Musiq Soulchild

Minnesota R&B lovers must have an enduring fondness for the silky-smooth Philly crooner's run of '00s hits including "Halfcrazy," "B.U.D.D.Y." and "Teach Me." He's added a third night at the Dakota by popular demand as he returns to the road behind his new album "Victims & Villains." His first album in six years was produced by Hit-Boy, who helmed Nas' "King's Disease" series. It's a chill collection reflecting on love that seduces ("Your Love Is Life") and separates (the kiss-off dismiss "We Were Just Binging"). (6:30 & 9 p.m. Sat.-Mon, the Dakota, 1010 Nicollet Mall, Mpls., $65-$75, dakotacooks.com)

JON BREAM

Explosions in the Sky

Best known for its film and TV work for "Friday Night Lights," "Lone Survivor" and PBS, this all-instrumental band of West Texas-reared guitar noodlers should actually be famous for its hypnotizing and reverberating live shows. The quintet is touring for its first album in seven years, "End," loaded with mood-setting epics that don't require any visual elements to sound widescreen-cinematic. Fellow instrumental wiz Dosh was booked as a special local opener. (8 p.m. Sat., First Avenue, 701 1^st Av. N., Mpls., $35, axs.com)

CHRIS RIEMENSCHNEIDER

Claud

This 24-year-old Chicago bedroom-pop specialist has been garnering fun tabloid press after writing a song named "Paul Rudd" and then getting the actor to star in a video — but for another song, "A Good Thing." After going viral with the 2019 ditty "Wish You Were Gay," the nonbinary singer/songwriter born Claud Mintz was the first artist signed to Phoebe Bridgers' Saddest Factory Records. They made good on that boost with their second album, "Supermodels," full of wryly lovelorn and book-smart fuzz-pop. (7 p.m. Mon., 7^th St. Entry, 701 1^st Av. N., Mpls., $20, axs.com)

C.R.

Veronica Swift

As the daughter of a jazz pianist and his singer/educator wife, this jazz chanteuse recorded her debut album at age 9. Swift went on to place second in the 2015 Thelonious Monk jazz vocals competition, earn a degree in jazz voice from the University of Miami and tour with Wynton Marsalis' Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. This month, the 29-year-old vocalist dropped her third album for Mack Avenue Music, simply titled "Veronica Swift," and it's not exactly a jazz record. Eclectic and adventurous, she injects funk and scat into her reading of Nine Inch Nails' "Closer," recasts Queen's "The Show Must Go On" with some Afro-Cuban mystery and puts the punk into the standard "Don't Rain on My Parade." (6:30 & 8:30 p.m. Fri. the Dakota, 1010 Nicollet Mall, Mpls., $30-$45, dakotacooks.com)

J.B.

Minnesota Orchestra

This week, Danish conductor Thomas Søndergård takes the podium as the 11th music director in the Minnesota Orchestra's 120-year history. And he'll do so with a thunderous bang, leading the orchestra in two evocative examples of musical storytelling, Richard Strauss' "Don Juan" and "An Alpine Symphony." As a between-booms palate cleanser, the orchestra's so-far-quite-impressive new principal oboist, Nathan Hughes, will be the soloist for Mozart's lone Oboe Concerto. (11 a.m. Thu., 8 p.m. Fri., 7 p.m. Sat., Orchestra Hall, 1111 Nicollet Mall, Mpls., $31-$106, 612-371-5656 or minnesotaorchestra.org)

ROB HUBBARD

Minsoo Sohn

The Frederic Chopin Society always serves Twin Cities classical music lovers well with its series of recitals by outstanding classical pianists, and its 2023-24 season is among the best it's ever offered. It opens with a concert by this excellent Korean pianist, who put himself on the map with his takes on J.S. Bach before establishing himself as a master of Beethoven sonatas. He'll devote this recital to Sergei Rachmaninoff's complete Études-Tableaux. (3 p.m. Sun., Mairs Concert Hall, Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center, 130 Macalester St., St. Paul, $20-$40, chopinsocietymn.org)

R.H.

'AKS — Acceptance, Kindness, Support'

The South Asian Arts and Theater House is taking on the topic of acceptance and support for the LGBTQ community through this latest production. Mixing dance and theater, the production focuses on trans joy at the heart of its storytelling, showing the beauty and transcendence that happens when a community commits to empathetic inclusiveness. More than 70 performers take the stage for the work, titled after the Urdu word for reflection. (7:30 p.m. Wed., Fri., & Sat., 2 p.m. Sun., Cowles Center, 528 Hennepin Av. S., Mpls. $22, 612-206-3600, thecowlescenter.org)

SHEILA REGAN

Jackie Kashian

Saturday is the comedy showdown of the year: Dave Chappelle at Xcel Energy Center, Margaret Cho at the Fitzgerald Theater and Kevin James at State Theatre. But the weekend's most formidable gunslinger may be Kashian, a former Minnesotan with a quick draw and material designed to give your noggin a workout. The Los Angeles-based comic and host of "The Dork Forest" podcast returns almost every year to the club where she cut her teeth. It's a homecoming that true stand-up fans won't want to miss. (8 p.m. Wed.-Thu., 7 and 9:30 p.m. Fri.-Sat. Acme Comedy Co., 708 N. 1st St., Mpls. $18-$22. acmecomedycompany.com)

NEAL JUSTIN

'Passage'

Some of our families are so riven by politics that we forget that these breaks are not new. E.M. Forster's 1924 novel, "A Passage to India," passes the question through the prism of British-Indian relations. "Passage," Christopher Chen's play loosely inspired by Forster, looks at such cleavages from a different perspective. Can someone from a colonial power have a true friendship with a colonized person, given the larger political atmosphere? This regional premiere is co-produced by Pillsbury House + Theatre and Exposed Brick Theatre, and co-directed by their respective leaders, Signe Harriday and Suzy Messerole. The eight-member cast includes Valencia Proctor, Aamera Siddiqui and James A. Williams. (7:30 p.m. Thu.-Sat., 2 p.m. Sun. Ends Oct. 15. Pillsbury House + Theatre, 3501 Chicago Av. S., Mpls. $30 regular, pick-your-price. 612-825-0459 or pillsburyhouseandtheatre.org.)

ROHAN PRESTON

Lowbrow Art Party

Twin Cities-based muralist, painter and illustrator Chuck U's curated exhibition "It Might Be" explores "lowbrow art," which uses illustration, humor and bright colors. Chuck U invited 14 artists from across the country and one from Mexico to contribute works in this colorful, eye-popping and at times psychedelic group show. (Ends Sept. 30. Gamut Gallery, 717 S. 10^th St., Mpls., free. Curator talk on Sept. 21 at 7 p.m., $5 presale or $10 day of event. Free for Gamut members. Hours: 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Wed.-Fri., 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sat. 612-367-4327 or gamutgallerympls.com)

ALICIA ELER

'Mouth-Space'

Rochester-based Sophia Chai's solo exhibition uses a twofold approach to visually exploring Hangul, the Korean alphabet of lines and shapes that are shaped like the mouth speaking the letters. Chai, a native Korean speaker, created these shapes and then captures them through analog photos. Some of the photos look purely abstract while also appearing opaque and mysterious. (Ends Oct. 8. Hair + Nails Gallery, 2222 ½ E. 35^th St., Mpls., free. Hours: 1-5 p.m. Thu.-Sun. or by appt. hairandnailsart.com)

A.E.

Holz Farm Harvest Festival

A historic experience giving visitors a look into the 1940s on a property that's on the National Register of Historic Places. Nimble-fingered musicians will compete in a fiddling contest while guests learn about what farming was like before Eagan was a developed suburb. Additional attractions include demonstrations, hayrides and farm animals. (11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sat., $3, 4665 Manor Drive, Eagan, cityofeagan.com)

MELISSA WALKER