Here are 14 concerts to see in the next seven days, all around Philly. For tickets and more information, head to the WXPN Concert Calendar.
Tuesday 12/3: Mariah Carey at Wells Fargo Center
If you’ve left your house over the past month, you’ve probably heard “All I Want For Christmas Is You” a few (dozen) times. And if you’re one of those people who balks at that sort of thing, well, you might want to steer clear of Wells Fargo Center this Tuesday night. For everyone else, Mariah’s annual holiday tour is a spectacle of pop pageantry for the whole family. // 7 p.m., $39.95, AA
Wednesday 12/4: Samara Joy at Mayo PAC
Stylish jazz singer-songwriter Samara Joy swings through Jersey this Wednesday to headline Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown. Her third LP, Portrait, released in October, following her Grammy-winning breakout Linger Awhile. We expect to hear music from this record’s, plus her seasonal collection A Joyful Holiday from last year. // 7:30 p.m., $39 and up, AA
Thursday 12/5: Big Bad Voodoo Daddy at The Keswick Theatre
Speaking of holiday concerts – there sure are a lot of them this week, right? – don’t miss the swinging good time of Big Bad Voodoo Daddy’s annual seasonal throw down when it comes to The Keswick on Thursday. // 8 p.m., $35.50 and up, AA
Thursday 12/5: They Might Be Giants at Union Transfer
Post -new wave, pre-alternative bookish pop duo They Might Be Giants are always a popular ticket, and this December, they’re playing two nights at Union Transfer, both of which sold out in their initial onsale. If you don’t mind the markup, you can still get tickets from the official resale market and prep your lungs for singing along to “Dr. Worm,” “Birdhouse In Your Soul,” “Ana Ng,” “Don’t Let’s Start” and other classics. // 8 p.m., $55 and up (official resale), AA
Thursday 12/5: Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, and GZA at Franklin Music Hall
With over three decades of work as solo artists and as a collective, these three foundational members of Wu-Tang Clan are set to hold court at Franklin Music Hall this week. In the headlining position is Ghostface Killah, the most prolific of this lineup — he released his twelfth studio LP Set The Tone back in the spring — but Rae is set to drop the third installment of his Cuban Linx saga in the not-too-distant future, and the Genius has a more sparse but no less mighty collection of output, especially an array of feature appearances in recent years. The house will be rocked and you’ll wish you were there. // 8 p.m., $45, AA
Friday 12/6: Interpol at Franklin Music Hall
Critics cheered on NYC rockers Interpol upon the arrival of their 2002 debut Turn On The Bright Lights, but it was with their 2004 followup Antics that crowds really started to form. The record found the band’s post-punk stylings toning down the atmospherics and turning up the beat, with driving disco-adjacent rhythms making “Evil,” “Slow Hands,” and “C’mere” essential tracks for the iPod generation. The band is taking Antics on a 20th anniversary run this fall, and visits Philly to play it live at Franklin Music Hall this Friday. Hopefully they’re generous with offerings from the rest of their discography as well, since their later work — especially 2018’s Marauder and 2022’s The Other Side Of Make-Believe — is equally solid. // 8 p.m., $55, AA
Friday 12/6: Aimee Mann and Ted Leo at Scottish Rite Auditorium
Celebrated singer-songwriters Aimee Mann and Ted Leo come from vastly different backgrounds — their respective roots lie in emotive 80s alternative and revved-up 90s punk — but they found a chemistry of sorts a decade ago on their one-off collaboration The Both. That project only released a single album, but Mann and Leo continue working together as touring companions, especially during the holidays, where they fuse seasonal music and comedy with collaborators like Paul F. Tompkins. The 2024 edition of the revue comes to the Scottish Rite Auditorium this Friday. // 7 p.m., $39.50 and up, AA
Saturday 12/7: Cyndi Lauper at Hard Rock Live
This is it, people. The final date of the final North American tour that pop star Cyndi Lauper plans to embark upon. Finding her footing the the early-80s New York punk scene and becoming a sensation with her 1983 solo debut She’s So Unusual, Lauper’s is a voice that defines an era. I don’t need to tell you her hits, right? Maybe it’s worth shouting out deeper tracks like “She Bop” and “All Through The Night”? The streaming doc Let The Canary Sing is a great place to explore further, especially in a year dominated by Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall Of A Midwest Princess; Lauper’s music and ethos is very much complimentary and worth revisiting if you haven’t checked in lately. In June, she told NME that she’s not fully retiring from the stage but has ruled out the “planes, trains, and automobiles” way of life on the road, and said that “I want to do an arena tour… I’m strong now, but I don’t know what I’m going to be like in four years.” After what looked like a dazzling kickoff at Madison Square Garden at the beginning of November, Lauper wraps the North American leg of the run this Saturday in Atlantic City at Hard Rock Live, with her final tour date set for late February in Paris. // 8 p.m., $119 and up, AA
Saturday 12/7: Ride at Union Transfer
Another shoegaze-era band with a remarkable second life underway in the 20-teens — shoutout Slowdive — Ride is back at Union Transfer for the second time in 2024, after co-headlining the venue in January with contemporaries The Charlatans UK. The band released its seventh album (and third post-reunion record) Interplay this spring, and its songs “Peace Sign” and “Last Frontier” were in the mix on WXPN throughout the year. // 7 p.m., $32, AA
Saturday 12/7: Blind Boys of Alabama at The Queen
A gospel institution, Blind Boys of Alabama have worked with Prince and Lou Reed, released music dating back to the 1950s, and are coming to Wilmington this weekend for a performance at The Queen. Their most recent outing, Echoes Of The South, released last year. // 8 p.m., $40, AA
Saturday 12/7: Oh He Dead at Lititz Shirt Factory
One of the most winning Free At Noon concerts of the year was an early November set by D.C.’s Oh He Dead, a dynamic band that packages driving funk rock and shimmering disco arrangements with undeniably hooky songs and a dynamic frontperson in CJ Johnson. If you missed either of their World Cafe Live appearances this year, make plans to trip out to Central Pennsylvania this Saturday to party with the band at Lititz Shirt Factory. // 8 p.m., $20, AA
Sunday 12/8: La Lom at Underground Arts
They dazzled us last year opening for Thee Sacred Souls at Union Transfer, and it time for the Los Angeles League of Musicians to make their own ascent. The eclectic instrumental band — made up of guitarist Zac Sokolow, upright bassist Jake Faulkner, and percussionist Nicholas Baker — dips into tones from the Southwestern United States and Latin America in their exploratory jams, which should dazzle the crowd at Underground Arts this Sunday. // 8 p.m., $33.74, AA
Sunday 12/8: Wednesday at The First Unitarian Church
Karly Hartzman and her band Wednesday had a massive year in 2023 with the gripping LP Rat Saw God, and after taking a breather, she’s doing a short run of solo dates this autumn, coming to the First Unitarian Church this week. The show could be a reinvention of Hartzman’s back-catalog, showing how her songs can hit different when unadorned with band arrangements; it could also be a spotlight on her next-chapter-in-progress. Either way, it’ll be show worth leaving home on a Sunday for. // 7 p.m., $20, AA
Sunday 12/8: Shakey Graves at Strand Theatre
Alejandro Rose-Garcia saved the day at this year’s XPoNential Music Festival, and went to great lengths to do so. Not only did the artist otherwise known as Shakey Graves pull off a last-minute fill in when a band dropped from the bill, he did it despite being on a plane that couldn’t take off from a runway being blocked by a rogue helicopter. It was a moment, it was a vibe, and Shakey played a sublime set on the festival’s Marina Stage. He returns to PA this Sunday to headline York’s Strand Theatre, with his fourth LP Movie of the Week in tow. // 7:30 p.m., $35 and up, AA
