The Big Gigs: Live music options for Aug. 10-16

POP/ROCK

Has Coldplay finally achieved its U2-like ambitions? Well, the British quartet isn't playing stadiums, but Chris Martin and company are wrapping up a hugely successful North American tour with two nights in St. Paul. Expect anthemic songs, lots of energy from Martin and special bracelets given to each concertgoer that will light up to the band's beats. Opening are Welsh popsters Marina & the Diamonds and Charli XCX. (7 p.m. Fri.-Sat., Xcel Energy Center, $47.50-$97.50, limited tickets available.) Jon Bream

A veteran of the Hotel Cafe Tours that have played the Fine Line, L.A. singer/songwriter Meiko mines breezy, lightweight indie pop on "The Bright Side," her just-released second album. It's a little sweeter than her debut, suggesting she yearns to be Colbie Caillat and no longer Ingrid Michaelson. Buddy opens. (9 p.m. Fri., 7th Street Entry, $10. Bream

After detouring into Judy Garland land and composing an opera, Rufus Wainwright returned to the more familiar terrain of baroque pop on this year's "Out of the Game," produced by Mark Ronson (Amy Winehouse, Duran Duran). Wainwright even gets danceable on the title track and "Jericho." There's also the pretty "Montauk," set sometime in the future when Wainwright's daughter Viva, who is 1, visits him and he prepares her for the concept of death. That tune also is about his mother, Kate McGarrigle, who died in 2010, as are many songs on the album. His concerts of late have included salutes to his mother and his dad, singer/songwriter Loudon Wainwright III. Adam Cohen, son of Leonard Cohen, opens. (7:30 p.m. Sat., Minnesota Zoo, $39.) Bream

Apart from its well received, sun-scorched showing at the River's Edge fest in June, Polia hasn't played a hometown gig since its sold-out album-release party at First Avenue on Valentine's Day. The electronics-addled, two-drummer rock band has been hard at work earning love around the country, playing everywhere from Jimmy Fallon's show to another big gig under the sun at Lollapalooza last weekend. Singer Channy Leaneagh (ex-Roma di Luna) has come into her own as a frontwoman, and she and the boys are throwing more new songs into their sets. Chicago techno-rap duo Supreme Cuts opens with local rockers Zoo Animal. (6:30 p.m. Sat., Cabooze Plaza, 18 & older. $25.) Chris Riemenschneider

Triathletes have nothing on Square Lake Festival goers, who tear through music, movies, biking, swimming and camping all in one day. The 10th annual artsy marathon is especially rich in the music department this year. Ambient twang-groove pickers the Pines will play under the stars. Acoustic blues veteran Spider John Koerner will play out in the midday heat (just as he did two weekends ago at the Newport Folk Fest). International Novelty Gamelan will play its own movie score. In between are indie-rock favorites Retribution Gospel Choir and Night Moves, which landed a deal with Domino Records after last year's fest. (2 p.m.-midnight Sat., 13359 Partridge Rd. N., Stillwater. $20 advance, $30 at gate, $5 by bike. SquareLakeFestival.com.) Riemenschneider

Boston ska-punk heroes the Mighty Mighty Bosstones enjoyed their commercial peak in 1997 with the hollerin' hit "The Impression That I Get" but then threw in the plaid towel in 2003. They came back a few years ago to tour sporadically and issued a well received album last year, "The Magic of Youth." Minneapolis is the finale on their seven-city "Summer Vacation" tour. Younger ska-core bands We Are the Union and Bomb the Music Industry open. (7 p.m. Sat., First Avenue. 18 & older. $25.) Riemenschneider

What is hip? Does it really matter when it comes to Tower of Power, Oakland's enduringly funky horn-driven R&B band? In recent years, saxophonist Emilio Castillo, who co-founded the group 45 years ago, and band have torn it up at the Dakota and Minnesota Zoo. Other long-timers include baritone sax man Doc Kupka (a co-founder) and bassist Rocco Prestia (since 1970). Singer Larry Braggs, who is quite the balladeer, has been on board since 1999. Soulful Twin Cities rocker Mick Sterling opens with a solo acoustic set. (7:30 p.m. Wed., Minnesota Zoo, sold out.) Bream

Brian Jonestown Massacre is back, and frontman Anton Newcombe -- still best remembered for his wigged-out personality in the rockumentary "Dig!" -- is reiterating his good taste by bringing the Twin Cities' own hypnotic, psychedelic drone-rockers Magic Castles along for the wild ride. Newcombe just released the Castles' eponymous new album on his label, A Records. BJM also has a new one to promote, "Aufheben," another mad swirl of guitar-driven psychedelica. (7 p.m. Thu., First Avenue. $20.) Riemenschneider

HIP-HOPAccording to demographers, millennials are Web-savvy, naturally self-confident and independent, all traits that definitely apply to Mike Dreams. The Minneapolis rapper, 23, has been a prolific MC-in-waiting for a few years now like his pal, MaLLy, and the wait seems to be over with his breakthrough third album, "Millennial." Tracks range from the must-hear jungly rocker "The Lights, The Life" to the gospel-roused "In the Sky" to the dramatic Kanye-like epic "We the Ones," one of several songs that address his generational peers. Says the real-life Michael Hannah in the latter cut, "I don't have to sell crack, that's what this CD's for." It's genuinely addictive stuff. MaLLy hosts his release party with Maria Isa, Allan Kingdom, K. Raydio and more. (9 p.m. Sat., 7th Street Entry. $8.) Riemenschneider

BLUEGRASS For the 2012 Minnesota Bluegrass Festival, organizers have turned to the versatile Marty Raybon as headliner. He started in bluegrass, then became a country star fronting Shenandoah (1987-97) and returned to bluegrass in 2003. This spring, he released two albums -- the bluegrassy "Southern Roots and Branches" and the gospelly "Hand to the Plow." He's set for 8:35 p.m. Saturday. Friday's headliner is Robin and Linda Williams, longtime favorites of "A Prairie Home Companion." Other performers include the Larry Stephenson Band, the Cactus Blossoms and Chris Jones & the Nightdrivers. The festival includes workshops, children's activities and games. (11:40 a.m. Fri.-Sat., El Rancho Manana, Richmond, Minn., tickets start at $25, www.minnesotabluegrass.org.) Bream

BLUESBack in April, guitar hero Walter Trout released his 21st album, "Blues for the Modern Daze." Then in June, he headlined the Famous Dave's blues fest. Now the tirelessly touring Trout is headed to the Bayfront Blues Festival in Duluth, making a stop in Uptown along the way. His latest work is all original, with references to such new-millennium topics as Facebook, TV news anchors with facelifts and funny money at Goldman Sachs. But his occasional gritty bon mots are still delivered in the context of the nasty, loud blues-rock that fans expect. (9 p.m. Sat., Famous Dave's Uptown, $8.) Tom Surowicz

WORLDThe most enticing gig of this year's Irish Fair is a reunion of 1990s all-star band Trian, featuring wonderful Chicago fiddler Liz Carroll, Baltimore-based button accordion player Billy McComiskey and the Twin Cities' own Daithi Sproule. They are part of a long Sunday set that includes a duo with Carroll and Cormac McCarthy, a Cork-born pianist now residing in the Windy City. Earlier Sunday, you can catch Derek Warfield and the Young Wolfe Tones. Warfield has been singing Irish rebel anthems for nearly half a century, and now he's soldiering on with five youngsters from Ireland, Scotland and the United States. (3-10:30 p.m. Fri., 9 a.m.-11 p.m. Sat., 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Sun., Harriet Island, St. Paul. www.irishfair.com) Surowicz

JAZZAfter lying low for about a year, world-renowned bassist and composer Anthony Cox is caught up in a whirlwind of activity. Besides starting his own record label, he's heading to Europe soon on a tour with Kip Hanrahan's celebrated Conjure band and he'll debut several groups here in the next 12 months -- some strictly local, others featuring national and international artists (including Brandon Ross, Jerry Granelli and Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez). The first to surface is Lex, which finds the ever-creative improviser in the company of another famed Twin Cities jazz star, drummer Eric Kamau Gravatt, along with trumpeter Solomon Parham and prodigious pianist Peter Schimke. (9 p.m. Fri.-Sat., Artists' Quarter, $12.) Surowicz