The Big Gigs

POP/ROCK Call it "Anarchy in the N.J." Titus Andronicus has taken the Springsteen influence and blue-collar disenchantment ingrained in its Jersey Shore roots and applied it to a frantic, harrowing, explosive live show, complete with lengthy, "10th Avenue Freeze Out"-sized jams. Proof is also in the band's Civil War-inspired XL Recordings debut, "The Monitor," violin-spiked punk-rock noise that's part Black Flag, early Sonic Youth and Bright Eyes. Minnesota-rooted openers Free Energy and their hippie-ish riff-rock should make for a fun contrast. Dragons Power Up! also perform. (8 p.m. Fri., Triple Rock. All ages. $14.) (C.R.)

If you want to know how Jeremy Messersmith spent his summer, look no further than his new lo-fi video for "Lazy Bones," another ridiculously catchy gem from "The Reluctant Graveyard," the giddiest album you'll ever hear about death. The clip (www. JeremyMessersmith.com) shows our bespectacled boy wonderer literally jumping from hotel room to hotel room on his summer tour. He'll be back in his own bed -- and back with guitarist Brian Tighe and the rest of his cozy band -- for this homecoming show. Total Babe and Chastity Brown open. (7 p.m. Sat., First Avenue. 18 & older. $8-$10.) (C.R.)

Back in the late 1990s, the Dust Bunnies created all kinds of fun with a spirited, eclectic mixture of soul, twang and lounge pop. After capturing a once-coveted Minnesota Music Award for best new artist in 1996, the Bunnies disbanded in '99 when co-lead singer Julie Reiten headed to Los Angeles and hooked up with the Brian Setzer Orchestra. Now married to Setzer, resettled in Minneapolis and with the BSO not touring this year, Julie called up vocalist Jennifer Goforth (love her version of "Son of a Preacher Man") and the other Bunnies for a reunion. Opening is the always excellent Molly Maher, the Twin Cities' musical answer to Lucinda Williams. (9 p.m. Sat. Fine Line, $12-$15.) (J.B.)

It's a double-header of enduring local rockers: Curtiss A, the dean of scream and the John Lennon marathon man, will make a rare appearance in St. Paul (even though he's lived there for probably two decades) with James Loney, a rebounding 1980s rocker who is celebrating the release of his well-crafted, rootsy EP, "Who's the Lucky One" (whose highlight is "Ramblin' Jack Elliott" with the poetic refrain "a folk singer's dream is the stars at night, a bottle of bourbon and a lonely life"). Opening are the Dahlias, Gini Dodds' group, and the Domestic House Cats. (8 p.m. Sat. Wild Tymes, 33 7th Pl., St. Paul, free.) (J.B.)

For better or worse, fans know what to expect of a Flaming Lips show these days: costumed dancers, lots of confetti, trippy lights and lasers and frontman Wayne Coyne's giant hamster-ball rolling over the crowd. It's a fun spectacle that's worth seeing again and again, but it would be nice to see the acidic Oklahoma rockers create as much magic in the studio again as it did with "The Soft Bulletin." The new album, "Embryonic," doesn't come close. Psychedelic throwback Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti makes for a worthy opener with its kitschy new record, "Before Today." (7:30 p.m. Sun., Roy Wilkins Auditorium, St. Paul. $39.50.) (C.R.)

Brooklyn-reared, David Byrne-supported art-rock troupe the Dirty Projectors is back again, riding the success of its critically lauded 2009 album "Bitte Orca," promising another love-it-or-hate-it -- but certainly one-of-a-kind -- live show that employs as many singers as it does capos (those clamp-on thingies for guitars necks to ensure nobody plays a Black Sabbath-ian riff). The band's latest tour is timed to an expanded edition of the album, which includes an 11-song bonus disc of predictably odd odds-and-ends. Vermont trio Happy Birthday opens. (8:30 p.m. Sun., First Avenue. 18 & older. $20-$22.) (C.R.)

With its harmonizing twin-sister vocalists, ethereal pop melodies and organic dance grooves, New York band School of Seven Bells comes off like a cross between the Cocteau Twins and Luscious Jackson. The trio's second album, "Disconnect With Desire," sounds tailor-made for a Sofia Coppola movie or a hip nighttime Volkswagen commercial. Active Child opens. (9 p.m. Sun., 7th Street Entry. $16.) (C.R.)

Rogue Wave is known for sunny, hazy, California-baked melodic rock, and Midlake has been picking dewy, depressed, British Isle-style folk-rock, so the two bands should make for interesting, night-and-day co-headliners. Rogue Wave's newest album, "Permalight," was even bright and upbeat enough to be issued via Jack Johnson's Brushfire Records. Local opening duo Peter Wolf Crier is on the bands' entire tour. (8 p.m. Mon., First Avenue. 18 & older. $16.) (C.R.)

If you saw the recent webcast of Arcade Fire's Madison Square Garden concert, you know three things going into the Canadian saga-rockers heavily anticipated fall tour kickoff date in St. Paul: 1) The band is pulling equally from all three of its albums on tour, making a strong case for "The Suburbs" being on par with its predecessors; 2) cavernous venues such as the Wilkins Auditorium are no deterrent to the band's carefully orchestrated and jubilantly delivered songs, something local fans already learned in 2007, and 3) U2 had better watch its back, for more reasons than Bono's health. These guys and gals really are on fire. Expect another elegant, slow-burning opening set from Arizona borderland maestros Calexico. (7:30 p.m. Wed., Roy Wilkins Auditorium. Sold out.) (C.R.)

If you think Owl City is cute, just wait until you get a load of Breanne Düren, the backup singer and keyboardist behind Adam Young at Owl City shows who also sang with him on record in "The Saltwater Room." Born Breanne Durenberger, 22, from Apple Valley, she is fresh from Owl City's tour with John Mayer and stepping out on her own at the same place where Young made his debut. Düren's über-sweet, unabashedly girly piano-pop demo recordings suggest a slightly electronic and absolutely twangless Taylor Swift. Now Now Every Children and Cariantha open, the latter featuring another Owl City utility player, Daniel Jorgensen. (6:30 p.m. Wed., Varsity Theater. All ages. $12.) (C.R.)

A welcome addition to the Broken Social Scene crew her last time in town, Montreal songstress Elizabeth Powell is back on tour with her own moody and melodic but powerful band, Land of Talk. The trio just issued its second album for Saddle Creek Records, "Cloak and Cipher," featuring backup support by members of Arcade Fire and Stars. Suuns opens. (9 p.m. Thu., 7th Street Entry. $10.) (C.R.)

After his stints with Guns 'N Roses, Slash's Snakepit and Velvet Revolver, Slash has gone solo. Of course, fans know that he can't sing. So the guitar hero has pulled a Santana and enlisted a parade of vocalists -- Ozzy, Iggy, Lemmy, Fergie (really), Wolfmother's Andrew Stockdale and Alter Bridge's Myles Kennedy -- for "Slash," his first bona fide solo album. Kennedy is on board for the current tour, which will balance favorite songs (yes, there will be plenty of GNR stuff) and guitar workouts. (8 p.m. Thu. Medina Entertainment Center, $31.) (J.B.)

FOLK With a fan base dedicated enough to help fund her albums before they're made, Twin Cities folk favorite Ellis scaled back the full-band arrangements on her last record and stuck to her intimate coffeehouse roots on her mostly acoustic seventh disc, "Right on Time." On it, the golden-voiced songwriter mines her small-town Texas roots, pays homage to her grandmother and offers words of advice to her newborn daughter. (8 p.m. Fri., Cedar Cultural Center. All ages. $15.) (C.R.)

Always a thinker and sometimes a social commentator, singer/songwriter Michelle Shocked is doing a conceptual show titled "American Idle," which she describes as "a celebration of our jobless recovery." (7 p.m. Mon. Dakota, $30.) (J.B.)

ROOTS It's a crime that Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys, California's finest rockabilly and swing ensemble, haven't made a new CD since 2006. "Turntable Matinee" was a stone gem, from the opening notes of "Power of the 45," preacher Sandy's testimonial to great records of yore, to "The Ones You Say You Love," a surprisingly serious statement about adultery, set to rockin' licks worthy of Merle Travis or Carl Perkins. Big Sandy writes as well as he sings, his rapport with a live audience is frisky and butter-smooth, and the Fly-Rite Boys always keep the tattooed rockabilly dance crowd happy. (9 p.m. Sat., Lee's Liquor Lounge. $10.) (T.S.)

After Doug Sahm died in 1999, his oldest son Shawn -- a former metalhead nonetheless schooled in Texas roots music -- headed up several tributes to the Lone Star State's most encyclopedic music icon. Those well-received gigs have developed into a spirited remake of Sahm's Texas Tornados, headed up by Shawn with the two surviving members of the Tex-Mex supergroup: organist Augie Meyers, who also played in the Sir Douglas Quintet and was in tow for Dylan's "Time Out of Mind," and accordion guru Flaco Jimenez. They're touring behind a new album, "Esta Bueno," which includes several unreleased tracks sung by Freddy Fender, who also died in 2006. (8 p.m. Sun., Cedar Cultural Center. $25.) (C.R.)

Marty Stuart's got the hair, wardrobe and the pedigree that screams Nashville star: He played with Lester Flatt (starting at age 13), toured with Johnny Cash, became a member of Grand Ole Opry, landed near the top of the country charts with duet partner Travis Tritt, married Opry star Connie Smith and became a collector of country instruments and artifacts. He's also a darn reliable country traditionalist, as evidenced by his solid new "Ghost Train." The disc includes Cash's last composition, "Hangman," co-written with Stuart. This Sunday, he's working solo and acoustic. Read an interview with Stuart in Sunday's Variety A+E. (7 p.m. Sun., Dakota, $45.) (J.B.)

JAZZ The reunited Jazz Crusaders will finish their two-night stand at the Dakota with co-founder Joe Sample on keys and Wayne Henderson on trombone and special guest Gerald Albright on sax, filling in for ill co-founder Wilton Felder. In the 1970s, the Crusaders were the rare jazz group to land on FM rock radio, with a 12-minute version of Carole King's "So Far Away," the lite-funk "Put It Where You Want It" and the long-and-winding "Street Life" (with Randy Crawford's unforgettable vocals). (7 & 9:30 p.m. Fri. Dakota, $45-$65.) (J.B.)

Already the darling of the jazz world at age 24, bassist/singer Esperanza Spalding took a bold leap on this year's "Chamber Music Society." She has an assertive string quartet playing with a vibrant jazz rhythm section, topped by her soulful vocals. It's ear-opening, unclassifiable music. (7 & 9:30 p.m. Tue.-Wed. Dakota, $25-$45.) (J.B.)

Together since 1974, Hiroshima still has three original members: flutist, reed player and bandleader Dan Kuramoto; koto queen June Kuramoto, and drummer Danny Yamamoto. Their list of credits include an early R&B hit ("Roomful of Mirrors"), a tour with Miles Davis, a Soul Train Award and appearances on numerous movie soundtracks ("Black Rain," "The Thin Red Line"). Adding Japanese folk flourishes to a fusion/new age mix remains their sonic calling card. (7 p.m. Tue., Hopkins Center for the Arts, 1111 Mainstreet, Hopkins. $38. 952-979-1111.) (T.S.)