.Calendar Picks: Week of Nov. 9-15

THURSDAY

JAZZ 

GRACE KELLY

As a preternaturally poised teenager in the late aughts, the glamorously named alto saxophonist, Grace Kelly, appeared on the jazz scene sharing stages with bona fide alto sax legends like Phil Woods and Lee Konitz. Rather than turning into a major new voice in jazz, she’s followed her own muse, evolving into an effective entertainer as a vocalist, songwriter and consistently lyrical horn player. – ANDREW GILBERT

INFO: 8pm, Yoshi’s, 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. $37-$75. 510.238.9200.

FRIDAY

PUNK

SINCERE ENGINEER

Midwestern punks Sincere Engineer, led by Deanna Belos, are coming to town this weekend! Hailing from Chicago, Belos went from turning heads with an acoustic guitar as part of the city’s DIY folk-punk scene to landing a record deal with Red Scare Industries in 2016. She is a powerful lyricist who dances between humor and heart from one line to the next. The band’s latest album, Cheap Grills, serves up delicious pop hooks and cunningly sweet turns of phrase. In “California King,” after singing about buying a bigger mattress, Belos shouts, “Can I be your California queen???” – ADDIE MAHMASSANI

Info: 8pm, Ivy Room, 860 San Pablo Ave, Albany. $18/adv, $22/door. 510.526-5888. 

R&B

LIV.E

The Dallas-born, L.A.-based artist’s new album, Girl in the Half Pearl, raises the allure of her signature style with stunning vocals that range from whispers to screams, fearless contributions from band members on piano and drums, crash-through-the-wall electronica and a sometimes-dizzying synthesis of sound that swirls with heart-crushing harmonics that land in a private heaven—or hell. Pulling vestiges of R&B, soul and dance music, jazz and hip-hop, Liv.e keeps a person wondering if there is no limit to where she might venture next. Be sure that, wherever she goes, the journey will involve love in all its fractured, infuriating and intoxicating forms. – LOU FANCHER

INFO: 9pm, Cornerstone, 2367 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, $21/adv, $26/door. 510.214.8600.

PUNK 

EARTH CRISIS

In 1993, Earth Crisis’ Firestorm EP became one of the most influential albums in hardcore history—both for basically inventing the chugging riffs that became a staple of metalcore sound, and for their scathing eco-political lyrics that condemn drug use, the animal-industrial complex, colonization and habitat destruction. In songs like “New Ethic,” Earth Crisis added militant veganism into the straight-edge subculture that emerged in response to the hedonistic punk scene. Thirty years later, they are still kings of the style, releasing the new album, Vegan For The Animals, in 2022. – SONYA BENNETT-BRANDT

INFO: 7pm, Gilman, 924 Gilman St., Berkeley. $20. 510.524.8180.

SATURDAY

STORYTELLING

MORTIFIED: ANGST GIVING SHOW

What is the most mortifying thing from childhood that, as an adult, continues to send you howling? Maybe it’s the ghoulish, wicked Halloween decorations that hung on a neighbor’s tree that you burned, lied about and eventually got busted for. Maybe it’s the remnants of shorts that disintegrated during a cross-country meet, causing you to finish the race in your underpants in last place. Or, secrets buried in your diaries, love letters never sent, “what a loser” stories told in song lyrics and poems, or, worst of all, when undeniably REAL home movies wind up on social media and go viral in a bad, bad way. Come celebrate and tell tales of all things mortifying. – LF

INFO: 7:30pm, New Parish, 1743 San Pablo Ave., Oakland. $20-$25. 510.227.8177.

PSYCH ROCK

ALTIN GÜN

Although they only started in 2016, Altin Gün is already one of the leading established Turkish psych bands touring today. Their second album, Gece, earned them a nomination at the 2019 Grammy Awards. This year they dropped a new album, Aşk, featured on the Star Wars Jedi: Survivor video game soundtrack as “Altin Lazer Blaster” AND dropped the soundtrack for an Apple TV ad. This year they return to the Bay Area with a fresh arsenal of reinvented and evolved Anatolian folk music set to fuzzy guitars and synths. Pachyman, the Puerto Rican-born instrumentalist and dub reggae artist who NPR called the “consistent king of smooth beats,” will join them at the UC Theater. – MAT WEIR

INFO: 8pm, The UC Theater, 2036 University Ave., Berkeley. $32.50. 510.356.4000.

SUNDAY

FOLK

THE CONNIE CONVERSE UNIVERSE, STARRING HOPE LEVY

A full decade before Bob Dylan moved to Greenwich Village, there was Connie Converse. Raised in a strictly religious family, Converse began smoking, drinking and *gasp* writing folk songs that she performed at local coffee shops. By 1954 she even performed on CBS’ The Morning Show with renowned journalist Walter Cronkite. After becoming disillusioned by the New York music scene, she moved to Michigan and became the managing editor for a peer-reviewed journal. Then, in 1974, she wrote a series of letters to her family and disappeared in her VW Bug, never to be seen or heard from again. Her music was rediscovered in the mid-2000s, and this Sunday Los Angeles folk singer, Hope Levy, will bring Converse’s words and story to life. – MW

INFO: 5pm, The Back Room, 1984 Bonita Ave., Berkeley. $15-$20. 510.654.3808.

TUESDAY

R&B

RAPHAEL SAADIQ

Between 1988-1996, Oakland’s Tony! Toni! Toné! kept classic soul alive. For the first time in 25 years, the Grammy Award-winning producer and multi-instrumentalist, Raphael Saadiq, is revisiting the group’s oeuvre live, and he pulled the band back together to do it. His brother, D’Wayne Wiggins, and cousin, Timothy Christian Riley, have joined him to play old favorites like “Feels Good” and “It Never Rains (In Southern California).” This tour is a thank you to the “Super Tonians,” but “the main reason,” Saadiq says, “is that my father, Charlie Wiggins, would’ve wanted it this way—to see me, D’Wayne and Tim playing together again.” – AM

Info: 7:30pm, Paramount Theatre, 2025 Broadway, Oakland. $95+. 510.893.2300.

WEDNESDAY

POP

KRISTIN CHENOWETH: FOR THE GIRLS

Kristin Chenoweth, Emmy and Tony Award-winning musical comedy powerhouse, is perhaps best known for originating the role of Glinda in the musical Wicked, and for her television roles in The West Wing, Pushing Daisies and, most recently, Schmigadoon! In For the Girls, she pays tribute to the great women singers who inspire her. From Doris Day’s “When I Fall In Love” to Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You,” Chenoweth’s performance is a touching, defiant and fast-paced journey through music history. Her warm, down-to-earth stage presence and camaraderie with her band and backup singers bring a friendly, sleepover vibe to her performances. – SB

INFO: 7:30pm, Zellerbach Hall, 101 Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley. $52-$194. 510.642.9988