IT'S HAPPENING TONIGHT >>>

Amocat Cafe Tacoma - Triangle District. Amocat Live! featuring the Amocat House Band. All Ages. 7 pm.

Hell's Kitchen Tacoma - Downtown. Projections, They Charge Like Warriors, Until This Sunrise. All Ages. 6 pm. The Dignitaries, Deathtrap America, Variety Hour, Sources In Code. 9 pm. $5.

• Momentum is a cherished quality in the world of music. It's what led hype-monster and Internet meme Lana Del Ray to a notably uncomfortable, Brian Williams-baiting performance on Saturday Night Live with only three songs to her lazily made-up name. It's what caused Radiohead to slam on the brakes and reinvent their sound, effectively creating a massively smaller but exponentially more devoted audience. It's what Tacoma's the Variety Hour has lacked over the past year, as the band has taken what more or less amounted to a hiatus, wherein the band regrouped, recast, and recorded their follow-up to their eponymous debut EP. To read the full feature on The Variety Hour, click here. – Rev. Adam McKinney
  

Jazzbones Tacoma - Sixth Avenue. Cherry Poppin' Daddies, Phasers On Kill, Black Top Demon. 8 pm. $14-$17. See 5 Things To Do Today

Le Voyeur Café and Lounge Olympia - Downtown. Oly Music Awards Pre-show featuring Jabi Shriki, Fight for Change, Elbow Coulee, Point Process. 9 pm. Read the interview with Jabi Shriki here.

Louie G's Pizzeria Fife. The Flanagan Precept, Jared Blake. All Ages. 8 pm.

Mandolin Cafe Tacoma - Central. Radim Zenkl. All Ages. 8 pm. $10.

Maxwell's Restaurant + Lounge Tacoma - Downtown. Lance Buller Trio. 7 pm.

Morso Wine Bar Gig Harbor. Gretchen Peters. All Ages. 8 pm. $25.

The Space Tacoma - Downtown. Santee, Makeup Monsters, A Leaf, Foreign Money, $7, 9:30 pm.

• Santee makes scratchy, lovesick, indie folk-pop. The band has a way of tentatively coming around to these walloping choruses and emotionally resonant refrains. Over the years, what began as the bedroom folk duo of Heather Loepp and Josh Vega has grown and developed into a larger, fuller band with a richer sound to match. Loepp's voice has always been the most striking aspect of Santee, being, how it is, somehow hoarse and delicate at the same time. With the addition of Speedwobbles and Brite Futures drummer Conor Sisk, Santee has further embraced its more rollicking side. Full disclosure: this show is a fundraiser for the forthcoming Squeak and Squawk Music Festival, which I am booking. As I've said before, though, this is a show I would be telling you about anyway, regardless of my involvement. - Rev. Am

Spar Cafe Olympia. Paul Mauer. 8 pm. NC.

Stonegate Pizza Tacoma - South. Jerry Miller Band. 9 pm.

Tempest Lounge Tacoma - Upper Tacoma. Rafael Tranquillino. All Ages. 7:30-10 pm. NC.

Uncle Thurm's Finger Licken Ribs & Chicken Tacoma - Lincoln District. G Street Jazz Series. 8-11 pm. NC.

LINK: More live music tonight in the South Sound