For the Minneapolis trio Semisonic, subverting grit in the name of majesty isn’t a pretentious ploy to attract attention. The band’s debut, Great Divide, is riddled with songs that are striking in their beauty but lasting because the lyrics match the music’s grandeur with a complex understanding of the confused mind. Whether “Down in Flames” is about Kurt Cobain or not is beside the point: The song manages to describe depression with its first two lines—”It’s not the pain, I’m used to it/It’s feeling like I’m already dead”—and then escalates, with guitars igniting alongside an angry vocal that comes close to emulating a church choir. Tonic, which does use majesty as a pretentious ploy to attract attention, opens at 9:30 p.m. at the Bayou, 3135 K St. NW. $7. (202) 333-2897. (Brett Anderson)