SO many musical concerns seem to be swirling around the news and social platform debates at the moment, from the changes in laws regarding developments near existing venues, to uncertainty over ease of travel for jobbing musicians crossing the borders of the new European map currently being drawn.

Even the construction industry seems impervious to the creative upheaval as due to a clerical typo the government recently financially bailed out Marillion, leaving the future of many multi-million pound building projects uncertain. The world is changing and changing at a mind-boggling pace.

But some things never change and one of those certainties is that The Shudders, at the Victoria tonight, is still one of the best ways to spend an evening.

Having long shed their folky and piratical roots, they now ply a trade of lo-fi Americana, heartland rock, alt-country and rootsy indie and guarantee a great night of cool tunes and energised showmanship.

And if the true sound of the big country is what you are looking for the real deal can be found at The Beehive in the guise of Kent Duchaine. Kent is a keeper of the flame of old-school Delta blues and through a set of standards and originals pays tribute to that emotive sound made all the more authentic by his medium, an 80 year old National Steel guitar.

Friday brings on a wealth of music you already know and love. Hooch concentrates on the 90s, with everything from Faithless to Bobby Brown being offered up as a tribute to that decade at The Victoria, and both Mojo and Echo offering a wide range of eras, styles, genres and grooves to be found at The Queen’s Tap and The Swiss Chalet respectively.

The Petty Thieves at The Groves Company Inn offer songs from the record collections of their collective youth - given the musical mindset of its members, expect their set to swerve the cheesy, bright and obvious and head into the realms of a darker and less expected music undercurrent.

Similarly, The Astral DJs, the portable music box side line of Kid Calico and The Astral Ponies, will be spinning their favourite records at The Beehive. Again, given their musical taste, an eclectic selection of songs and underground strangeness is probably only the tip of the iceberg.

Saturday sees the last show at Level III for the foreseeable future. Hopefully someone will come along soon to revive its fortunes, but for now Frank Turner is the swansong of the current musical menu.

But what a way to bow out. Turner always comes with some complicated baggage but to his fans he is nothing short of a Joe Strummer for a new era, a man who has across a decade risen from playing house shows and venues most people can’t even find on the map to filling stadiums. Support is from Seam McGowan and Mike Barham. The show sold out in seven minutes so if you are looking for a ticket, you will be hard pushed.

Tributes come in the form of The Guns ’n’ Rose Experience, all the big riffs, big show and big hair of one of the most controversial street rock bands of the contemporary rock era at The Victoria, and at The Groves Company Inn, Reel to Real pay tribute to early Marillion.

Marillion remain a successful and forward thinking band to this day, but if, like me, you are an unreconstructed, first wave, neo-progger, then this musical revisit to the Fish era albums is one for the diary.

Saint Loe is unashamedly pop, and nothing wrong with that. In a world of production-line, landfill, dance routine, chart fodder, they combine vibrant pop sensibilities with indie cool and infectious tunes. Pop doesn’t have to be a dirty word. Find them at The Beehive.

Other options are The Clones playing rock classics at The Castle and those Rotten Aces delivering a salvo of incendiary old-school punk classics and visceral New Wave hits at The Tap and Barrel.

The day of rest brings a couple of gigs to round the weekend off, with vocalist Kelly Griggs performing at The Castle, and rejuvenated rock stalwarts Stat -X raising the rafters of The Duke of Edinburgh with their own selective bag of rock classics.