Zac Crain on five shows this spring that need to be seen:

The Flaming Lips/Neon Indian: February 3 at Palladium Ballroom

One good thing about the Super Bowl coming to the area: it made this show—an increasingly rare chance to see the Lips outside of a festival setting—happen. The band’s trick to shrinking that giant show to fit inside a smaller venue is that they probably won’t make much of an effort to shrink their giant rock show. 

Smith Westerns: February 8 at The Loft

Will Jeff Mangum show at the Elephant Six show?

These young Chicagoans play (mostly) Bowie- and Bolan-influenced pop songs with a naïve enthusiasm that strips away three decades of other bands nicking from those same glam rock sources. In their hands, it sounds newly discovered and whole again.

Elephant 6 Holiday Surprise Show 2011: March 1 at The Loft

I guess the hook is that Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel “might” show up and play with his erstwhile Elephant 6 collective cohorts. And since he seems to be more inclined to be “Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel” again these days, it’s possible. But hearing the music of Olivia Tremor Control, Elf Power, and others, by members of those bands, is good enough. 

The Walkmen/The Head and the Heart: March 5 at Granada Theater

The Walkmen

The Walkmen wrote, what I believe, is perhaps the finest rock song of the last decade, with “The Rat.” So good they pretty much stopped trying to play that kind of music, which is fine. Come early for Seattle’s The Head and the Heart, whose pretty melancholy and sweeping harmonies make them perfect for fans of the Dallas Family Band and Seryn and so on.

Bro Fest, with the Greenhornes and Wild Flag and more: March 20 at Club Dada

The Greenhorns

For years, two-thirds of the Greenhornes were subsumed by Jack White’s various projects, whether it was backing Loretta Lynn or playing with him in the Raconteurs; take this chance to hear their soul garage sound before he takes them back. Wild Flag is the new band from Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein and Janet Weiss and Helium’s Mary Timony. And there are, like, a dozen more bands at this Parade of Flesh-curated shindig. No brainer.

Honorable mention: Janet Jackson, April 2 at Verizon Theatre, but only if she plays nothing but Rhythm Nation stuff. That’s right. I just said that.

Image at top: The Wayne Coyne Experience play NX35 in 2010.