Celebrate this exceptionally wintery spring we're having by enjoying a wide selection of live music around town this week. Our music critics have rounded up everything from Kendrick Lamar's old writing partner (Ab-Soul), to a wellness retreat with the godfather of ganja (Snoop Dogg), to electronic dance music for the discerning mind (Nicolas Jaar). Enjoy these shows and more, all on our music calendar.

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MONDAY

Jack Broadbent
Bluesy Englishman and thoughtful singer-songwriter Jack Broadbent will play a slide guitar set of classics and new standards.

TUESDAY

Benjamin Verdoes with Grace Love
Iska Dhaaf frontman Benjamin Verdoes returns to Seattle for an evening of rock and soul with beloved local favorite Grace Love.

Coheed and Cambria with The Deer Hunter
Move over Rush—Coheed and Cambria could very well be the nerdiest band on the planet. How else would you describe a progressive-rock band that writes concept albums based on a science-fiction story line? The albums are but a gateway to the “Amory Wars” tales that lead vocalist/guitarist Claudio Sanchez portrays in both comic- and full-length book form. Sanchez’s distinctive high-pitched voice is a unique characteristic of Coheed and Cambria, especially when partnered with their often huge, Zeppelin-like riffs. Regardless of how much commercial success C&C attain, their die-hard fans will keep this wonderfully quirky band going as long as the story line permits. KEVIN DIERS

FKJ, CĂ©zaire, Dabeull
Up-and-coming star of the Parisian electronic scene, FKJ, also known as French Kiwi Juice, is a gatekeeper for the New French House music zone. He'll be joined by CĂ©zaire and Dabeull.

Rare Air: A Night of Transcendental Ambient Music
Tiny Vipers' Jesy Fortino has lived other lifetimes. From her songs, she sings of these lives. Some previously lived, some yet to be. Her playing and arrangements are a stasis, vicariously balancing between these ancients and futures. Jesy’s sound is sparse and forlorn. She haunts the beauty of a room, singing lowly and lonely, whistling at times. Her songs are serums, almost awkward in how hard they hit. TRENT MOORMAN

Whitney with Guests
If you find yourself scratching your head over the meteoric rise of Whitney over the last two years from local Chicago ensemble to a Best New Music–minted, national-tour-headlining band, then you owe it to yourself to see the impeccably tight seven-piece live. On paper, Whitney don’t sound like an obvious candidate for such a buzzed-about band, but onstage the well-crafted songs from debut album Light Upon the Lake take on a life of their own. Featuring members of Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Smith Westerns, and Donny Trumpet’s backing band, this motley crew of young guns will have you fist-pumping and singing along to every word, even if it’s your first time seeing the band. NICK ZURKO

TUESDAY-WEDNESDAY

Ravi Coltrane
It’s hard to hear Ravi Coltrane on In Movement, his album last year with drummer Jack DeJohnette (who played with the saxophonist’s father, John Coltrane), and bassist Matthew Garrison (son of the late Jimmy Garrison, another John Coltrane alum), and not think, on the opening track, “Alabama,” of questing, searching, and a light, a wandering light, mysterious, a bit frightening. John Coltrane wrote “Alabama” in response to the 16th Baptist Street Church bombing, Birmingham, 1963, by the Ku Klux Klan—four young girls killed, 22 more wounded. John Coltrane believed in progress, of course. But he also believed—personally, artistically, biochemically, spiritually—that nothing is ever finished. Ravi Coltrane cannot finish his father’s work. He can continue to push. He can honor, and pick up, that spirit. ANDREW HAMLIN

WEDNESDAY

Forms: Plastician, Bok Bok
English DJ/producer Plastician (aka Chris Reed, formerly Plasticman before he got in Hawtin water for the alias) has contributed significantly to his country’s dubstep and grime movements over the last decade or so, from his stint on the influential Rinse FM show to curating the esteemed Tempa label’s Dubstep Allstars series to his status as a world-traveling dance-floor motivator. At its best, his production style leans toward the spare and brutal, as ominous atmospheres often ironically cohabit in his tracks with delicate melodies. Instructive track: “We Like the Dark,” cut with Skream. Fellow Brit Bok Bok (Alex Sushon) cofounded the important future-bass label Night Slugs and, whether as a selector or producer, he champions exciting, rhythmically complex club music that aspires to highest uncommon denominator status. DAVE SEGAL

Jay Som, The Courtneys
Though one-woman Oakland band Melina Duterte (aka Jay Som) put a lot of effort into Everybody Works, her first proper album emanates the kind of ease that makes it sound as if it arrived fully formed. Some artists, like Juana Molina and Chaz Bundick, just give off that vibe. If Duterte’s lyrics reflect youthful feelings of hope and discovery, the sophistication of the 22-year-old’s music, a shoegaze-meets-lite-funk take on bedroom pop, belies her age. Vancouver, BC, trio the Courtneys, by contrast, are a brasher proposition. On their second record, Courtneys II, they take a super-charged approach to garage pop with buzzing guitars, bubblegum-sticky choruses, and the pep-squad vocals of drummer Jen Twynn Payne, who sings about cross-country tours and vampire teenage boyfriends with equal enthusiasm. KATHY FENNESSY

Juan de Marcos and the Afro-Cuban All Stars
The Afro-Cuban All-Stars are an orchestra dedicated to promoting the full range of Cuban music, with musical interpretations of all of its musical genres.

Mayday Parade, Knuckle Puck, Milestones
Florida quintet and standard-bearers for the pop-rock genre Mayday Parade are back in Seattle for the ten year anniversary of their release A Lesson in Romantics. They'll be joined by Knuckle Puck and Milestones.

Nicolas Jaar
It’s hard to believe it’s been only six years since dance-music producer Nicolas Jaar released his breakthrough album, Space Is Only Noise, an uncanny work that refracted the budding producer’s adoration for minimal-techno legend Ricardo Villalobos through jazz, hiphop, and lounge exotica. In retrospect, that album’s kaleidoscopic mentality has served as a mission statement for the then–Brown University undergrad, who’s taken a far more distinctive path than most techno DJs. Be it creating psychedelic electronica with Dave Harrington as Darkstar, his alternative soundtrack for the Iranian film The Color of Pomegranates, or the sprawling big-room fare of his Nymphs singles, Jaar has proved his talents and ambitions far outstrip his age. Still fresh off of 2015’s Sirens, Jaar will be in town to spin his inimitable brand of chin-stroking and ass-shaking music for dancers both old and new. NICK ZURKO

THURSDAY

Ab-Soul
LA’s Top Dawg Entertainment brought the world Kendrick Lamar, rap’s most revered practitioner—but heads know that Carson native Ab-Soul (Lamar’s partner in the TDE supergroup Black Hippy) is the label’s dark horse. Like King Kunta, he’s renowned for his lyrical dexterity—but his ability to deliver emotional disclosure puts him in a rare bracket. You’d be hard-pressed to find an autobiographical rap song as affecting as “The Book of Soul,” from his 2012 Control System album. On it, Soulo describes his childhood battle with Stevens-Johnson syndrome (the sometimes-deadly skin condition behind his “Black Lip Bastard” alias), his struggle to find success as an MC, and most importantly, the love—and Shakespearean loss—he experienced with the late TDE vocalist Alori Joh, his longtime girlfriend. The first time you hear his even tone pitch into a howl as he moans that he’d “fall off a fuckin’ tower” trying to find her is about as crushing as the landslide Stevie Nicks sang about. LARRY MIZELL JR.

Autograf, Pell, DoNormaal, Dream Journal
Soul-inspired electronic artist Autograf will headline this Red Bull Sound Select feature full of West Coast sound, with support from Pell, DoNormaal, and Dream Journal.

Brant Bjork, Royal Thunder, Black Wizard, Witchburn
As drummer for Fu Manchu, Kyuss, and the Josh Homme–less Kyuss Lives!, Brant Bjork’s place in the desert-/stoner-rock canon is secure. For those bands, he provided powerful, swinging beats that gave ballast to the dense, throbbing guitar and bass commotion happening above him. Bjork’s strong debut solo album from 1999 on Frank Kozik’s ill-fated Man’s Ruin label, Jalamanta, proved the sticksman could author his own funky, hard-rock statements while playing all the instruments. His newest album, Tao of the Devil, pushes Bjork’s blasted, biker-rock narrative to the vanishing point, muscles flexing and fuzz tones a-swirling. DAVE SEGAL

Danger Diva featuring Thunderpussy
Boy, we sure hope Danger Diva takes off as a cult classic thriller, because it sounds like it has the making of one—and it features the Northwest's own Molly Sides, the lead singer of Thunderpussy. Sides plays Devi Danger, a singer forced to electrically charge up a high-tech company's employees' brains to be used as batteries. Stay for a live Thunderpussy show after the movie's premiere.

Krishna Das
I’m a proud atheist, but listening to Krishna Das, I can believe in something bigger than ourselves. Maybe it’s only ourselves all together in that way—the way Krishna Das gets everyone in the room singing along. How his music seems to build without definitive climax. How it seems to create, more perhaps reveal, a circuit between everyone there. He chants and sings variations on the Hindu “Hanuman Chalisa” devotional hymn, but he can throw in old-time American gospel to suit the circuit. We need this kind of transcendence, and the wisdom it brings—well, more than ever, certainly. But never, never. ANDREW HAMLIN

Lesbian, He Whose Ox is Gored, Lb.!, Dangg
For the past 13 years, Lesbian have been a mainstay in the Seattle metal scene. It was just seven months ago that they released their crowning achievement, a four-song prehistoric (yes, dinosaur metal) concept album that found the band expanding their psychedelic sludge sound with thrash elements and new badass King Diamond–esque vocalist Brad Mowen. This will be your last chance to hear these songs played live, as the Les-bros are officially calling it a day. But not all is lost: Their mushroom-trippin’ improvisational metal band Fungal Abyss will still be active enough to get your fix. KEVIN DIERS

Mount Kushmore: Snoop Dogg, Cypress Hill, Methodman & Redman, Berner
Billed as the country’s largest 4/20 cannabis celebration, the “Mount Kushmore Wellness Retreat Tour” was put together by the longtime smoke-hazed king of ganja love himself, Snoop Dogg, who made recent headlines (and an enemy of Prez Trump) with his parody video for new single “Lavender.” The stealthy collab with Badbadnotgood comments on police brutality and features Snoop shooting a Trumped-up clown with a gag gun. He’s joined by other hiphop artists of the green-friendly persuasion, among them Cali vets Cypress Hill, who have been threatening to release Elephants on Acid (their first LP since 2010) since this time last year, and frequent rap collaborators and How High alumni, Method Man & Redman. LEILANI POLK

THURSDAY-SUNDAY

Kenny G
Although fate was obviously kinder to one of us, Kenny G and I had the same saxophone teacher. John P. Jessen, aka Johnny Jessen, taught sax out of the Sixth and Pine building downtown for ages. Kenny G used to play two saxophones at once, back at Franklin High School. And his early records were funk. Maybe not great funk, but funk. And we used to say, “Hey, local kid makes good.” I am not at all sure about his new bossa-nova album. I am not at all sure about anything of Kenny G’s after 1989. But I sure do miss Johnny Jessen. ANDREW HAMLIN

FRIDAY

Brian McKnight
Walking that line between smooth as hell and the cheesiest ever, multi-instrumentalist and triple-platinum recording artist Brian McKnight emerges from modern music history as a mascot for when '90s R&B hit the apex of its marketability. Expect beloved hits and deep cuts from his catalog of 15 albums.

Ensemble Economique, Jim Haynes, Robert Millis
Ensemble Economique (aka California producer Brian Pyle) clearly draws inspiration from the John Carpenter/Goblin school of blood-curdling soundtracking, as close listens to At the Foot of Nameless Roads and Psychical, and Blossoms in Red reveal. Although he’s had detours into airier synth pop over the last few years, Pyle remains a potent force for darkness. Oakland’s Jim Haynes is a nearly-20-year veteran of the noise-drone wars. He knows all the subversive tactics, all the most alien timbres, all the unusual percussive tricks, all the ways to make the elemental sound supernatural. If you want a solid entry point to Haynes’s work, try his 2013 album on Editions Mego, The Wires Cracked. And 78s guru, world-renowned sonic archeologist, and Climax Golden Twins guitarist Rob Millis recently released his most conventional record, The Lonesome High, a skewed troubadour-ial excursion into skeletal folk and ominous blues rock. Tonight he’ll be playing a set with avant-garde trumpeter Greg Kelley. DAVE SEGAL

SATURDAY

Andre Nickatina with Guests
Fillmore thizz legend Andre Nickatina is bringing a full crew to Studio Seven, with Da Jnx, Toxic Leaf, Deadly Poets, Reklez, Fizz and Celestino, and Tycoon.

Homeshake
Montreal-based guitarist Peter Sagar had had enough of touring with Mac DeMarco, so he used the anomie he felt while on his last tour with the Canadian indie star to fuel his recent solo work under the name Homeshake. On 2014’s In the Shower, Sagar concocts a suite of lackadaisical bedroom slow jams that makes those early Ween records sound like ELP. With guitar riffs that are the sonic equivalent of a stoned shrug, mopey, just-woke-up vocals, and slackly funky beats, Homeshake’s songs glimmer with charm, despite these unassuming elements. Absurdly, Sagar’s trying to be D’Angelo, but he’s comes across more like Dean Ween. And that’s okay. DAVE SEGAL

IAN SWEET, Post-Life, iji
IAN SWEET is the band I wish had played onstage at the Bronze in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (instead of seven episodes of Dingoes Ate My Baby). Their enigmatic cyber-colony vibe, perfect for an underground 1990s club populated by the occasional vampire, stems from their chord angularity, filled out by icily raw vocalization—that wouldn’t be out of place in a Half-Waif-by-way-of-Kim-Salmon production. It’s rare for an ostensibly punk group to be able to conjure such diaphanous atmospheres, but Hardly Art’s most recently signed band manages to construct an equal set of shred-heavy yet glass-like structures, cushioned by an electro-zen found in the hum of nearby neon. KIM SELLING

Mastodon, Eagles of Death Metal, Russian Circles
Today’s Mastodon isn’t in the same brain space as the band that made Leviathan (2004), or The Hunter (2011) even, and the guys are fine with that. As bassist/vocalist Troy Sanders said in a 2015 interview, “We do not wanna write the same record twice.” It’s an admirable goal, but it has seemed to pull the Atlanta prog-metal gods in several opposing directions. The groundbreaking stoned riff monster that made “Iron Tusk” still rears its head on new tracks (from the just-released Emperor of Sand) like “Andromeda,” but the silly, pop-harmony rock group that began to surface on “Curl of the Burl” unfortunately persists on Emperor of Sand track “Show Yourself.” Legendary performers, Mastodon are still worth seeing for their extraordinary high points both new and old, and for can’t-miss opening band Russian Circles. TODD HAMM

Minnesota, Shlump, Kozmo B2B Torbjørn
The only DJ/producer big enough to name himself after the land of a thousand lakes, Minnesota takes over the Nectar stage with support from Shlump and Kozmo B2B Torbjørn.

Minus The Bear, Beach Slang, Bayonne
For a band that toured half of the year and cranked out records with industrious regularity during the first decade of their existence, Minus the Bear have been relatively low-key since 2012’s Infinity Overhead. You can chalk up the dearth of new exercises in their innovative indie rock to real-life stuff: starting families, lineup changes, label tangles. But with their new album, VOIDS, there’s also the reminder that Minus the Bear have always made dense, nuanced, forward-thinking stuff disguised as pop music, and to make that kind of sophistication function as a soundtrack for a Saturday night requires a bit more time and Steely Dan discipline than your typical indie rocker’s “the first idea is the best idea” songwriting approach. Thankfully, it was worth the wait. BRIAN COOK

The New Pornographers with Waxahatchee
It’s really hard not to like the New Pornographers; “Letter from an Occupant” off their 2000 debut Mass Romantic still gives me feel-good goose bumps. The Vancouver faves churn out a pleasant mix of indie rock and power pop that’s gained them a relentlessly loyal fan base. If that weren’t enough, they’re also composed of talented music-makers who’ve gone on to fruitful solo careers and side projects, like Carl Newman (aka AC Newman, a quiet storm of lovely), Neko Case (badass alt-folk-rocker), and Dan Bejar (you know you love Destroyer). The ensemble hits town on the heels of releasing their seventh LP, Whiteout Conditions, which sounds pretty catchy and fun based on new single “High Ticket Attractions” and features Case but not Bejar; the same goes for their tour lineup. Support comes from Waxahatchee, the imminently listenable indie-rock project of singer-songwriter Katie Crutchfield. LEILANI POLK

SUNDAY

The Damned with Bleached
Not many bands make it to their 40th anniversary tour, but British punks the Damned notoriously outlasted their contemporaries through multiple member and stylistic changes over the decades. Although the lineup now features only two original members—OG vamp vocalist Dave Vanian and red-beret-wearing guitarist/showboat Captain Sensible—the Damned still provide an authentic experience for those hoping to resurrect (or create) their 1970s punk memories. With hit-intensive set lists also containing newer material that still packs a beefy punch, the Damned fare much better than most extant 1977-style UK punk bands (I won’t name names here, but starts with S and ends with 69). When it comes to the Damned’s live show, we can all still heed the words of Captain Sensible: “Expect the unexpected.” BRITTNIE FULLER

of Montreal, Christina Schneider’s Jepeto Solutions, Ben Varian
Of Montreal have been out-“of Montreal”ing all of you quirky jerks for years, so listen up. With a catalog that stretches back almost 20 years, and spawned from the sweet, chiming bosom of the Elephant 6 collective, of Montreal, anchored by songwriter and mystical thesaurus Kevin Barnes, has been shape-shifting for years without missing a beat. He’s cited influences like Sylvia Plath and the psychedelic movement of the ’60s for past records, and the 2015 studio release Aureate Gloom draws directly from the CBGB heyday, with Patti Smith and Television at the helm. Live shows with Barnes dolled up like David Bowie, and bacchanalian onstage dance shows promise to leave you wondering where the hell you are and why the hell you would ever want to leave. KATHLEEN TARRANT

Get all this and more on the free Stranger Things To Do mobile app—available now on the App Store and Google Play.