Brooklyn-based duo High Places brings spacey, chant-like and complex music to the Department of Safety, where the band headlines an all-ages show with Ponytail and Karl Blau at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 3. Tickets are $8. Call 293-8361.

Often compared with Beat Happening, High Places describes its own sound as “surf hard-core trance” music, while critics rave about the band’s existential yearnings and bright loops of sound.

“Organic and minimalist throughout, samples drift from faraway tropics to extraterrestrial orbits. Pearson sings musings to suit, with streams of consciousness that flow from gazing at clouds in the sky to existential yearnings about origins and final destinations,” writes Paste Magazine.

High Places’ songs are an imaginative amalgamation of sounds arranged in many aural layers: bells and birds over ocean waves, mallets hitting mixing bowls with treated guitar and glockenspiel, vocal textures with delicate melodies.

“Like Beat Happening, they exult in the simple,” said Pitchfork Media.com.

Also this week:

• Rockfish Grill, 320 Commercial Ave., presents Frankly Moanin’, Oct. 1; Oktoberfest with the Pickled Herring Band, Oct. 3; Dillinger’s Clambake, Oct. 4; the Stilly River Band, Oct. 8. Music is 6 to 9 p.m. Wednesdays, 8 to 10:30 p.m. Thursdays and 9 p.m. to midnight Fridays and Saturdays unless otherwise noted. Call 588-1720.

• Brown Lantern Ale House, 412 Commercial Ave., presents live music most weekends, about 9 to midnight, $3 at the door: Frankie Hernandez and Oregon Transplant. Open Jam Thursdays with Mike Rothmeyer are 9 p.m. to midnight. No cover. Call 293-2544.

• Watertown Pub, 314 Commercial Ave., offers live music most weekends. Saturday is ladies night with top 40 DJ Ben Brown; Wednesday is karaoke night with DJ Steve, 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Call 293-3587.

• Randy’s Pier 61 presents Mr. Entertainment, Jack Hamilton, at 6 p.m. Saturdays.

• Star Bar, 416-1/2 Commercial, presents Howlin’ Lane and the Angels of Sin, Oct. 3, and C. Eger Band, Oct. 4. Call 293-6747.

• Flounder Bay Café in Skyline presents jazz with La Rosa Trio from 5 to 8 p.m. Sundays.

• Swinomish Northern Lights Casino presents Jazz Lunches 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesdays. Call 293-2691.

• Anacortes Eagles presents live music 7:30 to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Ray Peake plays 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesdays. Members and guests only. Call 293-3012.

• Adrift Restaurant, 510 Commercial Ave., presents Spoonshine first Tuesdays. All ages.