Altered States 

While I enjoyed catching what is certainly the best set by The Tweeners I have ever seen last night, I am lamenting the fact that the venue — Blondies — serves only beer, cider and wine. Eschewing the first two as I always do, I was left with white wine for my evening's pleasure. This was a mistake. Hopefully by the time you read this, the coffee and vegetable proteins will have decreased the weight of my evening's mistakes and I will be enjoying the rest of the working week with all of you fine people as a newly minted teetotaler, my pious sobriety serving as a humble credit to our pleasant little society. Until the weekend at least.

Have a great week.

It's the inaugural show of RampArt skatepark's three-day heavy music festival Vert & Distort. 6:30 p.m. ($8 one day, $20 for the full Monty). Some of the featured acts include Snob from the U.K., Norway's Negativ, Judy and the Jerks from Mississippi, as well as a host of local blasters, including Unholy Oriface, The Cissies and Arugula.

There's a free vinyl dance party going down on the Arcata Plaza today at 2 p.m. Come on down to the palm tree-shaded square to hear some wax tracks spun by the likes of Skinny Pepperwood, Dub Cowboy, DJ Goldylocks and Devstep.

Five hours later over at the Outer Space you can join Los Angeles' teenage bedroom pop duo Momma and Arcata's own teen rock sensations From the Fog for an evening of pleasant listening. Local folk act Blood Hunny will bring the noise as well, despite not being staffed by teenagers ($5).

Fela Kuti-inspired afro-funk act Lovebush plays a free show at 8 p.m. at Siren's Song tonight after Arts Alive. Meanwhile, an hour later across the bay, you can join fuzzed-out wonders Hollow Down along with Dirt Magic and The Tweeners at the Jam for an evening of rock and pop and roll and then more rock, and maybe some jangly parts with vocal harmonies, some guitar solos here and there, and ... you get the idea ($5).

A few years ago I went down a rather unpleasant rabbit hole — or was it a tornado vortex? — and read up on the mind-shattering amount of abuse and tweaked out misery Judy Garland endured at the hands of studio heads, producers and even castmates while playing the rather innocent role of Dorothy Gale for the 1939 mega-production of MGM's The Wizard of Oz. My research almost put me off enjoying the film, which is already a haunted and borderline traumatizing experience to which most of us are subjected at an unreasonably early age. Anyway, a nice palette-cleansing panacea for all that evil would likely be found by catching the 2 p.m. matinee of the Humboldt Light Opera Company's production of that merry musical at the Van Duzer Theatre ($13-$19). It's bound to be a great show and will certainly not be darkened by the exploitative excesses of the big studio era of Tinseltown.

Cameron Stallones is a masterful mixologist of all things bright and beat-driven from early surf rock to classic reggae. Under the moniker Sun Araw he makes echoplex magic where once stood only disparate genres and imposing musical sanctions. I like the tunes I have heard on his Bandcamp page and his Drag City records releases, even if they make me feel a little bit like I drank cough syrup behind the wheel of Doc Brown's DeLorean and landed in 1960s Jamaica in the Trojan Records office. Being an amateur time-traveler and being high on lean don't mix, however, so I ended up operating at a different frame rate than reality, condemned to live out my days as a sort of hazy, pixelated future-ghost. Want to know what the hell I am talking about? Come to this show at the Miniplex tonight at 8:30 p.m. ($10). Also appearing will be Oakland's looping timeshifter Sharkiface and local support by Perras and comma comma.

London's Omega Tribe was founded in the early 1980s during the heady days of anarcho-hardcore and post-punk. Reformed and touring in this decade, it's joined by Los Angeles' classic '80s "stenchcore" act Apocalypse tonight at the Siren's Song at 8 p.m. (price TBA). Along for the ride is Anaheim's antifascist crust punk group Life Once Flourished Here, whose music is much better than the name suggests, I assure you. Representing our interests locally is the nascent D//FEX.

Vancouver party band 5 Alarm Funk returns to Humbrews tonight at 9:30 p.m. for an evening of uncomplicated dance music ($10). If you enjoy horn-heavy music played by the kind of dudes who have a knack for sticking their tongues out and making the "shaka" hand while posing for photos and who wear cowboy hats with neon boardshorts to houseboat parties, then brother, have I got a show for you!

Full show listings in the Journal's Music and More grid, the Calendar and online. Bands and promoters, send your gig info, preferably with a high-res photo or two, to [email protected].

Collin Yeo is trapped in the same absurd reality the rest of you call home. His hyperstate is augmented with the auto-vapor from an ethanol stim-pack's decaying half life — he has a hangover. He lives in Neo-Arcata.