particularly well to a live setting, where Powers’ undeniable sincerity can be amplified to a communal level. If crass disaffection is the disease, Youth Lagoon is the cure.

Mar. 23: Tyondai Braxton and Colin Stetson at Motorco Music Hall

Motorco will play host to one of the more high-powered double bills that Duke Performances has put together in some time. Stetson is an impossibly talented bass saxophonist who managed on his superb 2011 LP New History Warfare, Vol. 2 to fill an entire sonic spectrum with a single instrument. Braxton is a similarly virtuosic multi-instrumentalist who followed up his career-making turn on Battles’ 2007 experimental rock classic Mirrored with the sophisticated, orchestral loops of 2009 solo album Central Market. They’re among the most original and forward-looking of working musicians, and the chance to see both at once—for a whopping $5, no less—isn’t to be missed.

Apr. 4: Of Montreal at Cat’s Cradle

There are few experiences quite like Of Montreal live, because few people can match the delightful weirdness of frontman Kevin Barnes. The band hit a creative peak a few years ago on 2007’s Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?, when Barnes’ free-associative, sardonic emoting was applied to tight, verse-chorus-verse pop and freewheeling rock grooves with equal aplomb. But even though subsequent LPs Skeletal Lamping and False Priest haven’t lived up to that standard, Of Montreal’s got more than enough standout tracks in their back catalog to put together a stellar set—and more than enough on-stage antics to make the night a triumph of zany, restless creativity.

Apr. 29: Bear in Heaven at King’s Barcade

It’s not like there was anything wrong with Bear in Heaven’s 2007 debut The Red Bloom of the Boom, a varied yet cohesive work that drew from a whole range of genres—IDM, prog- and post-rock, dub and good old-fashioned Southern rock were all fair game—sometimes incorporating all these elements into a single song. But the band tore apart their approach and returned with something at once more accessible and more inscrutable with magnificent 2009 follow-up Beast Rest Forth Mouth, a cavernously large record tidy pop compositions. Where they go next, on upcoming release I Love You, It’s Cool, is anyone’s guess, and the audience at King’s Barcade will have a front-row seat for the intrigue.