Totally Wired

In a decade saturated with bloated rock songs, it's easy to appreciate the concise methods of Wire in 1976, when the band's tense, polished angularity helped define the postpunk approach. Wire has since veered in and out of hiatus, dropping stripped-down, experimental-electronic bombs along the way. The '00s have proven to be the group's best-received and most focused decade since its golden era in the late '70s. The more recent Read & Burn EP series and Object 47 album feel like a return to its roots. Wire's live shows are notoriously unpredictable — a straight-through run of 1978 classic album Chairs Missing might suit the members one night, while on another they'll perform an entirely post-2000 set. Either way, the legends should deliver.