Yellow Swans at the Czech American Educational Center

It takes a special kind of band to open up for Xiu Xiu -- a group whose live shows are notorious for being as cathartic and unsettling as a sin-confessing session with a priest. Portland, Oregon's noisecore aficionados Yellow Swans appear up to the task, however. After forming in 2001, Pete Swanson and Gabriel Mindel Saloman released a smattering of cassettes, singles and CD-Rs in between West Coast tours, before unleashing their first proper album, last year's Bring the Neon War Home. This five-song EP is the equivalent of being electrocuted while floating in outer space: Stretches of eerie calm and ominous silence abut instrumental bursts of staticky noise, droning feedback and sparking electronic beats that twitch like old-school televisions that lack reception.

Show starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $7 at the door; call 314-771-1096 for more information.