Show Preview: Why? and Mt. Eerie at the Mohawk

You've gotta love a kickass show on a Monday night—you know you're actually going to be able to find parking, it won't be disgustingly overcrowded, and you may actually be able to get close to the stage without being a total jerk or setting up camp in the middle of the afternoon. And tonight provides us with quite the little gem: Oakland's Why?, a band whose maturation has resulted in one of the best albums so far in 2008, and Mt. Eerie, a Phil Elverum (of Microphones fame) project now featuring the added talents of Julie Doiron and Fred Squire. Yes, yes, it's going to be quite the evening, and for the embarrassingly economical cost of eight bucks.

Why?, with whom we did a little interview back in SXSW season, earlier this year released Alopecia, a well-produced folk-rap album that is almost as unclassifiable as it is good. Frontman Yoni Wolf has refined his vocal style and the band has taken more care to craft their tunes, and the rewards are catchy and memorable. And the incredibly prolific (perhaps too prolific?) Mt. Eerie has already dropped a couple releases this year, the first a blistering metal-esque EP that received a boatload of critical acclaim, and the second a gentle and thoughtful full-length based more in folk than in rock.

Put those two acts together on a bill any night of the week and you'd have a fine thing going, making the Monday night scheduling quite the strange and unexpected bonus for a show worthy of a Friday or Saturday. But be sure to get to the Mohawk early, because the festivities will be off and running at a reasonable hour, and will be wrapping up by around eleven, thus making it easy to crawl into work the next morning. So make it happen, friends.