Progressive rock can be both challenging and accessible, much like a James Joyce pop-up book or a mathematical proof written in barbecue sauce. Calculate the thrills of the incalculably catchy with today’s GrouponLive deal: for $11, you get one general-admission ticket to see Battles at The Venue Scottsdale on Tuesday, October 18, at 8 p.m. (up to a $22 value in advance, including fees). Doors open at 7 p.m.

Experimental-rock trio Battles makes music the brain can dance to, charting a progressive course that soars beyond post-rock and simple categorization in support of its second album, Gloss Drop. A supergroup of human math-rock protractors, Battles enlists berserk drummer John Stanier of Helmet, wily guitarist/keyboardist Ian Williams from Don Caballero, and dexterous guitarist David Konopka of Lynx for sonic adventures that tease the imagination and turn sheet music into Rorschach blobs. As instrumental trances give way to whiplash, rave-ups sharpen and blur like a Seurat-print sleep mask, and epic soundscapes open wormholes, the three-headed virtuosic force of Battles wins the sweatiest game of aural chess by not talking with a mouthful of time signatures. To start the show, the all-female Tokyo-based instrumental trio Nisennenmondai unleashes colossal avant-garde calamity, dousing dancing feet with relentless rhythm while warning the world of the looming Y2K bug.