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

Rebounding from last year’s heart attack, jazz guitar great Al Di Meola, formerly of Return to Forever, settles in for two nights, touting his new record “Twentyfour” (6:30 & 8:30 p.m., also Fri., the Dakota, $45-$65); the Weight Band, led by the Band replacement guitarist Jim Weider, carries the weight of the Band’s glorious catalog (7:30 p.m. Parkway Theater, $30-$50); Minnesota guitar master Tim Sparks celebrates his new album, “Lost and Found,” with guitarist Ben Abrahamson and bassist Ted Olsen (6:30 p.m. Dunsmore Room at Crooners, $20-$30); Curtiss A & the Dark Click bring their retro blues and garage-rock to St. Paul (7 p.m. Minnesota Music Cafe, $10); renowned sidemen Jim Anton, Jake Hanson and Jeremy Hanson team up as the instrumental group the Icicles (7-10 p.m. Berlin, free).

1. Kane Brown: While Beyoncé is letting the world know that Black women can find a home in country music, Brown has been proving that for Black men for nearly a decade. He’s scored 12 No. 1 songs, including the current “I Can Feel It” (which quotes Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight”); the hit is slated for Brown’s upcoming fourth album. Opening are the group Parmalee of “Take My Name” fame and Tyler Hubbard, who is gaining momentum in his post-Florida Georgia Line solo career with “5 Foot 9″ and the current “Back Then Right Now” from his just-released sophomore album “Strong.” (8 p.m. Target Center, 600 1st Ave. N., Mpls., $59-$299, axs.com)

2. Waxahatchee: After her redemptive 2020 album “St. Cloud” turned into many listeners’ aural security blanket during the pandemic, Alabaman indie-rocker Katie Crutchfield became known as one of the great Americana songwriters of the day, with tender but tough echoes of Lucinda Williams and Conor Oberst. She sounds a bit happier and more confident on the successful follow-up, “Tiger’s Blood,” recorded with an all-star crew including Megafaun’s Phil and Brad Cook and drummer Spencer Tweedy. After a media blitz around its release last month, she’s kicking off her tour in Kansas City the night before her St. Paul gig. Australian duo Good Morning opens. (8 p.m. Palace Theatre, 17 W. 7th Place, St. Paul, $40-$60, axs.com)

3. Zeitgeist: When the Twin Cities’ foremost new music ensemble presents its annual “Early Music Festival,” “early” is a relative term. The festival is customarily devoted to the compositions of one particular modernist from the mid-20th-century or later, but this year’s edition — presented in collaboration with the 10th Wave Chamber Music Collective — is a three-day feast of works by Asian and Asian-American composers, all written between 1960 and 2008. Among those represented are Yoko Ono, Toru Takemitsu, Fred Ho and Jin Hi Kim. (7 p.m. Fri. & Sat., 1 p.m. Sun., Studio Z, 275 E. Fourth St., St. Paul, $15-$25; zeitgeistnewmusic.org.)

Also: Mandy Patinkin, a Tony-winning Broadway star (for “Evita”) and an Emmy winning actor (for “Chicago Hope”), exercises his musical muscles with a program of show tunes and pop tunes by Randy Newman, Lyle Lovett and Queen (7:30 p.m. and also 2 p.m. Sun. Ordway, $68-$137)

Also: Sully Erna and his might Massachusetts metal band Godsmack are threatening to go on hiatus after the tour for their latest album, “Lighting Up the Sky” (8 p.m. Mystic Lake Showroom, $59-$149); Ethiopian groovers Qwaagwa return after making a big impression at the 2022 Global Roots Fest (8 p.m. Cedar Cultural Center, $30-$35); ex-Minneapolitan rocker Verskotzi returns from Los Angeles to promote his Beatles-y third album, “Shiring,” with Chris Koza opening (8 p.m. Icehouse, $15-$20); Michigan picker Lindsay Lou, Feed the Dog and the Stillhouse Junkies top off Day 1 of the three-day River Falls Bluegrass, Bourbon & Blues Festival (4 p.m.-close, various venues in River Falls, Wis., $30-$130); some of the Minnesota’s Last Waltz crew perform Dylan and the Band songs as Stage Fright (8 p.m. Hook & Ladder Theater, $20-$25); Illinois blues guitar vet Corey Stevens returns (7:30 p.m. Medina Entertainment Center, $26-$43).

4. Tim McGraw: The longtime country superstar doesn’t seem to slow down. Last August, he released his 16th studio album, “Standing Room Only” (with the title track rising to No. 2 on the country chart) and then in November he dropped a six-song EP, “Poet’s Resume.” Don’t forget that he costarred in the popular old West TV mini-series “1883″ in 2021. McGraw last performed in the Twin Cities in 2021 at State Fair, where he has been a semi-regular. Opening are newcomer Randall King and the excellent, Grammy-winning Carly Pearce, who will preview her June album “Hummingbird,” which features her hit duet with Chris Stapleton “We Don’t Fight Anymore.” (7 p.m. Xcel Energy Center, 199 W. Kellogg Blvd., St. Paul, $65-$185, ticketmaster.com)

5. 2gether: Since there was no big gig to celebrate last year’s “Diamonds and Pearls” boxed set by Prince, drummer Michael Bland decided to organize a concert to salute the Purple One. Scheduled on the eve of the anniversary of Prince’s passing, the gig will feature New Power Generation members Bland, Sonny Thompson, Tommy Barbarella, Tony Mosley, Mike Scott and Levi Seacer Jr. plus special guests the Steeles, Chastity Brown, Jay Bee, G Sharp, Ashley Commodore and others. Bland and Thompson will premiere their new duo single “Brother.” (8 p.m. Uptown Theater, 2900 Hennepin Av. S., Mpls., $50 and up, ticketmaster.com)

6. Caroline Rose: Over the course of four albums, this audaciously clever rocker from Long Island, N.Y., has changed styles from rootsy Americana rocker to wise-acre pop character to an arty, Kate Bush-meets-St. Vincent style dramatist on last year’s heartache-tinged “The Art of Forgetting.” The LP made lots of critics’ year-end lists and earned a Grammy nomination for its artful packaging. Rose is a high-energy showperson in concert with a punchy band to match. Los Angeles scenester Jilian Medford’s fuzz-rocky band Ian Sweet opens. (8 p.m. First Avenue, 701 1st Av. N., Mpls., $26, axs.com)

Also: South Dakotan trio Brulé has been a longtime champion and innovator in folky, ethereal Native American music (8 p.m. Hopkins Center for the Arts, $43-$53); Andrew Walesch, the St. Cloud crooner who is now based in Phoenix, reprises his Rat Pack suaveness for his Frank Sinatra tribute (7 p.m. Dakota, $35-$40); Charlie Maguire is celebrating his 50th year as a Minnesota folk singer with a performance in Dinkytown (7 p.m. Roots Cellar at University Baptist Church, $20); local chanteuse Maud Hixson reminds listeners that Doris Day was more than a movie star as she salutes the 102nd anniversary of the “Sentimental Journey” singer’s birth (6:30 p.m. Dunsmore Room at Crooners, $25-$35); rootsy, cult-loved Iowa folk picker William Elliott Whitmore returns with his darkly humored new album “Silently, the Mind Breaks” (9 p.m. the Turf Club, $22-$25); the esteemed local tribute unit Shabby Road All-Star Orchestra will reintroduce to you the entire “Sgt. Pepper’s” album (8 p.m. Parkway Theater, $35-$55).

7. Leslie Odom Jr.: The multi-hyphenate Tony, Emmy and Grammy winner is a stage actor (Aaron Burr in “Hamilton,” of course, and “Purlie Victorious”), a screen and TV actor (“Smash,” “One Night in Miami,” “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery”), an author (a children book, and an inspiration book for teens) and a recording artist (“When a Crooner Dies,” his fourth album, released in November, features all original material). After the pandemic derailed his last scheduled Twin Cities appearance in March 2020, the super-busy Odom returns. (7 p.m. Pantages Theatre, 710 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls., $61-$110, ticketmaster.com)

8. The Heath Quartet: The Schubert Club’s Music in the Park Series season closes with a concert by an English string quartet that won the chamber music category at the 2016 Gramophone Awards for an album of Michael Tippett works (beating out Renee Fleming and the Emerson Quartet in the process). The increasingly renowned foursome will perform a J.S. Bach piece and string quartets by Joseph Haydn, 20th-century Dutch composer Henriette Bosmans and Erich Korngold. (4 p.m. Sun. St. Anthony Park United Church of Christ, 2129 Commonwealth Ave., St. Paul, $23-$33, students and children free, schubert.org.)

Also: Founding saxophonist Jay Beckenstein is celebrating the 50th anniversary of jazz fusion mainstays Spyro Gyra (6 & 8 p.m. the Dakota, $30-$45); Wet Denim and Venus DeMars & All the Pretty Horses play a benefit for the staff of the fire-ravaged 19 Bar (8-11, $20 donation); Darnell Davis & the Remnant are hosting another gospel brunch concert (noon, Icehouse, $25); the experimental instrumental group Sylvee & the Sea features Pieta Brown, Liz Draper and Richard Medek (7 p.m. Berlin, $15).

Even though he made his 2023 album “Last Chance to Learn the Twist” with the Goldtops, British pub rock stalwart Graham Parker is working solo this time around (7 p.m. the Dakota, $35-$45); Alan Sparhawk, Liz Draper, deVon Russell Gray, Davu Seru, Martin Dosh and Andrew Broder are all scheduled to join guitar innovator Jeremy Ylvisaker for his experimental April residency series at Icehouse (8 p.m., $20).

9. Royel Otis: After an early burst of airplay support from the Current, this hotly hyped, melodic Australian rock duo is giving Twin Citians a first crack at judging its prowess on stage stateside. Named after co-leaders Otis Pavlovic and Royel Maddell, the band is kicking off its U.S. tour here after the February release of “Pratts & Pain,” a stylish debut LP produced by the same guy as Wet Leg’s record. Songs like the excitedly danceable single “Fried Rice” and “Foam” recall the hazy synth-rock sounds of MGMT and local faves Solid Gold. Opening band Girl and Girl is also Australian and newly signed to Sub Pop. (8 p.m. Amsterdam Bar & Hall, 6 W. 6th St., St. Paul, $15-$18, axs.com)

Also: Canadian pop-punk band Sum 41 of “In Too Deep” fame are purportedly out on tour for the last time and have L.A. ska-punk vets the Interrupters for openers (7 p.m. the Armory, all ages, $46-$86); heavyweight drummer Jason Bonham, son of the late Zep percussionist John Bonham, definitely delivers a Led Zeppelin experience (7 p.m. Uptown Theater, $85-$450).

10. Madison Beer: At just 25, this former child model has racked up more than a decade of experience in the entertainment business and many millions of social-media likes, going back to when Justin Bieber tweeted a YouTube clip of her singing Etta James’ “At Last” at age 13. She’s been a pop recording artist ever since and earned a modest buzz last year with her second full-length album, “Silence Between Songs,” which falls somewhere between Lana Del Rey and Ariana Grande sonically. She’s kicking off the U.S. leg of her tour here with another model-turned-singer opening, Charlotte Lawrence. (6:30 p.m. the Fillmore, 525 N. 5th St., Mpls., all ages, $57, livenation.com)

Also: Jazzy, bluesy chanteuse Madeleine Peyroux previews her June album, “Let’s Walk,” her first project in six years; the first single, “Please Come On Inside,” has a gospely Mavis Staples vibe (7:30 p.m. Parkway Theater, $69-$119); Minneapolis rising star Ricki Monique leads “a night of emotive soul-hop song, dance and poetry at the Dakota (7 p.m., $20-$25); Americana twang master Erik Koskinen wraps up his April residency touting his new album, “Down Street / Love Avenue,” with Pieta Brown (8 p.m. Icehouse, $25-$30).

Classical critic Rob Hubbard contributed to this column.