Girl Friday

Way back in late July of 2019, the current best pop-rock band on the planet — The Beths, from Auckland, New Zealand — played an excellent show at Bend’s Volcanic Theatre Pub. The middle act on that night’s three-band bill — Girl Friday, from Los Angeles — returns to the same venue on Saturday.

Girl Friday were also great two years ago, and since then they’ve released a full-length album that is appreciably better than anything they’d done before. Check out “Androgynous Mary” on their Bandcamp profile and let yourself sink into Girl Friday’s prickly guitars, their insistent melodies, their swaggering rhythm section and their unexpected song structures, which veer back and forth between pogo-worthy punk rock and slower passages that are lush and lovely. Without question, the album delivers on the promise of the band’s “Fashion Conman” EP, released just 14 months earlier.

Joining Girl Friday on Saturday night’s bill is another promising L.A. band, Cryogeyser, who inject a healthy dose of throwback alt-rock edge into their rich, reverberant dream-pop sound. They’re well worth showing up on time and paying attention!

Girl Friday and Cryogeyser: $12; 7 p.m. Saturday, Volcanic Theatre Pub, 70 SW Century Drive, Bend; volcanictheatre.com or 541-323-1881.