This Weekend: Rockabilly Royalty, a Garage-Rock Summit, and Twang for Free

Three very different rooms, three very different eras of cool, one very good weekend. Here's where to point yourself.

Friday, July 24 — Ray Brandes & The Wyld Gooms, The Tower Bar (8 p.m., $15). This is the connoisseur's pick. Brandes is San Diego garage-rock lineage in human form, and this bill folds in the debut of The Road Runners plus DJs Richard Whig and Girlgroupgirl spinning between sets. Longtime scene chronicler Bart Mendoza put it plainly: "When they join forces, things go to another level." For fifteen bucks at the Tower, that's about the best sentence you can hope to hear.

Friday, July 24 — Kimmi Bitter & The Westside Twang, Lou Lou's (8:15 p.m., no cover). Across town on El Cajon Boulevard, the reigning queen of San Diego countrypolitan throws a party for her new album Bittersweet and the fresh single "Tremolo". Good Gravy opens. Did we mention there's no cover? Bring cash for the merch table; you'll want the vinyl.

Sunday, July 26 — The Stray Cats, The Sound in Del Mar (8 p.m., $143 and up). All three original members — Brian Setzer, Lee Rocker, Slim Jim Phantom — reunited and slapping upright bass in a room this size is, frankly, absurd in the best way. Yes, the ticket stings. Rockabilly this genuine, this close, doesn't come cheap, and it doesn't come often.

If your weekend has room for only one, let your budget decide: the Stray Cats for the bucket-list splurge, the Tower for the true-believer's night out. But honestly? Do the Friday double — Brandes then Bitter — and you'll have seen the whole spectrum of what this city does well before Sunday even arrives.

The marine layer will still be there Monday. The Stray Cats will not.

Sources: Ray Brandes to the Stray Cats to Tom Rush — This week in live music, Times of San Diego; Kimmi Bitter — Bandsintown