Xiu Xiu @ Nice 'n' Sleazy, 21 Feb

Experimental art rock gaggle Xiu Xiu will be packing an emotive punch on this forthcoming tour for Dear God, I Hate Myself, if lush album teaser Gray Death is anything to go by. Fans may be interested to see how the now three-piece copes without Caralee McElroy following her departure to join Cold Cave full-time in mid-2009, as well as hunting through their characteristically unusual stand of merch. To some, ring-master Jamie Stewart’s delivery is obscure, his music indulgent, but the band's surreal realism and ‘not so self-righteous that they stick in your throat’ politics make these dates a shoo-in (or Xiu-in, if you will). [Lauren Mayberry]