Live! Tonight! Not Sold-Out!

Dale Watson, Thundercat, Vieux Farka Toure, two guys named Young and our other top concert picks for Wednesday, Oct. 7.

Want to see some live music tonight? Here are your best options, curated by the Willamette Week music staff.

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 7

Neil Young, Rev. Billy & the Stop Shopping Choir

[IT'S NEIL FUCKING YOUNG] Need we say more? Maybe you'd like to know what Neil Young has in common with another Young playing Portland tonight, Young Thug. Well, we've got an article for that. Chiles Center at University of Portland, 5000 N Willamette Blvd., 7:30 pm. $65-$150. All ages.

Vieux Farka Touré, Asher Fulero

[MALIAN GUITAR] Vieux Farka Touré was supposed to be a soldier. His father, legendary Malian guitar player Ali Farka Touré, wanted him to carry on the family lineage as a member of their warrior tribe. With music in his bones, he took up the guitar in secret, learning the ins and outs of his father's cathartic African dance music and enrolling at the Institut National des Arts. Eventually, Ali Farka Touré came around, recording some of his final songs with his son before he passed away in 2006. The younger Farka Touré has since toured the world, bringing his outstandingly authentic African music, and six studio albums, to the top of the world music charts. PARKER HALL. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 East Burnside St. 8 pm. $28. 21+.

Vacationer, Great Good Fine OK

[NU-HULU] I have a fantasy of Philadelphia's Vacationer collaborating with Portland's Dana Buoy. The two produce sun-kissed electronic pop that's so beach-y it'll leave sand between your toes. The former visits Portland still riding the wave from sophomore release Relief, a beat-driven, dance-friendly interpretation of the tropical life. It has all the cures for your seasonal depression: guitar hooks, big beats, bright vocals and a clap-happy rhythmic backbone. Feel-good pop doesn't have to be doused in steel drums or poisoned by Jimmy Buffett, and Vacationer is living proof. MARK STOCK. Hawthorne Theatre, 1507 SE César E. Chávez Blvd. 7 pm. $15. All ages.

Dale Watson & His Lone Stars, Jenny Don't & the Spurs

[HONKY TONK] A few years ago, I was sitting on a bus bench in Austin, waiting to be chauffeured into the Doritos-encrusted heart of South by Southwest, when the couple next to me pulled out a portable speaker and began playing honky-tonk so pure and antiquated it sounded like it was coming directly from an aged 45. They spent the trip downtown regaling me about Dale Watson, a true country troubadour with a snowy white quiff that every Austinite eventually encounters, usually at Ginny's Longhorn Saloon, where every Sunday he soundtracks a game of bingo determined not by pingpong balls but by the mercurial bowels of a live chicken. Even without the aid of pooping poultry, the hard-drinking, wide-smiling traditionalist country of Watson latest record, Call Me Insane, is as authentic as it comes. MATTHEW SINGER. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave. 9 pm. $18. 21+.

Young Thug, Rachel West, Easy McCoy, I$$A

[IT'S FUCKING YOUNG THUG] Need we say more? Maybe you'd like to know what Young Thug has in common with another Young playing Portland tonight, Neil Thug. Well, we've got an article for that. Roseland Theater, 8 NW 6th Ave. 8 pm. $28. All ages.

Thundercat, Mono/Poly

[ASTRO FUTURISM] Steven Bruner came up playing bass for Suicidal Tendencies before plying his signature fretless grooves for L.A.'s Brainfeeder crew, where he adopted the Thundercat moniker. His contributions proved integral to Flying Lotus' electro-acoustic odyssey Cosmogramma, and more recently, Kendrick Lamar's rap epic To Pimp a Butterfly.With two LPs to his name, Thundercat's solo work is leading a full fusion revival into 21st century jazz-funk, with six-string lead bass complemented by lyrics delivered in the key of life. His latest, a mini-album titled The Beyond/Where Giants Roam, dares to show the artist's recent turmoil, using the avatar as a proggy triumph over personal loss and social injustice. WYATT SCHAFFNER. Star Theater, 13 NW 6th Ave. 9 pm. $15. 21+.

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