The Best Concerts in L.A. This Weekend

By LA Weekly Fri., Jan. 18 2013 at 4:00 AM

Categories: Los Angeles Concerts

Lady Gaga -- See Sunday

Friday, January 18

Femi Kuti
EL REY THEATRE
In 2009, the Nigerian government forcefully shut down the Shrine, the home base of Afrobeat originator Fela Kuti. By now, however, not only is the Shrine back, it's a government-endorsed museum -- a sign, Femi Kuti told one reporter, that the revolutionary genre his father started is stronger than ever. And Femi's own take on this particularly hypnotic, propulsive and fearless music is going strong, too, as presented on his recent (and fiery) Africa for Africa album. It's a relentless and heavy record from a man who works hard to keep his art pure and powerful, presenting the political and the personal without compromise. If a musician is a hypocrite, I asked him once, does that ruin his music? His answer was simple: "Yes." --Chris Ziegler

The Dollyrots
REDWOOD BAR & GRILL
You can tell The Dollyrots are getting more popular when you hear Kelly Ogden sing about her increasingly hectic life on the road. "Wake up with my makeup on/Clothes still from the night before/Saw the sun come up again/Chicago may be Baltimore," the singer-bassist declares in a rapid-fire litany on the local pop-punk trio's self-titled fourth album. With their songs showing up in everything from The Vampire Diaries and Ugly Betty to The Price Is Right (!), The Dollyrots clearly are on the move nationally. Yet they haven't had to change their sound to find greater success. Ogden's cheerful, exuberant hooks are still buttressed by Luis Cabezas' surging waves of distorted guitar, finding that sweet spot between punky noise and winsome melody. --Falling James

Saturday, January 19

Steve Weingart & Renee Jones
BAKED POTATO
Keyboardist Steve Weingart and bassist-singer Renee Jones just might be contemporary music's odd couple. The bearded Weingart is likely the biggest NASCAR fan in jazz (he's even taken high-speed oval driving courses), while wife Renee is an effervescent African-American who grew up playing classical music. These days they are far from their shared Ohio roots, touring the world with guitarist Steve Lukather. Tonight Weingart and Jones team with sax/flute master Katisse Buckingham, along with drummer Simon Phillips, formerly with Jeff Beck/The Who and currently with Toto, for the release of their CD Observatory. Buckingham described the release concert for last year's outstanding Dialogue as being "like standing in front of a jet engine." The four can only hope for similar magic this time around. --Tom Meek

Jason Harnell
BLUE WHALE
If your dad wrote the exit theme for the television version of The Incredible Hulk, you 'd have a lot to live up to, musically speaking. But as the prodigious son of a keyboard prodigy, Jason Harnell has acquitted himself well, both as a studio drummer for film and television and as an uber-creative jazz musician. One of the most interesting drummers in town, he conjures myriad intricate and subtle polyrhythmic ideas, with a simmering ferocity that could ignite at the smallest spark of inspiration, or agitation. Please don't make him angry -- although you might like him when he's angry. Harnell co-leads his band, Just Fudge (formerly Sigmund Fudge) with organist Joe Bagg and guitarist Jamie Rosenn. They're sure to make a delicious, gooey mess. --Gary Fukushima