BEST BETS Thurday 9/28

7:30pm

Pop Music

Metallica might have arrived there first, but that hasn’t stopped the German hard-rock warhorses the Scorpions from joining forces with an orchestra. They recorded their new album, “Moment of Glory,” with the Berlin Philharmonic, and they’re teaming with various ensembles--including something known as the Greek Theatre World Orchestra tonight--on their U.S. tour.

* The Scorpions, with Night Ranger, the Greek Theatre, 2700 Vermont Canyon Road. 7:30 p.m. $28.50 to $78.50. (213) 480-3232.

7:30pm

Pop Music

Argentine rock en espan~ol pioneer Gustavo Cerati became infatuated with electronic music a decade ago when he saw the Orb in London, and the former leader of Soda Stereo is playing a few U.S. dates to display his latest electronica project, a duo called Ocio.

* Ocio featuring Gustavo Cerati, the House of Blues, 8430 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. 7:30 p.m. $15. (323) 848-5100.

8pm

Theater

Great Leap presents “A Slice of Rice, Frijoles and Greens,” a theatrical celebration of Asian, Latino, African American and deaf American experiences. The “slices” include Dan Kwong’s new work, “Station Wagons of Life,” about life in L.A. in his family car; “Nahuatl--Now What?,” Paulina Sahagun’s exploration of straddling two worlds; Arlene Malinowski’s “The Bully,” about her deaf mother and an overbearing Catholic school nun; and Chic Street Man in a blues and jazz performance created to transcend cultural and attitudinal barriers.

* “A Slice of Rice, Frijoles and Greens,” David Henry Hwang Theater, Union Center for the Arts, 120 N. Judge Aiso St., Little Tokyo, today through Sunday at 8 p.m. Family shows, Saturday and Sunday, 2 p.m. $10 to $20. (310) 264-6696.

8pm

Music

In a community concert in Thousand Oaks, music director Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic in a Debussy-Ravel program encompassing the “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun,” “La Mer” and “La Valse,” the “Mother Goose” Suite and “Bolero” (Ravel).

* The Los Angeles Philharmonic plays in Fred Kavli Theatre at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, 2100 Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks, at 8 p.m. $9 through $60. (805) 583-8700.

FREEBIE

Screenings for the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival, Los Angeles Edition, are free 1 to 4 p.m. at the Monica 4-Plex, 1332 2nd St., Santa Monica. “Money Dies,” 1 p.m.; “The Prayer,” 2 p.m.; “Accidentally on Purpose: The Story of John Strasberg,” 4 p.m. (310) 281-7999.