Concert Previews

More is more: That's the implicit credo of the New Pornographers. Masterminded by Carl Newman, the Pornographers are an army eight strong, most of whom have active careers of their own. Those careers sometimes conflict with tours, but for this initial round behind their excellent fifth album

Together

, all the principals are, uh, together. That means we'll get Dan Bejar, who records his own albums as Destroyer and whose knotty eccentricity provides three songs on each Pornos album ("Silver Jenny Dollar" is one of

Together

's highlights). And Neko Case, who forsakes her own beautifully sober solo work to add her powerhouse voice to the Pornographers' extroverted pop ("Crash Years" is her best of show). And, of course, Newman, whose solo albums (as A.C. Newman) are very good but who, fortunately, still shares his best work with his Porno partners so the songs end up with more hooks, more massed harmonies, and more pure pop pleasures.

- Steve Klinge

Summer and Brad Paisley just seem perfect together. The young country superstar can be a little too clever and glib at times with his writing, but he never slicks up the music, which is a savvy blend of the traditional and the contemporary. His clean-cut charm and crowd-pleasing songcraft are undeniable. So are his talents as a guitarist, which he displays without ever seeming self-indulgent. Also on the bill is Darius Rucker, the strong-voiced Hootie and the Blowfish front man who made a very credible turn to country with 2008's engaging

Learn to Live

.

- Nick Cristiano

Courtney Love strains to sound fearsome and scandalous on

Nobody's Daughter

, her just so-so revival of the Hole brand. The new Hole - which begins its U.S. tour at the Electric Factory on Tuesday - includes only Love from the band's '90s glory days, and

Nobody's Daughter

, not surprisingly, doesn't come close to measuring up to either 1994's classic

Live Through This

or 1998's underrated

Celebrity Skin

. Love will, however, be mixing songs from those halcyon days with screechy new ones like "Skinny Little Bitch" and surprisingly soft ones like "For Once in My Life." And the 45-year-old widow of Kurt Cobain

remains a loose cannon who can command your attention with her onstage antics when the music isn't doing the trick.

- Dan DeLuca

.