Fox N' Vead

Fox N' Vead makes a convincing case for spending a Thursday night with a band that sits comfortably between Southern rock, grunge and country. The Concord, North Carolina group leans on hard-edged riffs and melodies shaped by country and blues, a combination that gives its songs more grit than the usual genre labels suggest. The current Playing The Game tour also makes this a useful snapshot of the band's live set, which has included its own material alongside a few carefully chosen covers, including Local H's "Bound for the Floor." The Atlantis is a particularly fitting room for this kind of show: small enough that the guitars should feel immediate rather than diluted by production. The Smokes open, making the 6:30pm start worth taking seriously rather than treating the first set as background noise.