Over and Under
One big show, one smaller
The secret to the charm of barroom crooner-rock group Deer Tick is in its duality. Frontman John McCauley is a poet, but modeled in lifestyle closer to the hard-drinking Dylan Thomas than the quiet, besweatered ones the word evokes. The band’s new duo of releases, “Deer Tick Vol. 1” and “Deer Tick Vol. 2,” sums that split up neatly. The former album is acoustic, introspective, packed with songs of yearning and, in one song, “Me and My Man,” bromance appreciation. The latter is a door kicker, well suited to the low-ceiling rock clubs the band cut its teeth (and other body parts, probably) on when it was coming up. Deer Tick’s Gothic Theatre show, called “Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery,” comes on Oct. 28. Tickets: $27.50 via axs.com. Apropos of its name, shoegaze band Slowdive took 22 years to release its latest album. (Semi-fun fact: At 46 minutes, you could have listened to it 251,373 times in those bygone decades.) By any fan’s account, the self-titled “Slowdive” was worth the wait. An undulating womb of reverb and muffled shouts of sorrow, the disc re-awakened the legions of fans waiting patiently to fill a venue with the Reading, England, band and sway away their sorrows like a dark field of wheat in an Ambien commercial. If that sounds like your kind of Wednesday night, Slowdive takes to the Ogden Theatre on Nov. 1. Los Angeles’ Cherry Glazzer opens. Tickets are $30 and are available via axs.com