APRIL VERCH: Known for sparkling, high-energy performances.

Four years in the making, the just-released Saturnalia, a collaboration between Greg Dulli (Afghan Whigs) and Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees), aka the Gutter Twins, features the kind of dark ballads you'd expect from two of alt rock's moodiest frontmen. The undulating "All Misery/Flowers" takes a page out of Nick Cave and turns downright spooky by its frenetic end. The hard-rocking "Idle Hands" features some gritty guitar work to go along with the duo's raspy vocals, and "Bete Noire" is a terrific jam. Collaborations like this seldom seem to work, but Saturnalia is good enough to make you anticipate a follow-up. The indie-pop outfit Great Northern opens the show at 9 p.m. at the Beachland Tavern (15711 Waterloo Rd., 216.383.1124). Tickets: $15 advance, $17 day of show. - Jeff Niesel

Thursday, March 6

We Shot the Moon

Waking Ashland, a popular emo act out of San Diego, disbanded last July and by August, frontman Jonathan Jones had his new band, We Shot the Moon, recording in the studio. Perhaps because the transition was so smooth, the resulting EP, The Polar Bear and Cougar, sounds effortless, right from the opening notes of the catchy first tune, "Sway Your Head," which features suggestive lines like "you've gotta throw yourself back in the water." Possessing a Weezer-like sense of harmony and timing, the band's developed things even further on its forthcoming longplayer, Fear and Love, due out this spring. On this bill, Sherwood, Houston Calls and the Higher join the group, and the show starts at 7 p.m. at Musica (61 E. Market St., 330.374.1114). Tickets: $10. - JN

Bill Mallonee

Throughout the 1990s, the Athens, Georgia-based guitar band Vigilantes of Love earned a dedicated cult following among alt-rock fans with a distinctive Americana roots-rock sound with hints of early British-Invasion pop. The Vigilantes' singer-guitarist and principle songwriter Bill Mallonee wrote unusually smart and insightful lyrics about faith and the human condition, earning him status alongside the likes of Bruce Cockburn, Peter Case and Mark Olson of the Jayhawks. Since VoL disbanded in 2001, Mallonee has continued to tour and relentlessly released 11 albums, both solo and with his new band, Victory Garden. Mallonee performs an early 7:30 p.m. show at the Beachland Tavern (15711 Waterloo Rd., 216.383.1124). Local music veteran Denny Carleton (The Choir, et al) is a nicely paired opening act, as Carleton's most recent work has been in an acoustic folk/gospel genre. Tickets: $10.

- Michael David Toth

Saturday, March 8

Bob Mould

As a brilliant solo artist and with his revered bands Hüsker Dü and Sugar, Bob Mould has proven himself as one of the absolute all-time greats of modern rock. Just prior to his sharp 2005 Body of Song, Mould began integrating new material with golden Mould oldies at both solo and full-band concerts. However, although Mould's solo Grog Shop gigs in recent years were classy, wholly satisfying knockouts, Mould hasn't played Cleveland with a full band since Sugar performed at the Agora in 1994. To witness Mould's hot new backing band, Northeast Ohioans thus far have had to road-trip or settle for 2007's fantastic Circle of Friends concert DVD. In support of his brand-new District Line disc, a proper Bob Mould Band tour date finally comes to the Grog Shop (2785 Euclid Heights Blvd., 216.321.5588). Haluo opens at 9 p.m. Tickets: $15 advance, $16 day of show. - MDT

April Verch

The woodsy environs of Cuyahoga Valley National Park's Happy Days Visitor Center (500 W. Streetsboro Rd., Peninsula) provide an ideal home for the kind of folk-based music from around the world that it frequently presents. It reaches up north to Canada for its latest offering, young fiddler/stepdancer April Verch from Pembroke, Ontario. Starting stepdancing at 3 and fiddling at 6, she grew up performing and had self-released two albums by the time she was out of high school. A year at Boston's acclaimed Berklee School of Music added some depth and polish to her skills, but she left after a year, impatient to start her "real" career. She's made quite a splash since debuting on the respected Rounder label six years ago, and become known for her sparkling, high-energy performances. She'll be backed by bassist Cody Walters, guitarist Lincoln Meyer and percussionist (and her husband) Marc Bru when she performs at 8 p.m. Admission: $15 adults, $5 3-12. General admission, doors at 7 p.m. Call 330.657.2909 for tickets. - Anastasia Pantsios

Monday, March 10

Vic Chesnutt, Jonathan Richman

The pairing of singer-songwriters Vic Chesnutt and Jonathan Richman might not make a hell of a lot of sense. In a way, both are outsiders of sorts (though Richman's arguably come closer to mainstream success with the Modern Lovers as well as his own career which found him taking on the role of the traveling troubadour in There's Something About Mary). Confined to a wheelchair since he was paralyzed in an auto accident at age 18, Chesnutt has a terrific catalogue to his credit that boasts not only his own idiosyncratic songs but also material he recorded with Widespread Panic (under the Brute moniker). Richman's songbook goes deep, too, and includes cult classics such as "Pablo Picasso" and "Road Runner," songs he delivers with such charm, you just might want to sing along. The show starts at 9 p.m. at the Grog Shop (2785 Euclid Heights Blvd., 216.321.5588). Tickets: $10 advance, $12 day of show. - JN

Tuesday, March 11

School of Language

School of Language, a new band featuring Field Music's adventurous frontman David Brewis, takes a more experimental tack on its debut, Sea From Shore, just out on Thrill Jockey. Opening with the two-part "Rockist," it features a mix of electronic instrumentation and nonsensical vocals. Even the accessible (and downright funky) "Disappointment '99" pushes the notion of "modern pop music" to its limit. Beaten Awake and Boatzz open at 9 p.m. at the Beachland Tavern (15711 Waterloo Rd., 216.383.1124). Tickets: $7. - JN

Wednesday, March 12

Tom Russell

He's less well-known and hasn't received the critical wet kisses given to such fellow singer-songwriters of hard-won experience as Leonard Cohen, Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark and Warren Zevon. But El Paso-based Tom Russell is their equal as a musical poet of loneliness, longing and restlessness. With a career that stretches back into the late '60s, Russell has produced a formidable catalogue of Americana whose blending of musical genres perfectly melds with lyrics that draw on American myths, heroes and cultural landmarks, producing songs drenched in a gorgeous, earthy sense of fatalism. His latest disc is 2006's aching and exhilarating Love and Fear, a look at what happens to love in the real world; other high points range from the picaresque Hotwalker with its inspired use of spoken-word sound bites, to his tribute to the immigrant experience, The Man From God Knows Where, to the Tex-Mex-influenced Borderland. He's at the Beachland Tavern (15711 Waterloo Rd., 216.383.1124) at 7:30 p.m. Tickets: $20. - AP