Buildings, Other Colors, Big Hush, and Howling Void
Friday, March 28 at the Dunes, $10

Buildings is back! The arty instrumentalists—quiet for a while now—typically perform in front of film projections, which makes sense: the band’s proggy math-rock would conjure images even if they weren’t placed in front of your face. Joining the quartet at this Columbia Heights art space are Baltimore’s lo-fi experimental pop group Other Colors, D.C. fuzzy rockers Big Hush, and newcomers Howling Void. (Catherine P. Lewis)

Alsarah and The Nubatones
Friday, March 28 at Tropicalia, $8-12

A Sudan-born Brooklyn resident with a background in ethnomusicology, Alsarah takes a somewhat academic approach to performance, which—as she told the Guardian in 2013—occasionally involves explaining to her American audiences what she’s doing onstage. At the D.C. release show of her new album “Silt,” let’s hope she doesn’t have to take too many talk breaks: Songs as funky as “Soukura” don’t need to be unpacked to be loved. (Ally Schweitzer)

Dudes, Blizzard Babies, BRNDA
Friday, March 28 at CD Cellar Arlington, donations only

Young local three-piece Dudes is the band every rebellious, punk-rock kid wanted to form when they were 17. The songs on the band’s debut recording, “Greatest Hits,” stick to simple and sassy, with lots of funny interplay between co-vocalists Francy Graham and Luke Reddick. That pair—charismatic as they are—will probably wind up on a magazine cover (e-magazine cover?) one day. But before that moment comes along, let’s just enjoy hearing them scream dumb, profane lyrics at each other, most of which are unquotable on this family-friendly blog. (AS)

Warning: This song contains explicit lyrics.

The Day of the Beast, Vitality, Death Penalty
Saturday, March 29 at the Lab, $8-10

D.C. isn’t exactly famous for its metal scene, but there’s a huge variety of heavy bands in the greater D.C. area. This show features three bands who play on the faster side of things: death/thrash band The Day of the Beast hails from Virginia Beach, with thrash openers Vitality (from Frederick, Md.) and Death Penalty (from Northern Virginia). In true D.C. fashion, this show is hosted at Alexandria DIY space The Lab, which is affiliated with the Convergence Church—so leave the booze at home. (CPL)

Dead Heart Bloom, Tone, Cavallo, Talk It
Saturday, March 29 at DC9, $10

Dead Heart Bloom is based in New York City, but is a D.C. band at heart, featuring two core members of the late D.C. band Phaser. Dead Heart Bloom continues down the path of Phaser’s shoegazy psychedelic pop and has released a series of excellent EPs over the last six months. This is a co-headlining show with D.C.’s post-rock guitar army Tone and also features Brooklyn instrumental band Cavallo and ex-Eggs project Talk It. (CPL)

The Jet Age, The Caribbean, Early American
Saturday, March 29 at Comet Ping Pong, $10

This show celebrates old bands with new releases: Longtime indie rockers The Jet Age have just released their newest album, “Jukebox Memoir,” which features guest vocals from Swervedriver’s Adam Franklin and Ride’s Mark Gardener. Those two guys probably won’t be at the show (alas!), but fellow old-school experimental pop band The Caribbean will be, playing songs off their newest album, “Moon Sickness.” (CPL)

Cosmonauts, Black Sea
Monday, March 31 at Black Cat Backstage, $10

California label Burger Records is micro-famous for peddling a slackerly, California-flavored kind of fuzz pop, and noisy Orange County band Cosmonauts has a natural place in the family tree. But it’s also more Loop- or Spacemen 3-driven than many of its Burger buddies, and that’s pleasantly evident on its 2013 full-length, the melodic-but-chunky “Persona Non Grata.”

This is more of an awards show than a concert, but we also recommend:

TMOTTGoGo Honors at Howard Theatre
Thursday, March 27 at Howard Theatre, $20-25

Since the mid-’90s, there’s been no better source of information on D.C.’s go-go scene than TMOTTGoGo. Tonight, the go-go news resource hosts another installment of its annual honors show, which recognizes some big names in the local scene. Among them: noted keys player and go-go celeb Sweet Cherie, photographer and poet Thomas Sayers Ellis, Rare Essence bassist Funky Ned and saxophonist Donnell Floyd, E.U. drummer Ju Ju House, and musician and activist Jason Lewis. Informally recognized all night, of course, is the music that TMOTTGoGo has been championing for nearly 20 years. (AS)

These and other show listings can be found on ShowListDC.