Masters of Rock, Kaisers of Roll

We miss Rock and Roll. It's not that we don't like our newer friends. Baroque pop is nice. Dubstep is fun to hang out with. Shoegaze is sweet in its dark way, and no one complains when compositional-avant-electro-dance-pop is in the room. Still. Call us old fashioned, but we're drawn to good ol' sludgy and grungy, blues based guitar rock. It moves us, and we know how to sing along.

If there's one musician that encapsulates the spirit of quality post-grunge rock, it's Palm Desert master Chris Goss (if there are two, it's Goss and his close associate, Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme). For well over 20 years Goss has been a desert rock force, reliably breathing life into the seemingly constantly "dying" hard rock genre. Or for a sports analogy, if rock and roll is a curling stone, Goss is the guy furiously sweeping, giving the thing steady speed and aiming it with precision.

One of many pioneers of the Palm Desert Scene -- the southern California collective that gave the world "stoner rock," Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age, Eagles of Death Metal, Brant Bjork, et al. -- Goss has played with and produced albums by Soul Wax, STP, Screaming Trees, Mark Lanegan, Unkle, Auf der Maur, and The Cult, among others.

Tonight, Goss performs in Seattle with his group Masters of Reality. A sort of project/side project, what he does when he isn't producing or playing in one of his other side projects, Masters of Reality has managed to release six studio albums since 1988, including the much loved Sunrise on the Sufferbus and Deep in the Hole. See how they do it, up close and personal at El Corazon with The Legendary Duo and The Missionary Position.

8:30 p.m. // El Corazon // $15