Music picks: Yoko Ono, Iron & Wine and more
This week in live music is all spillover from the annual South by Southwest festival and conference in Austin, Texas, and heavy-hitting nostalgia, offering up the best of the old and the new to sate any appetite.
The Work and Music of Yoko Ono
What better way to celebrate the life and work with one of the most influential artists of the 20th century than with an evening of fierce, femme-forward talent? “BreatheWatchListenTouch: The Work and Music of Yoko Ono” features an ensemble of tour-de-force L.A. music talent performing Ono’s art and music to honor her 60-plus-year career. The night, produced in partnership with Anna Bulbrook and Girlschool L.A., boasts a can’t-miss lineup of rising voices and mainstays, including Sudan Archives, St. Vincent, Shirley Manson, KING, Francisca Valenzuela, Miya Folick, and many more. Tickets start at $32. Get ’em while you still can. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 South Grand Ave., 8 p.m. Friday.
Iron & Wine
Fifteen years after Sam Beam’s breakthrough album “Our Endless Numbered Days,” the indie folk great is giving the record the full orchestra treatment. Beam’s Iron & Wine project takes his cinematic, understated work on a sprawling victory lap as he performs with an orchestra for the first time alongside conductor David Campbell. Together they’ll commemorate one of the ’00s standout records in full dimension. Bring a date, or relish the catharsis solo. Tickets are sold out, but you can still buy some starting at $150 on secondary markets. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 South Grand Ave., 7:30 p.m. Sunday.
Don McLean
It’s not often you get to see an Americana legend up close and personal — let alone in a 200-person theater, for a cool $25. But the Grammy Museum is offering up just that with an evening with iconic singer-songwriter Don McLean in its intimate Clive Davis Theater. The night will feature a performance from the genre-spanning great, whose latest record “Botanical Gardens” was released last year, as well as a conversation moderated by Scott Goldman. Your slice of “American Pie” awaits. Grammy Museum, 800 West Olympic Blvd., 7:30 p.m. Monday.
CHAI
Fresh off a new album, “Punk,” and an acclaimed eight-show run at SXSW last week, Japanese quartet CHAI hit the Moroccan Lounge to subvert conceptions of what “Japanese music” — and Japanese women in particular — are supposed to sound like. Twin sisters Mana and Kana, alongside schoolmates Yuna and Yuuki, are a loud, colorful cacophony of synths and guitars that cull equally from punk, pop, electronic, and a certain je ne sais quoi. Together, they wield their strangely cohesive noise and stage antics to deliver the band’s “neo-kawaii” ethos, disrupting stereotypes of cute and quiet in favor of the flawed and outspoken. Tickets are $15. Moroccan Lounge, 901 East 1st St., 7:30 p.m., Monday.
Amyl and the Sniffers
Catch these raucous Melbourne punks while they’re still Stateside, coming off of a round of explosive shows at SXSW. Firebrand vocalist Amy Taylor leads this crew of housemates-turned-garage outfit, whose chaotic live shows and one-two punch recordings have earned them a deal with Rough Trade and a bad reputation of the very best kind. Head to the Bootleg Saturday with your surliest crew. Covered footwear recommended. Tickets cost $13 in advance and $15 day of show. Bootleg Theater, 2220 Beverly Blvd., 8:30 p.m. Saturday.
Follow me on Twitter: @toddmartens
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