One thing that you’re probably not going to see at The American Folk Festival on the Bangor Waterfront this weekend is rock music. Or metal. Or anything that involves a distortion pedal for that matter.

So even though I highly recommend checking out the festival’s offerings (especially Wanda Jackson or the Skatalites – now there’s some rockin’ out), if rock is what you want, rock is what you can get.

What’s really cool is that one of the bands that’s playing in the area this weekend, Bear vs. Shark, brings a slightly different edge to the scene from the slew of metal and hardcore bands that have played recently.

For starters, Bear vs. Shark list off bands like Husker Du and Les Savy Fav as influences. Never heard of them? Well, that’s your loss. Go to Bull Moose Music, buy an album from both of them, and then you’ll realize how cool it is that a band like BvsS is playing at the Kave in Bucksport tonight.

Their most recent album “Terrorhawk” utilizes the emotional wallop packed by bands like Hawthorne Heights and Taking Back Sunday, but removes the whine, cliches and the eyeliner, and replaces them with complex, jagged guitar lines, impassioned vocals and not an ounce of pretension. There’s a great piano intro on one of the songs, which builds to a huge, powerful crescendo, accented with a horn section. Not something you hear on a My Chemical Romance album. And God bless ’em for it.

This is a band that knows how to work with sound, not for a cheap emotional thrill like so many emo bands, but rather for the sonic experience. Whether you want to call them post-hardcore, post-punk, emo-core, whatever; it’s complicated, heavy rock on a grand scale.

This Michigan five-piece has been touring relentlessly since the album was released earlier this summer, so they’ve undoubtedly honed their live show into something fairly rock solid.

The band features vocalist and guitarist Marc Paffi, John Gaviglio and Derek Kiesgen, who switch off on bass and guitar; drummer Ashley Horak; and multi-instrumentalist Mike Muldoon. They’re appearing tonight with tour mates Curl Up and Die and Ed Gein, as well as local bands My Heart Her Ashes and Night Of The Long Knives.

If you are, in fact, a fan of emo, take heed: Check out this show tonight. It might not sound like something you’re used to, but you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Bear vs. Shark, along with contemporaries like Les Savy Fav, …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead, Cursive and others, have forged a crisp, unique sound out of a scene too often mired in either being very emo, or very, very loud. It’s somewhere in the middle of that, with a nice experimental streak running through it all.

So go see Bear vs. Shark tonight at the Kave. I really hope there actually are bears and sharks duking it out on stage, but in lieu of that, I’ll settle for a night of sweet rock music.

Supporting acts

This coming Tuesday and Wednesday, Aug. 30 and 31, a whole mess of Finnish psychedelic folk bands and artists (yes, that’s right: Finland) will play two nights at the St. Lawrence Church in Portland, as part of a 19-date U.S. trek. American bands the Davenport Family and the Skaters will team up with such Finnish luminaries as Tomutonttu, Hertta Lussu Assa, Pekko Kappi and Lau Nau. Don’t worry, I haven’t heard of them either. But if the buzz generated by indie music web site www.pitchforkmedia.com is any indication, it’s going to be an interesting couple of evenings. Uber-hip Portland indie label Time Lag Records is sponsoring. Tickets are $8 for each night, or $14 for both. Doors at 7 p.m.

Bear vs. Shark is playing at the Kave in Bucksport on Friday, Aug. 26. Tickets are $12 and are available at all Bull Moose Music locations, and doors open at 6 p.m. For more information, visit www.bearvsshark.com.