If the musical category “dervish rock” ever takes off, it will owe a lot to Haale, an Iranian-American guitarist and singer who may be the only musician you’ll hear who sings in Persian. Drawing from both 1960s psychedelia and the mystical Sufi tradition, Haale’s music blends droning guitars and propulsive percussion to forge a music that is intensely physical and spiritually tinged at the same time. Weaving through it all are her throaty, plaintive vocals, singing of fire, earth, water, sky, and sometimes even love (though it’s more of an ecstatic, rocket-to-the-stars sort of love than the usual boy-girl thing). Perhaps her most interesting project is setting the poems of Sufi masters like Rumi and Hafez to rock music, which works surprisingly well—the vowel-rich language is perfect for the sort of chanting rhythms that lie beneath her music. Her most recent CD, No Ceiling, shows her developing a quieter, singer-songwriter side, though still with a mystical edge. Last year she appeared to a small crowd at Nietzsche’s, so this year’s gig at Tralf shows how fast her star is rising. No ceiling, indeed.

—edward batchelder

7pm doors. Tralf Music Hall, 622 Main Street (852-2860/tralfmusichall.com). $12/$14.50