Certified
Load up on the Red Bull and Starbucks: This nine-hour electronic music festival is gonna keep you up until the break of dawn. One of the guys who put it together, Eric Evasion, says, "It could possibly be the biggest dance event Cleveland has witnessed in years." It's certainly the most packed. In addition to the headliners — scratch champ Craze, dubstep DJ Dieselboy, and Evasion, who spins — more than a dozen other DJs, many of them from Cleveland, will perform. The Agora will pretty much be a giant rave, with multiple stages, plenty of pretty lights and lasers, and three areas focusing on various subgenres of the dance scene. Evasion (pictured) recommends checking out Pittsburgh's bass-heavy DJ Kastle, who's reinventing Chicago house one beat at a time. "He's going to be an international star by the end of 2011," says Evasion. Seriously, load up on your favorite caffeine beverage. This is gonna be one long, wild night.
With Eric Evasion, Craze, Dieselboy, Kastle, and Bro Safari. 8 p.m. Friday, June 17. Agora. Tickets: $20-$30; call 216-881-2221 or visit wantickets.com.
Detroit Cobras
Garage rock doesn't get much better these days than the Motor City duo the Detroit Cobras. Founders Rachel Nagy and Mary Ramirez drop plenty of depth charges into the venerable party-tune genre, blending things old, new, borrowed, and blue into a Motown Vitamix. Singer Nagy grabs inspiration from big-personality gals like Dusty Springfield, Chrissie Hynde, and Neko Case, spinning it into something distinctly her own. Over the past few years, the Cobras have expanded their catalog by dusting off lost classics and giving them new life and personality. You're never sure what you'll hear from them onstage, but it will definitely be rock & roll that's relevant, important, and brilliant. The band has been plugging away at a new album, their first since 2007's Tied & True, so you can expect to hear at least a few new songs when Nagy and Ramirez bring their group to town this weekend. — Peter Chakerian
With Girls in a Coma and Prisoners. 9 p.m. Friday, June 17. Beachland Tavern. Tickets: $14, $12 in advance; call 216-383-1124 or visit beachlandballroom.com.
Ian McLagan
Ian McLagan got his start playing keyboards with the Small Faces, who were largely left on British shores when their mates invaded America in the mid-'60s. He then went on to the Faces, who are mostly known for launching the careers of Rod Stewart and Ron Wood. This might sound like ancient history, but McLagan has not only kept the legacy alive with a solo career over the past three decades, he's done it with continued vitality: When he isn't crisscrossing the globe as a sideman to Dylan, the Stones, and Springsteen, he blends early British Invasion influences in a crackling bar-band format. The spirits of Buddy Holly, Wilson Pickett, and Jerry Lee Lewis live on in his music, a rootsy R&B bounce that recalls an era before rock became so enamored of baritone that sounds remarkably untouched by time. His live shows are so infectiously entertaining, you're sure to leave with a smile. — Chris Parker
9 p.m. Friday, June 17. The Winchester, Tickets: $15; call 216-226-5681 or visit thewinchester.net.
Millionaires
Take Lily Allen's filthy mouth, mix it with the Cheetah Girls' cute electro-pop, and let it drink all night in a dance club. That's pretty much the formula for the raunchy California duo Millionaires. Sisters Allison and Melissa Marie Green started the group as a joke with club spoofs like "I Like Money," which they made at home on their computer. They rap, sing, and talk shit about big hair, hot boys, fake IDs, high heels, drunken parties, and getting laid — all scored to ass-shaking party grooves. Their three EPs are increasingly lewder and more listenable. Millionaires' subject matter is always fairly offensive ("Middle finger in the air if your pussy's tight/All the boys are getting hard, down to fuck tonight," goes the first verse of their anthem "Party Like a Millionaire"), but the music and melodies are topnotch. Be sure to bring a strong sense of humor and a sturdy pair of dance shoes when you raise hell with the girls this weekend. — Keith Gribbins
With Breathe Electric, Christian TV, and Set It Off. 6:30 p.m. Sunday, June 19. Peabody's. Tickets: $12, $10 in advance; call 216-776-9999 or visit peabodys.com.
Warren Haynes
One of the world’s hardest working guitarists has come a long way from the gospel-flavored classic rock of 1993’s Tales of Ordinary Madness. For all its slow-churned, soulful charm, Man in Motion, Haynes’ first solo studio album since then, includes a sizable amount of tasty guitar riffage that fans of his work with Gov’t Mule, the Allman Brothers Band, and the Grateful Dead will instantly identify with. The album’s title speaks to the hectic schedule Haynes keeps these days. To set the record apart from all the other projects he’s associated with, Haynes enlisted the help of some of his closest friends and tapped a stockpile of unrecorded songs he’d written over the past 20 years. “The sound that we were striving to achieve was somewhere between the soul and blues that it was influenced by,” says Haynes. “[But] we didn’t want a date stamped on it.” More than anything, Haynes delves deep into the soul music that originally inspired him to pick up a guitar. “You’re always going to have your songs about relationships,” he says. “But eventually guys like Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye started writing more about political subjects and life itself.” — Ryan Young
9 p.m. Friday, June 17. House of Blues. Tickets: $29.50-$35; call 216-523-2583 or visit houseofblues.com.
