Battles

Thu., July 19, 8 p.m., with Fucked Up and Singer, First Unitarian Church, 2125 Chestnut St.

by Atom Goren

rock/pop

: Timothy Saccenti (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Battles plays as if its members are robots. Ones made by aliens who just happen to be adept at programming robots to play hooky, math-y and playful-as-hell instrumental-ish music (the -ish suffix has been utilized here because Battles employs "vocal" parts, but they appear to be in alien-robot-ese) on rock instruments. Battles has an impressive musical-equipment-per-band- member ratio and plays each show in a 3-D rotating mirrored box, if the rad video for "Atlas" off their latest record Mirrored is to be taken as a live concert recording (it isn't). The ex/current members of register for Battles have Don Caballero, Helmet, Tomahawk and Lynx on their résumés. As an aside, plural noun-sounding/singular noun-being mofos, like Battles, make my internal grammar corrective device get mad à la: "The New York Islanders sucks." So: Battles am playing a show. You goes to see it.

Thu., July 19, 8 p.m., $12, with Fucked Up and Singer, First Unitarian Church, 2125 Chestnut St., 866-468-7619, r5productions.com.