Alejandro Escovedo

Alejandro Escovedo's acclaimed 2006 album The Boxing Mirror ran the gamut of moods from melancholy to self-doubt, an appropriate response to his hepatitis C-related 2003 brush with death. So how will he react to recovery?

Well, by looking back—and rocking out. Escovedo describes his upcoming Real Animal as a retrospective on his wild music career, which has taken him from living at the infamous late-'70s Chelsea Hotel as a member of punk band The Nuns to playing with alt-country pioneers Rank and File and True Believers. The songs themselves range from hard-driving rock to nuanced, cello-accented acoustic ballads—basically, a sample platter of the many modes of Escovedo.

But as good as Escovedo's albums can be, the man is even more renowned for his live shows, during which his songs burn with even more intensity. He can absolutely enrapture the audience, whether he's singing a quiet solo acoustic piece or channeling primal rock fury. Considering, though, that his soon-to-be-released disc includes a tribute to Iggy Pop, hopefully his setlist for this show will depend more heavily on the latter.