SoundCheck: The Killers, Third Eye Blind, GWAR, Dear and the Headlights, Black Crowes

. GWAR

With Job for a Cowboy, the Red Chord

Details: 8 p.m. Sunday. Ritz Ybor, 1503 Seventh Ave., Ybor City. $18-$21. (813) 247-2555.

Once upon a time, art students from Virginia Commonwealth University (who grew up on Spinal Tap and the Sex Pistols, no doubt) initiated a twisted little marketing experiment. Twenty-five years later, the perverse mock-rock act they named GWAR continues to stage pagan rituals and shock audiences across the country. GWAR's gross-outs make Ozzy Osbourne look like Harry Connick Jr. The Gallagher-like live show features the elaborately costumed interplanetary warriors hurling faux body fluids into the crowd. Over the years, said antics have resulted in the group being banned in multiple cities and arrested on obscenity charges.

Times correspondent Carole Giambalvo can be reached at carole.giambalvo@gmail.com.

n The Killers

With Chairlift

Details: 8 p.m. Friday. USF Sun Dome, 4202 East Fowler Ave., Tampa. $23-$48. (813) 974-3002.

Appropriate for their glitzy, gloriously excessive Las Vegas home base, the Killers lure listeners with shimmering dance-pop, swanky synth lines and mysterious lyrics. The group formed when guitarist Dave Keuning put an ad in the paper calling for musicians influenced by Oasis, the Cure, U2 or the Beatles (he might as well have said, "Do you like pie?"). While tracks from debut Hot Fuss recall Human League or David Bowie, Sam's Town and Day and Age find the group evolving. Brooklyn indie act Chairlift, whose song Bruises was featured in an iPod Nano commercial ("I tried to do handstands for you"), opens the show.

Third Eye Blind

Details: 8 tonight. Ritz Ybor, 1503 Seventh Ave., Ybor City. $24-$27. (813) 247-2555.

Comeback kids (well, they're in their 40s) Third Eye Blind just released its first album in six years, Ursa Major, to impressive results — it landed at No. 3 on Billboard and sold nearly 50,000 copies in the first week. New songs, including our fave Bonfire, show 3EB in trademark fashion, laying down heartening, relatable alt-rock, highly catchy hooks and simulated raps.

Dear and the Headlights

With Kinch, Ratjiv Patel

Details: 7 p.m. Monday. Orpheum, 1902 Republica de Cuba Ave., Ybor City. $10. (813) 248-9500.

It's not often that folk and emo fans unite. Enter Dear and the Headlights. Blending manic rock (think Manchester Orchestra or Motion City Soundtrack) with gusty indie-folk (My Morning Jacket or Okkervil River), the Arizona act can play (and has played) hippie-leaning Bonnaroo just as comfortably as the Warped Tour.

Emarosa and Dance Gavin Dance

With Tides of Man

Details: 7 p.m. Wednesday. State Theatre, 687 Central Ave., St. Petersburg. $12. (727) 895-3045.

What do you do when your lead singer splits from your band, citing extreme tensions and personal conflicts? You tour with him and his new band, naturally. Not to be confused with the crazy lady from The Apprentice, Emarosa does melodic post-hardcore with Dance Gavin Dance's former singer at the helm. Local boys Tides of Man bring dizzying riffs and dynamics a la Mars Volta or Circa Survive.

The Black Crowes

Details: 8 p.m. Wednesday. Ruth Eckerd Hall, 1111 McMullen-Booth Road, Clearwater. $40.50-$68. (727) 791-7400.

Black Crowes frontman Chris Robinson (a.k.a. Kate Hudson's ex) says if you stick around long enough, you become cool again. Nearly 20 years after the shaggy-haired rockers had hits with Otis Redding cover Hard to Handle and ballad She Talks to Angels, the group returns to jam out swampy, classic-ish rock, Southern funk, blues and country-tinged acoustic songs on new Before The Frost … Until the Freeze. The disc was recorded in front of a live audience at Levon Helm's Woodstock farm/studio. Luther Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars joins on slide guitar.

The 9 Music Series and Competition: Round One

Details: 8 p.m. Tuesday. Skipper's Smokehouse, 910 Skipper Road, Tampa. $5. (813) 971-0666.

Experienced local musicians will tell you "battle of the bands" contests are rarely what they're cracked up to be. Too often, organizers require bands to sell tickets to qualify, and the prizes end up being a ripoff (i.e., studio time that's so short, you'll have to put up money to complete a song). Turns out, this irked Skipper's, too. So, the venue is putting up $2,500 worth of studio time at Morrissound Recording in Temple Terrace for their "9 Music Series and Competition." Competing Tuesday are the Jim Morey Band, a vintage jazz-swing-gypsy-ragtime act whose tracks wouldn't be out of place on Looney Tunes; the Higgins Brothers Band, a blues-rock-funk sibling band; and prog rockers Mogul Street Reserve.