Sometimes we'd rather experience a new (or new-ish) band's sound in person, rather than be tipped off by their recorded work. So we haven't listened to Great Northern's streaming songs, played their (first) 2007 album, or let fly The Gutter Twins' online teaser. (We didn't even listen to that live Twins clip; sorry if the sound sucks.) Tomorrow night, when the former opens for the latter, we expect to experience true aural pleasure.

Great Northern, we've read, plays melodic and dreamy stuff—but not boring dreamy; they describe their sound as "widescreen grand nudging fuzzy intimate." (Makes us think Kinski, which is probably way off.) Founding boy-girl members Solon Bixler and Rachel Stolte share vocals, which should be endearing, if nothing else. And the band has a "badass" female bass player.

The Gutter Twins is more of a known quantity, if only because Seattlest loves everything one frontman (Mark Lanegan) does, and isn't big on the other—Greg Dulli. Lanegan's a bourbon-and-blue-smoke-voiced experimentalist, nailing everything from straight rock to quiet folk to gospel. Dulli's Afghan Whigs and Twilight Singers aren't standard pop-rock outfits, either, so we're betting on strange and amazing things from their pairing.

Further evidence comes from Sub Pop's write-up of the Twins' first offering: "Saturnalia’s eerie modal swirls trap the listener in each song’s atmosphere....from Indian sitars to Appalachian folk and Delta grit, creating inadvertently narcotic hooks in the process. Spartan electronica....spooky space blues....shocking guitar riffs that shoot AC/DC boogie into another fucking galaxy."

Given all this promising goodness, Lanegan's long-overdue Seattle reappearance, and both bands' imminent CD releases (March 18th and 4th, in show billing order), we can't believe tickets are still available.

Doors @ 8pm // Showbox at the Market // 1426 1st Avenue // $15 // 21+