Are you ready for some darkness? American fans of Norway’s denim-clad deathpunks Turbonegro have been waiting an awful long time to see the band live. On the brink of international superstardom, the group cracked up (singer Hank Von Helvete wound up in an institution) just as their masterpiece, 1998’s Apocalypse Dudes, was about to get American release. Even without a touring band to support it, the album — drawing inspiration from the likes of the Dictators, King Diamond, Alice Cooper, Kiss, Guns N’ Roses, AC/DC, and the Village People — became an underground classic. The group spawned a posthumous live album, a movie, and a tribute album (featuring Queens of the Stone Age, the Supersuckers, Hot Water Music, and others). And Apocalypse Dudes has been endlessly re-released — most recently by Epitaph, who will issue the reunited group’s new Scandinavian Leather in May. Turbonegro haven’t played the US since 1997, but they’re here for a brief stint opening for Queens of the Stone Age on a tour that gets only as close as the Webster Theatre (860-525-5553) in Hartford on Wednesday.

In other Scandinavian-rock news: Sweden’s the Soundtracks of Our Lives have found a foothold on American rock radio with " Sister Surround, " the hard-bitten single from their neo-classic-rocking Behind the Music (Warner Bros.). Led by the messianic singer Ebbot Lundberg — formerly of Union Carbide Productions, who launched a Stooges-worshipping Swede-punk craze in the early ’90s — the group conjure prime-era Stones, Who, and Pink Floyd, and they’re back for a return visit with gigs at the Paradise (617-423-NEXT) in Boston on Sunday and at Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel (401-272-5876) in Providence on Monday.

The illustrator Dame Darcy makes playfully gothic Victorian-inspired comics, like a riot grrrl Edward Gorey, and she makes music that’s just as sublimely odd: waltzes about the Great Boston Molasses Flood, clanking old-time ballads about charmingly inbred children. (The most startling entry in her résumé, though, reads: " Interior Design, Children’s bedroom, Courtney Love private residence, 1996 and 1998. " ) She performs at the Midway Café (617-524-9038) in Boston on Friday and at AS220 (401-831-9327) in Providence on Saturday. In a similar vein, former Tattle Tale frontwoman Madigan Shive’s cello and unearthly, forceful singing propel Bonfire Madigan, a baroque chamber-punk ensemble who’ve resurfaced with a new handmade EP — 88 (MoonPuss), including a cover of Yoko Ono’s " O’Sanity " — and a tour that brings them to T.T. the Bear’s Place (617-492-BEAR) in Cambridge on Sunday with Thalia Zedek and Tiger Saw.

And if you’ve ever wondered what the Misfits would’ve sounded like if Glenn Danzig had been born in Danzig during the Weimar era, check out the cabaret-punk collective the World/Inferno Friendship Society at the ICC Church (617-782-8120) in Allston on Friday. They’re on a bill with TV Smith, former leader of first-wave British punk greats the Adverts (of " Gary Gilmore’s Eyes " infamy); his latest solo effort is an Internet-only protest single, " Not in My Name. "

Issue Date: March 20 - 27
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