Ladies and gentleman, does this week bring us a doozy of a rock show or what?!? I will say this: this week’s show of the week might also be my most anticipated show of the year. It might not be a hipster-driven audience (it won’t be), the local indie record store may no longer the band’s new releases (they don’t), but that doesn’t matter: Cracker rules.

That’s right, Cracker. The fellas who pretty much provided the non-grunge soundtrack to the 90s are rolling through Cleveland this week, as they tour to support their newest release (#13), Sunrise in the Land of Milk and Honey. As an album, Sunrise is pretty good, especially the lead single “Turn On Tune In Drop Out With Me”, which is accompanied by some additional great tracks (“Show Me How This Thing Works” and “Friends”), some very good ones (“I Could Be Wrong I Could Be Right” and “Hey Brett – You Know What Time It Is”), and nothing that could be considered mere album filler. With Sunrise, the band continues its streak of very solid and underacknowledged albums, a streak this decade that includes 06’s Greenland, 02’s Forever, and 03’s awesome country cover album Countrysides. Record-wise, these albums might not be the level of Kerosene Hat (one of the single best albums of the 1990s), but they are solid and David Lowery still has a knack with writing clever, listenable songs that perfectly utilize Johnny Hickman’s killer skills on the axe.

Better yet, these guys absolutely bring it live. I mean, how couldn’t they, with the incomparable number of audience sing-a-long friendly tunes they have stuffed in their catalog, including “Low,” “Teen Angst,” “Get Off This,” “Sweet Potato,” “Been Around the World,” “Seven Days,” “Lonesome Johnny Blues,” “Euro-Trash Girls,” “Sweet Thistle Pie,” “I Need Better Friends,” “Mr. Wrong,” “Guarded By Monkeys,” and, of course, my three personal favorite Cracker live tunes, “Merry Christmas Emily,” “Big Dipper,” and their cover of Hank Williams Jr.’s “Family Tradition.” Shoot, throw their more famous covers in to the mix and this band could play for five hours and still not hit all the songs you were hoping to hear (especially Jerry Jeff Walker’s “Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother,” The Carpenters’ “Rainy Days and Mondays,” Bruce Springsteen’s “Sinaloa Cowboys,” and Willie Nelson’s “Reasons to Quit”)!

So, if it isn’t already clear what you need to prioritize this week, make sure you get yourself to the Beachland Ballroom this Friday night. Local rockabilly heroes The Whiskey Daredevils are slotted as openers, and if you’ve never seen them before, you are definitely gonna want to arrive early enough to catch their set – they put on, without a doubt, the most entertaining act in all of Cleveland and bring some serious instrumental chops to the stage, as well.

Check out my full weekly rundown for all of the rest of the shows that you need to be aware of, and if you’ve got a show on your mind that we should know about, leave it here in the comments!