Mono, Bellini, Gorch Fock

Best not clang the pint glasses during Mono's lulling, ambient guitar build-ups. Hold 'em too loose and they'll crash to the ground when the Japanese quartet goes ape with their devastating tension-release tsunamis of sound. Last year's instrumental Walking Cloud and Deep Red Sky, Flag Fluttered and the Sun Shined was both a grim soundtrack to the darkest days and a bright beacon in clouded times, and the songs should be a home run for the concert crowd that digs major dynamic shifts and slow-building post-rock Picassos. Opening is the nomadic Bellini, featuring husky-voiced Sicilian vocalist Giovanna Cacciola and a herky-jerky dissonant jangle, and playing first is Austin circus Gorch Fock, a seven-piece ensemble with dueling drums and a trumpet who conjure the rough-and-tumble freakishness of the Jesus Lizard and the Cows.