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

It’s easy to get excited about the latest album by the funkiest of jam bands. This veteran New Orleans ensemble backed Crescent City R&B great Irma Thomas on “Audience with the Queen,” an intoxicating mix of original blues, gospel and R&B of different flavors from Motown to NOLA penned for Thomas. At 84, she’s not on tour with Galactic, but the group’s singer Jelly Joseph can do this material justice. (8 p.m. First Avenue, 701 1^st Ave. N., Mpls., axs.com)

Multiple Twin Cities classical music organizations collaborated on bringing this brilliant British baritone to town. After spending Halloween weekend with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, he’ll perform both a very varied Schubert Club recital with pianist Iain Burnside and join the VocalEssence Ensemble Singers for the same program they offered at this summer’s Three Choirs Festival in England. So esteemed is Williams in his homeland that he sang at King Charles’ coronation. (Schubert Club recital: 7:30 p.m. Thu., Ordway Concert Hall, 345 Washington St., St. Paul, $36-$82, students and children free, schubert.org; VocalEssence concert: 7:30 p.m. Fri., St. Michael-Albertville High School Performing Arts Center, 5800 Jamison Av. NE., St. Michael, $45, vocalessence.org)

Also: Bilingual Canadian-Cuban singer/songwriter Alex Cuba has a shelf full of Juno, Latin Grammy and Grammy awards (7 p.m. the Dakota, $30-$40); country hitmaker Chase Rice of “Drinkin’ Beer, Talkin’ God, Amen” fame is touting his latest album, “Go Down Singin’” (7 p.m. Fillmore, $45 and up); one year shy of their golden anniversary, the jazzy/bluesy/folkie Wood Brothers are celebrating their new album “Puff of Smoke” (8 p.m. Pantages Theatre, $40 and up); local alt-twang/outlaw-country star(s) Cole Diamond plays every second Thursday of the month at the new Animales BBQ (8 p.m., free).

After winning bluegrass Grammys for each of her last two albums, this prized picker from California has gone more of a mainstream pop route on this year’s Grammy-nominated “So Long Little Miss Sunshine.” Like Alison Krauss and Sarah Jarosz before her, Tuttle is trying to take her broadened Americana sound to radio stations with a AAA format. The Current has given “So Long Miss Sunshine” plenty of spins on Bill DeVille’s Sunday morning “United States of Americana” program. Backed by a bunch of Nashville pros including fiddler Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show and producer Jay Joyce, Tuttle aims for mainstream country cred with the single “That’s Gonna Leave a Mark.” Opening is the delightfully quirky Joshua Ray Walker, whose new album “Stuff” celebrates the joy of estate sales. (8 p.m. Varsity Theater, 1308 SE 4th St. Mpls., $45 and up, ticketmaster.com)

Who could’ve guessed that in the decade since this Thai-funk-inspired instrumental Houston trio released its debut album, “The Universe Smiles Upon You,” they would grow from playing puny 7th St. Entry to being played in supermarkets and headlining festivals. Partners-in-groove Laura Lee Ochoa, Donald “DJ” Johnson Jr. and Mark “Marko” Speer are returning to clubs for a series of underplay concerts in select cities to celebrate the 10th anniversary of their debut LP. Captivating local singer/producer Sarah Elstran aka the Nunnery opens. (8 p.m. First Avenue, 701 1st Av., Mpls., resale tickets only, first-avenue.com)

Heart 360 is an annual concert event benefiting the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation. This year’s headliner is Swindell, the country hitmaker of “Single Saturday Night” and “She Had Me at Heads Carolina” who entertained crowds at Winstock in 2024 and after a Twins game in 2022. Also appearing are Nashville newcomers Priscilla Block and Payton Smith as well as hometown rockers Rocket Club featuring Chris Hawkey. (8 p.m. the Armory, 500 S. 6th St., Mpls., $81.75 and up, ticketmaster.com)

Also: Known for the movie “Dumb and Dumber,” Broadway’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” and TV’s “The Newsroom,” Jeff Daniels has been writing and recording songs for more than four decades and returns to the Dakota for two days (9:30 p.m. Fri. & noon Sat., $55 and up); after a screening of the new documentary “Venus of Mars,” local trans-glam-punk hero Venus de Mars’ band All the Pretty Horses throws down with Big Salt and Bitchslap (7:30 p.m. Cloudland Theater, $12-$15); Portland ambient/neoclassical musician and “psychedelic practitioner” East Forest is touring fresh off a new documentary/score, “Music for Mushrooms” (8 p.m. Cedar Cultural Center, $35);

A new Netflix documentary, simply titled “Devo,” entertainingly highlights the deeper, Dada-esque concepts and topical commentary the “Whip It” hitmakers carried out of Ohio’s Kent State University in the mid-1970s with vital help from Twin Cities filmmaker Chuck Statler. The rock doc arguably didn’t hit home how much the band and its albums also just plain rocked. That’s for the group’s surviving band members to prove in concert. They’re marking the band’s 50^th anniversary with Josh Hager of the Rentals on guitar following Bob Casale’s 2014 death, and with A Perfect Circle’s Jeff Friedl behind the drum kit. (8 p.m. Palace Theatre, 17 W. 7^th Place, St. Paul, $232, axs.com)

Before becoming a musical tour mate of Jackson Browne and Peter Gabriel and actor in movies like “Thunderheart,” John Trudell spent much of the 1970s in Minneapolis helming the American Indian Movement organization. On the 10^th anniversary of his death, the Sioux songwriter, poet and author is being honored by two of Minnesota’s most celebrated singer/songwriters and well-known Native musicians, Annie Humphrey and Keith Secola, plus some of their musical friends, including Suburbs guitarist Jeremy Ylvisaker and Bon Iver band member S. Carey. A hybrid of music, stories and visual art, the event is one of many this month at the Cedar doubling as a drive for Pillsbury United’s food-shelf program. (8 p.m. Cedar Cultural Center, 416 Cedar Av. N., Mpls., $15, thecedar.org)

Also: Hawaiian singer/songwriter Iam Tongi, the Season 21 winner on “American Idol” in 2023, makes his Minnesota debut (7 p.m. the Dakota, $45-$55); the Twin Cities’ longtime torchbearers of two-tone ska, Umbrella Bed, celebrates its 30th anniversary with the Prizefighters and more (7:30 p.m. Hook & Ladder, $15-$20); Americana songwriter Becky Kapell and her twang unit the Fat 6 make their Animals BBQ debut (8 p.m., free).

While she’s been visible around the Twin Cities in tribute evenings to Shania Twain, Dolly Parton, Bruce Springsteen, John Prine, Joni Mitchell and Fleetwood Mac, Vincent is really a jazz chanteuse at heart. She proves it in spades on her forthcoming third album “Little Black Book.” On this collection of originals, she shows more depth and versatility than Laufey, the young jazzy vocalist of the moment. Filling her songs with vivid characters, this gifted storyteller is a master of many moods, especially melancholy. While she may evoke Amy Winehouse’s noirish R&B at times, she showcases considerable range, from the jazzy rockabilly “Swinging Tattooed Queen” to the girl-group bop “Hannah Always Cries at IKEA” to the breezy R&B “Till They Do” about being dumped in the modern age. (7 p.m. Parkway Theater, 4814 Chicago Av. S., Mpls., $25-$30, theparkwaytheater.com)

Also: Texas prog-rock unit the Mars Volta, which grew out of the brilliant El Paso band At the Drive-In, plays its second Minnesota gig since reuniting in 2022 (8 p.m. First Ave); indie rockers Josh Joplin and Cat Ridgeway team up behind their latest discs, “GpYr” and “Sprinter,” respectively (7 p.m. Amsterdam, $20-$25); Willie Watson, cofounder of Old Crow Medicine Show, is on tour promoting his eponymous album, his first collection of all original material (8 p.m. Turf Club); this month’s curator for Berlin jazz club’s Sunday night series, pianist Kevin Gamble perform with his fusion quartet and with the free-form rock ensemble Tabah (7 p.m., $12-$15); gospel/soul vets JD and Fred Steele host their “Through the Ages” concert with a crew of teen singers they have been mentoring (7 p.m. Aster House, $30); Yemeni-Arabian Music trio El Khat returns (7:30 p.m. Cedar Cultural Center, $20-$25).

Soulful New York vaporwave groover Mac Ayres recently dropped “Cloudy,” a compilation of tracks he released on SoundCloud in the ‘10s (7 p.m. the Dakota, $30 and up); Seattle’s urgent and arty rockers Minus the Bear are celebrating the 20th anniversary of their second album, “Menos el Oso” (8 p.m. First Ave).

After doing sort of a supergroup collab with Band of Heathens last year, this Texas alt-twanger is back with his 10^th studio album of this century. “We’re Only Human” is his most introspective and personal album, highlighted by the inner-peace slow-waltz “High” and the fiddle-framed “Progress of Man (Bitcoin and Cattle)” showcasing his familiar sharp wit. On record, Carll is backed by coproducer Gordy Quist of Band of Heathens, Daryl Scott, Shovels & Rope, and Ray Wylie Hubbard, among others, with Quist, the Brothers Osborne and Hiss Golden Messenger participating on the songwriting. (8 p.m. Amsterdam Bar & Hall, 6^th & Wabasha, St. Paul, axs.com)

Also: Veteran Japanese indie-pop ensemble Lamp is on its first North American tour (8 p.m. Uptown Theater, $55 and up); Senegalese singer and bass virtuoso Alune Wade has a tellingly titled new album, “New African Orleans” (7:30 p.m. Cedar Cultural Center, $25-$30).