If we've learned one thing about the misadventures of Doc Brown and Marty McFly, it's that time travel can be dangerous. Those looking to get a fix of the dark, groove-heavy riffs of decades past without risk of shattering the time-space continuum, look no further than Saturday night at the Picador. The night of retro rock will be headlined by Dead Meadow.

Sharing a home on Matador Records with the likes of soulful chanteuse Cat Power and everyone's favorite NYC stylecats, Interpol, Dead Meadow took the gravel road less-traveled to indie-rock stardom. Although formed in the angular, precise punk urgency of the Washington, D.C., scene, the musical minds of the members couldn't be further away - try Middle-Earth. The band harnesses a ethereal groove that sounds like a fishing trip between Jimmy Page and Neil Young, a mellow yet insistent take on the art of the riff.

Opening the show is Mondo Drag, an act out of Davenport that may be the best (and heaviest) Iowa band you've never heard of.

"Our sound can be heard in '60s and '70s psychedelic garage, acid blues, dark stoner folk," said guitarist Jake Sheley. "Anything that's righteously heavy and drifty. We dip into quite a wide variety."

Mondo Drag was formed in 2006 by members of stoner-rock favorites Holy Smokes, beginning with the unlikely instrumental setup of two guitars and a drummer. The three-piece relied on playing the guitars out of a horde of vintage bass amps to get their thick, syrupy sound.

"Our stage setup used to be to the point of absurd," Sheley said. "We've tried to scale it back a lot just for practical reasons."

After adding a bass player at the beginning of the year, the band's lineup was complete. Mondo Drag manages to seamlessly blend eclectic influences into mini-epics, running the gamut from simply yet carefully crafted folk tunes into an onslaught of atmospheric feedback.

Coming from a place that is more akin to Tom Arnold than heavy riffs, the band has a unique opinion on its birthplace.

"As far as being from Iowa, it's sort of a double-edged sword," Sheley said. "I think it's easier for a good band from Iowa to get noticed than if you were from a bigger city. Iowa is sort of a weird place; still, spaceships do pass through Iowa sometimes, right?"