The Best Concerts To See in L.A. This Weekend: Oct 26-28

By LA Weekly Fri., Oct. 26 2012 at 3:30 AM

Categories: Los Angeles Concerts

Sophie Barker -- See Saturday

Friday, October 26

Bob Dylan & His Band, Mark Knopfler
HOLLYWOOD BOWL
"Bring down my fiddle/Tune up my strings/I'm gonna break it wide open," Bob Dylan announces on his 35th studio album, Tempest. It's the latest in a series of remarkably fertile records the legendary (and legendarily erratic) singer has released over the past 15 years, following a lengthy fallow period in the '80s and early '90s. He breaks it wide open not so much sonically -- his deft band cooks up a low-key shuffle of dusty blues grooves, with lead guitarist Charlie Sexton, Los Lobos' David Hidalgo and, especially, multi-instrumentalist Donnie Herron conjuring some subtly sublime settings -- but in the way he sees the world at the age of 71. While the onetime folk singer still casts a wary eye at world leaders in such new tunes as "Pay in Blood" ("another politician pumping out the piss") and "Early Roman Kings" (strutting around "in their sharkskin suits"), Dylan remains most fascinated by the laws of lust and attraction in "Duquesne Whistle" ("You're like a time bomb in my heart") and the bewitchingly strange "Scarlet Town" ("If love is a sin, then beauty is a crime"). Tonight, the man from Duluth is joined by distinctively feather-toned Dire Straits guitarist Mark Knopfler, who collaborated on several of Dylan's better albums in the late '70s and mid-'80. --Falling James

Dilated Peoples
The Roxy
Considered royalty by Los Angeles' hip-hop underground, Dilated Peoples is one of the few rap acts that still incorporates hip-hop's mother element: the deejay. While most widely known for their 2001 anthem "Worst Come to Worst" featuring Guru, it was the 2004 Kanye West-produced track "This Way" that catapulted the Peoples to international music stardom. Throughout their 20-year career (a rarity for a former major-label rap act), Rakaa Iriscience, Evidence and DJ Babu (Beat Junkies) have come to be globally revered for their kinetic live show. --Jacqueline Michael Whatley

Saturday, October 27

Sophie Barker
HOTEL CAFÉ
English songbird Sophie Barker may fly solo now after first coming to attention with the coolly groovy, down-tempo group Zero 7, but her stately new pop songs are just as stirringly soulful while also revealing a greater breadth of styles. String-laden idylls like "Paper Thin" and "Paradise Lost" are simply beautiful ballads, with Barker's trademark soothing hush of vocals lingering softly in the echoes between gentle guitar chords. But the London native also lets the sun shine in amid the funky wah-wah guitar and upbeat horn retorts of the infectiously ebullient pop-rocker "Bluebell." It's an unexpected joy to see the queen of cool and restraint kick up her heels like this. --Falling James