No minute like the last: Detroit area residents are encouraged to check out an extraordinary show at 9pm this evening at Xhedos in Ferndale. "New York City's angriest yodelling banjo player" Curtis Eller will be spinning American Gothic tales about Amelia Earhart, snake handling, Buster Keaton and elephants with the dark intensity of Sixteen Horsepower, the inexplicable charm of P.T. Barnum, and the surreal atmosphere of a Coney Island freakshow interpreted by the Brothers Quay and seen through the bottom of an absinthe bottle.

Performing with Mr. Eller tonight will be singer/songwriter, multimedia artist and fellow New Yorker Thomas Truax. Truax performs with a guitar and mechanical sound sculptures created from found objects, and crafts eerie lullabies and rock melodramas. Generating an aesthetic something like a combination of Tom Waits, Marcel Duchamp, Nick Cave and Elliott Earls, or simply a freaky genius New York City subway busker, Truax claims to be "an illegitimate son of Screamin' Jay Hawkins and a mad scientist of experimental music." Perfect.