New Orleans institution Dirty Dozen Brass Band descends upon San Francisco this week, plus more live concerts to check out. 

Tuesday: Suicide Girls at The Independent

Fanboys of San Francisco, unite. Blackheart Burlesque— described by VICE as "Comicon meets buresque nerd orgy"— panders directly to your nerdcore obsessions while Suicide Girls’ choreographed striptease tips its imaginary hat to Star Wars, Orange Is The New Black, Donnie Darko, Clockwork Orange, all over a tone-20/20 indie soundtrack. This is what dreams are made of.

Wednesday: Ben Folds at The Warfield

Singer-songwriter-bandleader Ben Folds has a big voice and bigger ambitions. His latest work reflects his evolved and evolving artistic plan, a studio and stage collaboration with chamber ensemble, yMusic. The two entities became one with their new album, So There, a blend of pop and classical hallmarks. “Every so often it occurs to me how much freedom I have,” Folds said in a press release. “In this case, it was, ‘Oh. I can write and perform pop songs for what’s in essence a small orchestra.’” Sounds simple, but that outlook affirms Folds as one of the most important pop songwriters of a generation.

Wednesday/Thursday: Zedd at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium

From the “not sure what to make of this files,” Zedd recently did an Reddit AMA and we learned that one of his favorite albums is Silverchair’s Diorama, calling it one of the most influential albums of all time for him. Seriously:

Thursday: Washed Out at Mezzanine (DJ Set)

You know, the dude from the Portlandia theme song...

Friday: Dirty Dozen Brass Band at The Independent

New Orleans doesn’t descend upon San Francisco nearly enough; but when it does, we’re privy to its finest offerings. Included in the “short list” is Dirty Dozen Brass Band, which we can safely count amongst Rebirth Brass Band, Preservation Hall Brass Band, Treme Brass Band and beyond as some of the most important cultural institutions the South claims.  

Friday: Hum/Mineral at Slim's (co-headline)

Emo rock kids, please note that many of your favorite, formless heart-on-sleeve heroes were preceded by Hum and Mineral. Both acts were early adopters and influencers of the alt-rock emo movement in the early ‘90s, along with bands like Sunny Day Real Estate and Get Up Kids.  

Follow @ChrisTrenchard for more words like these.