THU 10/1
INDIE
FRUIT BATS
Eric D. Johnson rolls into town with his band, Fruit Bats, and a new album, Landfill. The 10-track album produced with minimal overdubs lays bare the band’s understated power: great drumming, solid guitar and lyrics that are never ruffly or overly romantic or so rough they rub the heart raw. It’s the kind of music that makes a person want to buy a deep-maroon pickup truck and drive across the middle of the country on dusty dirt roads. Which kind of makes sense, given Johnson’s Midwest background. Leave it to a modern-day bard to make something beautiful out of the nastiness of actual landfills that polka-dot the landscape of today. — Lou Fancher
INFO: Thu, 8pm, UC Theatre, 2036 University Ave., Berkeley. $57-90. 510.356.4000.
FRI 10/2
JAZZ
DAHVEED BEHROOZI TRIO
San Jose pianist Dahveed Behroozi doesn’t make it up to the East Bay to perform often and should be far better known across the region. He’s a supremely lyrical improviser and masterly composer who draws inspiration from jazz’s modernist tradition as well as rock, Bach and Brahms. Behroozi celebrates the release of his gorgeous new trio album with Hayward-raised bass master Thomas Morgan, a force on the New York scene who’s recorded extensively with dozens of jazz heavyweights, including guitarists Bill Frisell, John Abercrombie, Steve Cardenas and Jakob Bro. The essential San Jose drummer Jason Lewis rounds out the trio, so it’s a safe bet the group will be swinging with quiet intensity. — Andrew Gilbert
INFO: Fri, 8pm, The Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St., Berkeley. $25. 510.845.5373.
FRI 10/2
JAZZ
SNARKY PUPPY
They’re jazz! No. They’re fusion! No. They’re a jam band! No. None of the standard categories fit five-time Grammy-winning band Snarky Puppy. The band’s global, rotating lineup, led by bassist Michael League, creates its own genre, which it calls “music for your brain and booty.” Listen to “Lingus,” its most famous cut, appearing on 2014’s We Like It Here, and featuring Cory Henry’s keyboard solo, now a YouTube legend. But the Pup didn’t stop there. 2015’s Somni, recorded with Metropole Orkest, has it getting down and dirty alongside orchestral arrangements. Woof. — Janis Hashe
INFO: Fri, 8pm, Paramount Theatre, 2025 Broadway, Oakland. $85-$1789. 510.893.2300.
FRI 10/2
BLUEGRASS
BILLY STRINGS
Billy Strings makes bluegrass ferocious with breakneck banjo, flat picked guitar and the ability to go from a front-porch whisper to a full-on psychedelic guitar maelstrom. The Michigan-born, Nashville-based guitarist has become one of modern bluegrass’s biggest stars. He can stretch the genre with hints of heavy metal and a darker, more spacious Americana sound. His new album, So Much for Goodbyes, is a story about grief and finds Strings picking through complicated memories of love, anger, addiction and nostalgia. Show also on Saturday. — Sonya Bennett-Brandt
INFO: Fri, 7:30pm, Oakland Arena, 7000 Coliseum Way, Oakland. $112-$200. 510.569.2121.
SAT 10/3
JAZZ
LISA B
Lisa B is too young to remember much of the 1960s firsthand, but many of the decade’s most venturesome musicians were family friends, and that spirit infuses her new project, ’60s Magic Now!: The Y-Verse. It’s the eighth album by this savvy singer, poet and spoken-word artist, who has reimagined a bevy of era-defining songs as straight-ahead jazz, soul, funk, fusion, hip-hop and Latin jazz. She’s personified the project with four archetypes—Spooky, Mr. Fantasy, Ruby Tuesday and Windy—while adopting several social-change anthems. Joined by keyboardist Ben Flint, bassist Fred Randolph, drummer Shawn Myers and special guests, B will repurpose the purposeful songs of the ’60s, from A to Z. — AG
INFO: Sat, 8pm, The Back Room, 1984 Bonita Ave., Berkeley. $25-$30. 510.654.3808.
SAT 10/3
JAZZ
JON BATISTE
There’s nothing low-key about Batiste. Since departing his post as bandleader and musical director on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in 2022, his rocket has soared to Pixar, where he co-composed Academy Award-winning Soul, multiple Grammy nominations and awards, feature roles in documentaries and films, endless headline tours as a soloist, and an Album of the Year award. As a pianist and singer/songwriter, Batiste’s range swings wide: R&B, blues, jazz, classical, gospel and rock ’n’ roll. For some folks, the peaceful musical marches he led in 2020 to honor Black and brown victims of police brutality planted a permanent halo about his head. Expect angels to be smiling in the nighttime sky above. — LF
INFO: Sat, 8pm, Greek Theatre, 2001 Gayley Rd., Berkeley. $84-510. 510.871.9225.
SAT 10/3
FUNK
EL KHAT
When one reads the words “Junkyard funk from Yemen,” several questions come to mind. First and foremost, what is junkyard funk? It’s good; that’s what it is. Led by multi-instrumentalist Eyal El Wahab, El Khat makes all their own instruments as a display of their minimalist mindset. Then, they take funk and New Orleans-style jazz and somehow perfectly meld it with Arabi-Yemeni style for a sound that defies anyone to stand still. Simply put, it’s funky, it’s worldly and it’s brand-spanking new with deeply seeded roots. — Mat Weir
INFO: Sat, 8pm, The Freight, 2020 Addison St., Berkeley. $34-$44. 510.644.2020.
SAT 10/3
PUNK
HANDSOME DICK MANITOBA
Calling all punks, this is one show not to be missed. In the year 2026, there aren’t many of the original punk rockers still around to show the kids how it’s done. Thankfully, there’s still Handsome Dick Manitoba or, as he’s also known, the lead singer for the seminal New York punk band, the Dictators. Needless to say, the stories are legendary. Manitoba originally started off as the band’s roadie until his debut as their singer in 1975, and has never looked back. A frequent flyer at CBGB, the list of bands he’s shared the stage with is a who’s who of punk rock royalty including the Ramones, Blondie and the Dead Boys. — MW
INFO: Sat, 8pm, Thee Stork Club, 2330 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. $22-$27. 510.859.8709.
SUN 10/4
CLASSICAL
TOM BORROW
In 2005, when he was only 5, Tom Borrow began to study piano, and like one of his favorite composers, Mozart, his stellar gifts were obvious. By 2022 he’d been named a BBC New Generation Artist and has now performed with all the BBC orchestras. Borrow thinks of himself as a throwback to another era—he prefers reading to social media and often links what he’s reading to the music he’s currently studying. At Hertz Hall, he’ll perform Mozart’s “Sonata in A minor” alongside Liszt’s “operatic fantasy” based on Mozart’s Don Giovanni, plus the same composer’s “notoriously complex and harrowing” “Sonata in B minor.” — JH
INFO: Sun, 3pm, Cal Performances at Hertz Hall, 101 Cross-Sproul Path, Berkeley. $90-$95. 510.642.9988.
TUE 10/6
POP
CAVETOWN
Cambridge-born songwriter Robin Skinner, a.k.a. Cavetown, makes music for the strange little creatures and tender weirdos lurking under the bed of adolescence. He started out making lo-fi bedroom songs, amassing billions of streams and a devoted audience who has grown up alongside him. On his new album, Running With Scissors, Skinner steps out of that familiar refuge and into adulthood. More ambitious songwriting and vocals dig through family baggage, inherited traits, falling in love and howling anger. The comfort object has grown claws. — SBB
INFO: Tue, 8pm, Fox Theater, 1807 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. $52-$116. 510.302.2250.
