CONCERT SAMPLER
Live music highlights for March 31 to April 6: Thursday: David Gilmour, “Comfortably Numb” Classic rock royalty lives! And quite well, apparently, or at least well enough to forever say no to the bonanza of a tour with remaining Pink Floyd bandmates (but yes to a return to their old Pompeii stomping grounds this summer). Gilmour’s band is stacked with pedigreed dudes (including his contemporary guitarist Phil Manzanera), playing a set list that (wisely) tilts more than half to Floydian showstoppers. His first trip here in nearly a decade, it’s a sellout, of course, and pretty much everything the fan would want short of that reunion. (Air Canada Centre, 8 p.m.) Friday Cameron Carpenter, “Overture to Candide” More than just an April Fool’s classical iconoclasm here; add virtuosity, a showman’s wardrobe, swagger and Carpenter’s self-designed International Touring Organ making its T.O. debut. It’s a real behemoth: a portable version of a pipe organ that with 10 speaker cabs and eight subwoofers, “half of them the size of refrigerators.” It will drive the audience to something. Distraction? Earplugs? The exits? Probably depends on your perspective on no-holds-barred assaults on the traditional playbook. (Koerner Hall, 8 p.m.) Saturday Terence Blanchard, “Requiem for Katrina” It’s a venue debut for the trumpeter/ composer and his four bandmates, and that’s notable: Koerner’s great acoustics should elevate even more this rare performance of Blanchard’s A Tale of God’s Will: A Requiem for Katrina, a piece of deep emotion and detailing that earned him a Grammy. Based on themes initially composed as a score for Spike Lee’s documentary When the Levees Broke, it’s much bigger live and takes a toll. “I’m an emotional wreck when we get to the end of it. It brings back all those memories,” Blanchard told the Times-Picayune of his native New Orleans. It’ll be accompanied by period photograph projections, almost as much a historical document as a charged musical concert and pick of the week. (Koerner Hall, 8 p.m.) Sunday Iron Maiden, “Speed of Light” Maidenheads weren’t sure they’d see their heroes onstage again after singer Bruce Dickinson’s recent cancer diagnosis, but in true “up the irons” spirit he skirted the reaper’s blade and recovered, which naturally led to this year’s Book of Souls World Tour named after last fall’s massive double album. Upping the ante, pro pilot Dickinson is flying the band’s touring 747 Ed Force One from city to city. These architects of British and global heavy metal are 40 years in and still delivering a full rocking dose. Pop-metal heavies the Raven Age open. (Air Canada Centre, doors 7:30 p.m.) Monday Moving Panoramas, “One” All of the songs on this Austin, Texas trio’s debut album were written in the aftermath of singer/guitarist Leslie Sisson’s harrowing escape and recovery from both a gunpoint kidnapping and subsequently being stalked on social media. Not surprisingly, there’s a plangent bent to Sisson’s hard-won lyrics that float gently over the indie-guitar mix, putting them in the same dream-pop territory as Best Coast, Dum Dum Girls and Warpaint, with the emphasis on pop. They take their first local bows here. Superior local alt-folkies Beams and popster Alli Sunshine open. (Silver Dollar, doors 8:30 p.m.) Tuesday Glenn Jones, “Bergen Country Farewell” Jones is an original, a master of guitar and banjo out of the late John Fahey’s American Primitive school, favouring his own tunings, custom-made parts and an idiosyncratic picking style. “He gently hops over the frets like a lily-padding frog,” says NPR. And gentle is indeed the operative word; Jones’s singular approach is the sonic version of a swift stream: natural, flowing and restful. New LP Fleeting brings him here for a rare visit. (Tranzac, doors 7:30 p.m.) Wednesday Manuel Valera Trio, “Footprints” This Wayne Shorter standard gets a soulful arrangement from the New York-based Valera, whose New Cuban Express LP of a few years back was nominated for a Latin Grammy. That project, one of a number that keep the Havana native busy, had him working with more bandmates and in a more exclusively Cuban neighbourhood. Here, the trio (Hans Glawischig on bass, E.J. Strickland on drums) works beautifully together, switching fluidly between Latin and jazz grooves, and never letting technique get in the way of their drive and musicality. They really swing, in other words. (The Rex, 9:30 p.m.)