GetUpandVote.com presents Barack Rock

Craig Wedren

Photograph: Courtesy of Getupandvote.com

Bowery Ballroom; Mon 4

It seems like there are only two things that can get young people to care about politics: music and comedy. Either it’s a party (no pun intended) or it’s a joke. If that’s true, then GetUpandVote.com’s Barack Rock show is designed for maximum impact. On the eve of the all-important Super Tuesday primaries, a rash of musicians and funny people will perform at Bowery Ballroom in support of the Dems’ most rock & roll candidate. Hosted by the ridiculous comedy troupe Stella (Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter and David Wain), the fun is headlined by OK Go. Still best known for the YouTube craze touched off by its 2006 treadmill-choreography video for “Here It Goes Again,” the Weezer-like group has since heightened its activism, collaborating on a new EP with New Orleans band Bonerama to benefit Big Easy musicians affected by Katrina.

Other political-minded acts on the bill include Craig Wedren and Nathan Larson (old bandmates in Shudder to Think), sophisticated art-pop singer-songwriter Joan as Police Woman, and Nina Persson of the Cardigans and A Camp. Persson will also team with Karen Elson (a.k.a. Mrs. Jack White) and Amy Miles, the latter pair from the politically charged cabaret troupe the Citizens Band, to debut Birds, their new vocal trio. If tonight’s lineup seems a little disjointed, don’t forget that young voters are too.

—Cristina Black