BY ANY OTHER NAME—Dev Hynes (AKA Lightspeed Champion) is the logical heir to Elvis Costello. His brand of songwriting crosses genres, but is suffused with a ’50s doo-wop flair and brutally honest lyrics. Onstage, he is funny, scattered, and maybe not altogether sane. Call it indie-folk or folk-pop or whatever; his music is above all, beautiful. PAC w/Flowers Forever, the Explorers Club; Doug Fir, 830 E Burnside, 9 pm, $11-12

Creeped out by puppets? Yeah, me too. I mean, with the exception of Statler & Waldorf and my favorite Christian farm animal, all puppets should be burned. Or shot. Perhaps both.

But despite my puppet bigotry, Lightspeed Champion loads his video for “Galaxy Of The Lost” with various colorful muppet-looking things that cause mischief and most likely consume the tiny kitten which appeared in the beginning of the clip.

No one is safe from the menace of puppetry.