30

TUESDAY

Denali’s self-titled debut is perhaps even more evocative of the band’s namesake than intended: Snowy drum distortion, sonar pulses, and subarctic atmospheric noise provide subtext to Maura Davis’ icy vocals. Her Rhodes isn’t much warmer, trickling over sparse, spacious electric guitar compositions like glacial ripples. Her harder-rocking brother, Keeley (Engine Down), and other friends provide palpable tension, but beneath it all is the glissading ambient sensation of all that cool blue ice creaking, cracking, and slowly coming asunder. When Denali takes the stage tonight, close your eyes and forget that it’s summer in D.C. The band plays with 90 Day Men at 9 p.m. at the Black Cat’s Backstage, 1811 14th St. NW. $6. (202) 667-7960. (Colin Bane)