January 17, 2013 | 8:30 AM | By

Tonight’s Concert Picks: Lantern at Johnny Brenda’s, Black Prairie at MilkBoy, Blonde Redhead at Union Transfer, XPN Welcomes David Johansen of New York Dolls to World Cafe Live, XPN Welcomes Rhett Miller to The Abbey Bar

FILED UNDER: Artists, Concert Previews, Events, Scene, Amanda X, Black Prairie, Blonde Redhead, David Johansen, Dong Johnson, Exitmusic, John Wesley Harding, Johnny Brenda's, Lantern, Milkboy, Rhett Miller, The Abbey Bar, Union Transfer, World Cafe Live

Local rock ‘n’ roll trio Lantern headline Johnny Brenda’s tonight.  Self-described as “proto-biker-punk-blues,” the one thing that will strike any listener upon diving into 2012′s Dream Mine EP (Bathetic) for the first time is the sheer amount of blown-out fuzz and noise that distorts the classically punk vocals of front-man Zachary Devereux Fairbrother.  Citing influences as surprising as early folk and blues and as obvious as early rock ‘n’ roll and ’60s-’70s punk, Lantern’s music is a combustion of nitty gritty Americana.  Tickets and information for tonight’s 21+ show with Dong Johnson and Amanda X can be found here.  Below, watch the video for “Train Song.”

Black Prairie will open up the evening at MilkBoy tonight.  The subtly-Baroque bluegrass group came together in 2007 when Decemberists members Chris Funk and Nate Query decided to start an off-shoot project with Jenny Conlee, Annalisa Tornfelt and Jon Neufeld.  2012 saw Black Prairie’s sophomore release A Tear in the Eye is a Wound in the Heart, the follow-up to 2010′s debut Feast of the Hunter’s Moon.  Tickets and information for tonight’s 21+ show with John Wesley Harding can be found here; below, watch a live video of “How Do You Ruin Me.”

New York City’s Blonde Redhead come to Union Transfer tonight.  Comprised of Japanese singer Kazu Makino and Italian twins Simone and Amedeo Pace, Blonde Redhead has had a long and varied career since its inception in 1993.  Not ones to become stagnant in a genre for too long, the trio’s recordings have morphed between early experimental / noise albums and more recent dream pop / shoegaze efforts like 2010′s Penny Sparkle.  Tickets and information for tonight’s all-ages show with Exitmusic can be found here.  Watch the video for “Not Getting There” from Blonde Redhead below.

XPN welcomes David Johansen to World Cafe Live upstairs tonight.  Johansen is best known as the front-man for influential proto-punk ’70s group New York Dolls but started a solo career in 1978, finding success with a cabaret-style live show behind the stage name Buster Poindexter.  A New York Dolls reunion brought Johansen through Philadelphia in 2006 for an appearance at the XPoNential Music Festival after the two surviving original members (Johansen and Sylvain Sylvain) released One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This in 2005.  Tickets and information for tonight’s all-ages show can be found here.  Watch Johansen cover Arrow’s “Hot Hot Hot” as Buster Poindexter in the video below.

XPN welcomes Rhett Miller to The Abbey Bar in Harrisburg tonight.  Miller built a strong following as leader of Dallas alt-country band Old 97′s while simultaneously expanding his solo career throughout the 90s and into the new millennium.  Last year Miller released his well-received full-length The Dreamer and brought his crowd-pleasing live show to Camden for the XPoNential Music Festival, closing out the Wiggins Park portion of the event with chamber-rock / Americana songs including “Out of Love.”  Tickets and information for tonight’s 21+ show can be found here.  Below, watch Rhett Miller perform “Singular Girl” live at the festival.