The Big Gigs: 10 top concerts to see in the Twin Cities this week

Close chums ever since they met at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts in their teens, these British rockers continue to experiment and expand their sound without losing their adherence to the pop hooks inherent to their hometown. Their newest album, “Oh! The Ocean,” is a dramatic and varied set produced with St. Vincent and Sharon Van Etten collaborator John Congleton. They’re touring with two younger U.K. bands, Only the Poets and Red Rum Club. (8 p.m. the Fillmore, 525 N. 5th St., Mpls., $48, ticketmaster.com)

He famously got his start playing four-hour shifts at Robert’s Western World in downtown Nashville while still a teen. A decade and a half later, this guitar ace has led his own band deep into California sonic territory combining his traditional twang with Deadhead-y jamming and Byrds-y psychedelica. The latest record, “Horizons,” shows Donato stepping it up as a fun songwriter, too. They’re playing an “evening with” set, meaning it’ll go long with no opener. (8 p.m. First Avenue, 701 1st Av. N., Mpls., $36, axs.com)

Also: After touring with Ringo Starr’s All-Starrs earlier this year, Men at Work’s Colin Hay is touring solo promoting “Man @Work, Vol. 2″ (7:30 p.m. Pantages Theatre, $55-$85); after going viral with “Coal” and earning a lot of Zach Bryan comparisons, twangy Texas tunesmith Dylan Gossett is out promoting his debut album, “Westward” (6:30 p.m. Palace Theatre); topical Minneapolis singer/songwriter Samuel Wilbur is celebrating his conceptual and stormy new album, “Ivory Tower,” with one of the LP’s featured guests, Meghan Kreidler of Kiss the Tiger (7:30 p.m. Parkway Theater, $20-$25).

A favorite with Twin Cities EDM fans after several appearances at the Snowta fest, Belgian dubstep duo Ganja White Night is back to head up a two-night, costumed Halloween party on the biggest dance floor in town. The Armory’s sound system will be dressed up special for the occasion, too, as French company L’ Acoustics is debuting new equipment for the event promising “unprecedented bass precision and clarity.” It’ll be different opening sets each night starting with Boogie T, GorillaT, Effin and more on Night 1, and then TVBOO, Eliminate, Mr. Bill and others the second night. (7 p.m. Fri. & Sat., the Armory, 500 S. 6th St., Mpls., $81/night or $129/two-night, ticketmaster.com)

Also: The 20th annual Luther Vandross tribute will be delivered by an all-star cast including Jay Bee, Lamont Keten, Darnel Alexander, Monique Blakey, Carrie Harrington, Chreese Jones, Angela Henderson and, of course, Patricia Lacy, who sang backup with Vandross for many years (7 & 9:30 p.m. the Dakota, $35.77 and up); a standout at last year’s Minnesota Yacht Club fest and cult-loved favorite, dramatic indie-rocker Michigander is promoting his self-titled debut album after several well-reviewed EPs (7:30 p.m. Amsterdam Bar & Hall); Crescent City funk-rock groovers the New Orleans Suspects are here for a Halloween masquerade ball (9 p.m. Hook & Ladder, $35-$40); local bros the Shackletons are pairing up with pal Menno Versteeg of Hollerado (8 p.m., 7th St. Entry); for your ghoulish pleasure, Doug Anderson and Lori Dokken present Macabaret: Haunting Songs for the Season (6 p.m. Crooners, $32.31 and up); Trumpet Summit features local players Steve Kenny, Omar Abdulkarim, Jake Baldwin and Solomon Parham (7:30 p.m. Crooners, $37.89 and up).

While musically marvelous, Mozart’s “Così fan tutte” can cause some cringing, for it’s a comedy about two men engaging in a bet to test their girlfriends’ fidelity. Minnesota Opera’s season-opening production will take full advantage of its ending’s ambiguity by allowing audiences to vote at intermission as to how they’d like to see the story play out. The action is transported to a modern American city in this production, which features Kylie Kreucher, Kara Morgan, Ángel Vargas and David Wolfe as the couples in flux. (7:30 p.m. Sat. and Nov. 6 and 8, 2 p.m. Nov. 9, Ordway Music Theater, 345 Washington St., St. Paul, $23-$287, mnopera.org)

Between his hip-hop beatmaking duties with Doomtree, Shredders and Mixed Blood Majority, his production work with Dessa and Lizzo and his punk-rock days with the Plastic Constellations, Aaron “Lazerbeak” Mader has already covered a lot of sonic territory over the past quarter century. The Minneapolis sonic wizard has been showing an entirely new side, though, on a series of lightly funky, ambient but buoyant instrumental EPs over the past year, which musically fall somewhere between Dosh, Aphex Twin and Vangelis. He’s celebrating the latest set, “Seeing Friends,” with Duluth drummer Zack Baltich, whose own band Ginger Bones opens. (8 p.m. Icehouse, 2528 Nicollet Av., Mpls., $18, icehousempls.com)

Some of the best work of this veteran Minnesota singer/songwriter has been his social commentary songs. He’s collected 12 such tunes, commenting on the everything from the farm crisis to the John Kennedy assassination, in a new album, “Songs of Resistance and Resolve.” That attitude sums up Metsa, a feisty Iron Ranger who has supported many progressive causes in his many decades in Minneapolis. Now based in Duluth, he’s added a new song, “No Kings (No Crown),” a duet with Low’s Alan Sparhawk, that pointedly articulates what perhaps half the country is thinking right now. This album-release party doubles as Metsa’s 70th birthday bash when he will be joined onstage by longtime Twin Cities conspirators Sonny Earl and Mari Harris as well as his new Duluth-based backup singers the Tilt Town Titanettes. (7 p.m. Aster House, 25 Main St. SE., Mpls., $25-$40, asterhouse.com)

Also: Florida’s Warped Tour-buoyed rockers A Day to Remember are back out with fellow 2000s-era melodic thrashers Yellowcard and the Wonder Years (6:15 a.m. the Armory, all ages, $74); it’s Duluth Band Night at the Cabooze with Erin Aldridge & Friends, Danny Frank & the Smoky Gold and Barefoot Bluegrass (7 p.m., $20-$25); Ohio-born singer/songwriter Joshua Radin is out behind his 10th studio album, “One Way, Home” (7 p.m. the Dakota, $45 and up).

After tackling big topics on 2018’s “American Utopia” and its brilliant concert-turned-Broadway musical, the ever-versatile, always challenging polymath got lighthearted this year on the exuberant and often effervescent “What Is the Sky?” Employing African and South American rhythms and the Ghost Train Orchestra, Byrne declines to address weighty issues, singing, “‘I’ve had to retire from that enlightenment biz. I don’t have the answers, and I never did.’” When Byrne comes to town for two nights, the new single “Everybody Laughs” and other “Sky” songs will be mixed in with Talking Heads and solo material. His concerts, a combination of inspired invention and reinvention, are art projects on another level, always must-see experiences. (8 p.m. Mon. & Tue., Orpheum Theatre, 910 Hennepin Av. S., Mpls., resale only, ticketmaster.com)

One of this year’s hidden-gem albums, this slow-stewing Louisiana soul singer’s fourth LP, “Flowers,” is an emotional yet soothing effort based around him reconciling his conservative Christian roots with his embracing of the LGBTQ community. Jones and his Indiana-based band, the Indications, lay down some laid-back yet wigged-out grooves behind his willowy voice, sounding equal parts Curtis Mayfield and Sade. The new songs should complement their already entrancing live shows. (8 p.m. First Avenue, $35, axs.com)

Also: Toronto’s all-female instrumental quartet the Sufrajettes kick up some wicked surf-rock grooves (8 p.m. Uptown VFW, $27-$33); local author Al Zdon celebrates the publication of his book with the late James Walsh called “Working Musician, The Story of James Walsh and Gypsy” (5 - 7 p.m. Mancini’s, $25 for a book).

Also: The all-star Neil Young tribute band Tired Eyes returns to the scene of the popular Grand Young Day concerts with Rich and Glen Mattson, Low’s Alan Sparhawk and Run Westy Run’s Kraig Johnson (7:30 p.m. Turf Club).

Growing up in Mill Valley, Calif., Grisman witnessed his dad David’s friends coming over to the Grisman home studio — Doc Watson, Jerry Garcia, John Hartford and Tony Rice, to name a few. Sam is a bassist who leads a revolving cast of acoustic pickers in a repertoire that owes much to his father’s “dawg” music, a blend of bluegrass, jazz and folk. Tunes by Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead, the Beatles and, of course, David Grisman, make their way into the set lists. (7 p.m. the Dakota, 1010 Nicollet Mall, Mpls., $52.25 and up, dakotacooks.com)

Also: Two top-notch veteran Midwestern singer/songwriters Claudia Schmidt and Ann Reed share a stage once again (6 p.m. Crooners, $25 and up).