The Big Gigs for May 10-16

For its second year, the Girls Got Rhythm Festival didn't nab a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame heroine like last year's headliner, Ronnie Spector, but it did recruit two acts permanently tied to rock history. First up are the Avengers, who opened the Sex Pistols' infamous last show in San Francisco and helped spark the Bay Area's great punk scene. They play Friday along with local favorites Gateway District and Total Trash. Saturday's big name is former Runaways singer Cherie Currie, whose old bandmate Joan Jett actually was up for a Rock Hall induction this year. At least Joan won in her efforts to bring Cherie out of rock 'n' roll retirement. She's performing with Milwaukee pop darlings the Sugar Stems, Italy's Marilu & the Machettes and psychedelic all-female local trio Is/Is. Read our interview with Currie at startribune.com/music. (9 p.m. Fri. & 8 p.m. Sat., Amsterdam Bar & Hall, $20 per night, $35 both, GirlsGotRhythmFest.com.) Chris Riemenschneider

A clear highlight of Minnesota Public Radio's "Wits" series this season, torch-twang/alt-country favorite Neko Case and her singing partner Kelly Hogan will play their first local gig since 2011's Rock the Garden concert as Case winds down recording on her first album since 2009's acclaimed "Middle Cyclone." Case's staunch animal-rights support and who-knows-what-else could be fodder for her comedic pairing for the show, Rob Delaney, the hip Boston-reared writer and stand-up best-known from Twitter, where his musings last week included: "So cool about the openly gay @NRA player." (7 p.m. Fri., Fitzgerald Theater, sold out, WitsRadio.org.) Riemenschneider

With hints of the XX's lo-fi throb and Beach House's more ornate ambience, Daughter has not surprisingly ignited a healthy buzz following last week's stateside release of its full-length debut, "If You Leave." The London trio — fronted by raven-haired, siren-voiced singer/guitarist Elena Tonra — is on its first major headlining tour, and guess who its opener is? Minneapolis' own Jeremy Messersmith, now a labelmate on Glassnote Records. (9 p.m. Fri., Fine Line, $15.) Riemenschneider

Fondly remembered as a lead voice of the R&B Cadets and Paul Cebar & the Milwaukeeans, cool canary Robin Pluer is back for a couple of gigs, singing French songs, pop, jazz and country with guitar-playing pal Robb Henry and his Parisota Hot Club cronies. Friday, you'll get a standard electric guitar trio with drummer Jay Epstein and bassist Keith Boyles. Saturday, it's more of a Parisian bistro lineup, with violinist Jim Plattes, bassist Matt Senjem and Epstein. Either way, Pluer will enchant. Reservations strongly recommended. (7-10 p.m. Fri., Shanghai Bistro, 324 S. Main St., Stillwater, 651-430-9000, no cover; 6-9 p.m. Sat., Loring Pasta Bar, 327 14th Av. SE., Mpls., 612-378-4849, no cover.) Tom Surowicz

You could give your mom tickets for Josh Groban or Michael Bublé this fall. Or you could get more instant gratification with old-school romantic balladeer Engelbert Humperdinck. The 77-year-old British idol will regale mothers and others with "After the Lovin' " and "The Last Waltz." (8 p.m. Sat., Mystic Lake Casino, $32-$38.) Jon Bream

Cleveland-born, Northwestern-educated Joshua Radin is a well-connected sensitive singer/songwriter. He knew Zach Braff, which got his music on "Scrubs" and on Columbia Records. Radin eventually fell in with the Hotel Cafe crowd in Los Angeles, where the music on last year's "Underwater" fits in perfectly. Equal parts early John Mayer and early Paul Simon, Radin is a breathy-voiced, bittersweet romantic who seasons his sadness with optimism and a dash of orchestral sweetening. Radin self-released a new album, "Wax Wings," this week. (7 p.m. Tue., Dakota Jazz Club, $40.) Bream

After stints on Sub Pop and Kill Rock Stars, wiry Oregonian punk blasters the Thermals are now working with another famed indie label, Omaha's Saddle Creek. The move reflects the no-fuss, all-heart approach of their dark new album, "Desperate Ground," recorded in New York with producer John Agnello (Hold Steady, Free Energy) hours before Hurricane Sandy went into overdrive. Suffice it to say there's a lot of urgency in the songs. Local openers Strange Relations are a collegiate trio well studied on classic, reverb-laden ethereal rock. (9 p.m. Tue., 7th Street Entry, $15.) Riemenschneider

The brawn-over-brainpower rap-metal band that gave us such memorable titles as "Chocolate Starfish & the Hot Dog Flavored Water" and "Break Stuff," Limp Bizkit is back. Credit/blame partially goes to Lil Wayne, who signed the late-'90s group to his Cash Money Records and guests on the first single, "Ready to Go." Weezy's involvement might turn on a whole new generation of testosterone-testy teens to Fred Durst & Co., whose team again includes original guitarist Wes Borland. Maybe best remembered locally for nearly setting the Metrodome roof on fire in 2003 with Metallica, they seriously were an explosive live band. They're touring again to build buzz for a would-be comeback album due this summer titled — wait for it! — "Stampede of the Disco Elephants." (8:30 p.m. Tue., Varsity Theater, sold out.) Riemenschneider

Sixto Rodriguez was a late 1960s/early '70s singer/songwriter forgotten everywhere except South Africa, where he became something of a cult hero. A couple of obsessive fans tracked him down in Detroit and brought him to South Africa for a series of concerts that became the subject of the Oscar-winning documentary "Searching for Sugarman." The 2012 movie and appearances on Letterman and Leno have created an audience for the 70-year-old, who sounds a bit like Cat Stevens with a protest streak. (7:30 p.m. Wed., Fitzgerald Theater, sold out.) Bream

There's always something happening on stage when psychedelic freak-pop band Of Montreal comes to town, be it aliens committing mass murder or pigs getting it on. On a short acoustic tour this time around, the wildest of the many wild bands from Athens, Ga., won't offer its usual live spectacle, but there is plenty going on off-stage. That includes a Kickstarter-funded documentary in the works, plus an album ready for fall release, which frontman Kevin Barnes reportedly wrote during a long stretch of self-imposed isolation. Openers Wild Moccasins are a baby-faced Mamas & Papas-like psychedelic pop quintet from Houston newly signed to New West. (8 p.m. Wed., Cedar Cultural Center, all ages, $20.) Riemenschneider

A band that would've been a good fit for the Girls Got Rhythm Fest, the Detroit Cobras are back on the road pounding out their classic '60s soul-rock sound, fueled by frontwoman Rachel Nagy's smoky howl of a voice. The Motor City band hasn't put out a new record since 2007's "Tied & True," but no matter. They have a treasure trove of obscure blues, soul and R&B nuggets. L'Assassins and Blue Ruin open. (9 p.m. Thu., Triple Rock. $15.) Riemenschneider

Like most kids-music acts that stand out from the crowd nowadays, Clementown offers much more than just music. Twin Cities-based spouses and musical partners Kate Lynch and Chris Beaty first made a splash in 2010 creating music to accompany best-selling children's author/illustrator Calef Brown's books "Polkabats and Octopus Slacks." They have since created videos with National Geographic Learning and are reportedly working on a deal with a major book publisher. For the second installment of Icehouse's new Current-sponsored family series, though, they're focused on the music, a psychedelic brand of folk-pop with accompanying video work and a kids' choir as special guests. (11 a.m. Sat., Icehouse, $8, free for 2 and under.) Riemenschneider

Hard to believe that Jane Monheit just released her ninth studio album. "The Heart of the Matter" finds the luxurious voiced New Yorker, 35, in full bloom — a mix of elegant jazz standards, Linda Eder-like Broadway pop and striking interpretations of the Beatles, Randy Newman and "Sesame Street's" Joe Raposo. As always, she's technically superb, but her work now feels more mature and lived in. Maybe it's partly because she's singing about motherhood, notably on the gorgeous if formal original ballad "Night Night Stars." (7 & 9 p.m. Wed.-Thu., Dakota, $25-$40.) Bream

A well-loved West Bank curmudgeon, Al Haug wore lots of hats over the years: talent booker; DJ for KFAI; record collector; hobby musician; keeper of the jug band flame. So it's no surprise his memorial celebration will involve a who's who of West Bank heroes, including Pop Wagner, Willie Murphy, Dakota Dave Hull, Spider John Koerner, Gordon Thorne, Judy Larson, Tom Lieberman, Curtis & Loretta, Tim Sparks, the Fat Chance Jug Band (Al's old group) and Phil Heywood, who put the lineup together. A fitting farewell. (2 p.m. Sat., Minneapolis Eagles Club, 2507 E. 25th St., Mpls. Free.) Surowicz

For a bluesman, Dave "Cool Breeze" Brown was sure a happy-go-lucky fellow, rarely seen onstage or off without a big smile. The longtime leader of local jump blues greats the Senders and a frequent sideman for such touring stars as Big Jay McNeely and Percy Sledge, Brown's recent passing at age 58 shocked the local music community, which is turning out in force for a memorial party and family fundraiser. Lynwood Slim, who's had his own health issues, will appear along with Detroit Don King, the Everett Smithson Band, Mick Sterling, Tommy Burnevik and his mighty Bees Knees Big Band, reuniting for their first show of the millennium, and the Lamont Cranston Band. (6 p.m. Wed., Famous Dave's Uptown, $10.) Surowicz

Dedicated to the kid at heart, OutLoud!, the small group of the Twin Cities Gay Men's Chorus, embarks on a journey back to childhood with "Kiddin' Around." More like a cabaret act than a concert, it brings the group's usual razzle dazzle to such songs as "Somewhere Out There" (from "An American Tail"), "Pure Imagination" ("Willy Wonka") and many favorites from the Disney vault. (8 p.m. Fri.-Sat., Ritz Theater, 345 13th Av. NE., Mpls., $29, 612-436-1129, tcgmc.org) William Randall Beard

In celebration of the spring that has finally arrived, Magnum Chorum, a 50-voice chamber choir, presents "In the Garden." That refers, first of all, to the Garden of Eden, with Aaron Copland's rarely heard "In the Beginning," a setting of Genesis, illuminating each of the seven days through a lively narrative. The program also includes Benjamin Britten's "Hymn to St. Cecilia," the patron saint of music, extolling the power of music to transform. Also featured are "Nigra Sum," by renowned cellist Pablo Casals, and the anthem "Set Me a Seal," by Rene Clausen, professor of music at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn. (8 p.m. Sat., St. Bartholomew's Catholic Church, 630 Wayzata Blvd. E., Wayzata, $5-$21, www.magnumchorum.org) Beard