A band called Teeph, in from Chico, California, are packing up their gear after playing an intense set at the Kraken in the University District. Before them, heavy fuzz duo Noise-a-Tron had blown the show open with their wall of feedback and distorted melody. People are visibly exhausted.

"I don't wanna play," jokes Demian Johnston, leaning against a table by the bar. His band Great Falls is headlining. Johnston and bassist Shane Mehling talk through the logistics of stringing hammocks across the stage and taking naps for the audience. Sleep as performance art. Ten minutes later, though, they've taken the stage, and Johnston is screaming the skin off his lungs while Mehling hurls himself into the crowd, bass and all, as they break into "Wound Instructions"—a scorching track from the band's magnificently brutal 2013 full-length Accidents Grotesque...