The Breeders

With the release of last year’s eclectic, feverish Mountain Battles, the Breeders did what their ’90s Lolla-nation contemporaries such as Smashing Pumpkins, Jane’s Addiction, and even Kim Deal’s other band, the Pixies, could not: Survived the ’00s as a legacy band instead of as a nostalgia act. A grab bag of power-punk sunshine, codeine ballads, and muted German weirdness, Battles is not only their strongest album in 15 years, it’s stronger than most of the hyped newbie indie bands that have hypothetically taken their place. With Whispertown 2000.

Tue., Aug. 18, 8 p.m.; Wed., Aug. 19, 8 p.m., 2009