Courtney Barnett Plays Stage AE, Dennis DeYoung at Palace; Jergel’s Has Southern Culture on the Skids (Fri., 10/19/18)

1) One of the best artists in contemporary rock ‘n’ roll is coming to Pittsburgh: Courtney Barnett. She pairs deadpan lyrics with a deadpan vocal delivery, and like her rock forebears Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain, she plays a mean southpaw. Hailing from Sydney, Australia, she rose to international prominence with 2013’s The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas. Her brilliant debut LP, Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit, followed in 2015. She released Tell Me How You Really Feel, her sophomore album, this year. In between LPs, she recorded Lotta Sea Lice with one of rock’s other great contemporaries, Kurt Vile. The pair wrote originals, covered other artists’ songs, and covered each other’s songs. Her take on Vile’s “Peepin’ Tom” is achingly beautiful. She closed the 41st season of “Saturday Night Live,” and let’s hope she brings a similar energy to Stage AE. Special guest is Waxahatchee. Doors open 7 p.m. 400 North Shore Dr., North Shore. (CM)

2) From 1972 through 1984, Styx had four consecutive multi-platinum albums and 16 top-40 singles on the U.S. charts. The hit parade included songs like “Lady” and “Come Sail Away,” which lead vocalist and keyboardist Dennis DeYoung wrote. (He didn’t write “Renegade,” which is often played at Steelers home games, but he wrote plenty of other big songs during that time.) He’s also released six solo albums. He and his band will perform Styx’s 1977 album The Grand Illusion, which contains “Come Sail Away,” in its entirety at The Palace Theatre. 8 p.m. 21 W. Otterman St., Greensburg. (EC, CM)

3) Southern Culture on the Skids performs at Jergel’s Rhythm Grille. The band formed in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in 1983. Its songs, such as “Camel Walk,” have been used in a variety of media, including movies, television, and video games. Get ready for a live show that promises rockabilly, psychedelia, and audience participation. 8 p.m. 285 Northgate Dr., Warrendale. (CM)

4) Years before he teamed with then-young Stephen Sondheim on West Side Story, Leonard Bernstein—a whippersnapper himself at the time—wrote the score for a different kind of New York musical, On the Town. The 1944 show was promoted as a wartime special, with a story line about sailors trying to pack as much excitement and romance as they can into a 24-hour shore leave in the big city. But On the Town turned out to have legs. The musical numbers are quite cool, as one would expect from a “serious” symphony-and-ballet composer writing for show biz. (Bernstein was among the first, if not the first, to execute the crossover in our modern era.) And now Pittsburgh’s Resonance Works is performing On the Town in a concert version. This means the story is more or less narrated but you get the songs and music done smash-o right. Lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. The main event is in the New Hazlett Theater, and ResWorks is also staging pop-up performances at Carnegie Science Center, right near the submarine USS Requin. Through Oct. 21. Tonight, 8 p.m. at 6 Allegheny Square East, North Side.

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