Tonight's Top Stop: Owen and Others

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IT'S EMO OVERLOAD as a quartet of sensitive rock bands descend on the 9:30 Club for an early show: Doors open at 5 p.m. so you can get home in time and cry yourself to sleep at a reasonable hour. Actually, we kid because we love. All four groups are solid rock-pop groups, and while Copeland, the Appleseed Cast and Acute all will play after Owen, it's the opening group that you should make sure you see.

We're not sure if Owen's Mike Kinsella will be playing alone, accompanied only by his iPod, or if he has a full band this time out. What we do know is that whatever Kinsella might lack in showmanship — after all, what can one dude do if he's tethered to his MP3 player? — he'll make up for in gorgeous tunes.

While most emo fans will know Kinsella's drumming in the many bands his brother Tim has led, including Joan of Arc and Cap'n Jazz, many more should become familiar with his stunning guitar work, which consists primarily of off-kilter arpeggios to produce some of the most delicate and beautiful playing in all of indie rock. Kinsella's lyrics are mostly lovelorn — it's emo, man, just deal — but they're also clever and sometimes funny, and his unique vocal phrasing matches his guitar playing for bar-line-breaking brilliance.

Owen's latest CD, "At Home With Owen," is another subtle, sublime masterwork — but start with 2004's "I Do Perceive" if you really want to fall in love with Kinsella's heartbreaking songcraft.
» 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW; 5 p.m. doors, $14; 202-265-0930. (U St.-Cardozo)

Photo by Joe Wigdahl