> CONCERT SAMPLER
Live music highlights for the week of June 22 to 28. Sevdaliza The Iranian-Dutch singer’s heady electrosoul brims over with ideas and visual flourishes and has drawn deserved comparisons to fellow lofty avant- ists such as FKA Twigs and Portishead. On the video for “Amandine Insensible,” from her debut LP ISON, she presents shifting personas over a minimal piano and a trip-hop beat, concluding “she’s every fantasy and no reality in one.” The Toronto debut comes at an outdoor show that’ll kick off Pride Weekend with a bang, joined by a bill including Shawnee (also down for a Sunday set at this weekend’s Fort York-hosted Indigenous Arts Festival), Ziibiwan and, right before Sevdaliza’s 10 p.m. scheduled start, kindred spirit and recent Polaris Prize nominee Lido Pimienta. (Thursday, Yonge-Dundas Square, 6 p.m.) U2 These Irish superstars have avoided going down memory lane in previous tours, but the streak ends with this return built around a 30th-anniversary retelling of high-water-marking record The Joshua Tree. As openings go, “Where the Streets Have No Name” is pretty much guaranteed to bring the ballpark crowd to its feet, a tune played “whenever we need God to walk through the room,” Bono has said — and having learned a few tricks over the last near-on four decades, the rest of the set list contains more emotional swells. The Lumineers open, surely the most thankless and well-paid support spot of the year. Pick of the week. (Friday, Rogers Centre, 7 p.m.) Taylor Knox As a guitarist he has played sideman to the likes of Owen Pallett, Hayden and Alvvays over the years, but the EP Lines a couple of years back marked him as a power-pop tunesmith in his own right. Picking up right where that one left off, Knox returns here to show off smart and slick debut LP Love, out this month. As leader of the band now — Zeus’ Carlin Nicholson on drums, Golden Dogs’ Jessica Grassia on keys and longtime Knox confederate Aaron Harvey on bass — this is something of a graduation night. (Friday, Drake Underground, doors 8 p.m.) Bleachers There’s no danger of festival coasting with Bleachers, the latest and most personal project of A-list producer Jack Antonoff who with the live lineup gets sturdy support to dress up his sharply emotional, sharperhooked songs soaked in ’80s influences. Standout record Gone Now is still fresh, and ready to be made big live. This is the choice pick on NXNE’s big weekend with their Saturday night set (7:30 p.m. scheduled) — Polaris winner Kaytranada follows in the headliner’s nightcap slot, and better be on his toes. (NXNE Port Lands, 151 Commissioners St., gates 1 p.m.) Her Simon Carpentier and Victor Solf dress like Parisian dandies but it’s a bit of a disguise — they spring from a heartland that’s equal parts their native Brittany and the American soul, blues and hip-hop that informs their mid-Atlantic take on R&B. Theirs is a hybrid hard to resist, and anyone down with the XX at its most minimal and cool would be advised to look in: for example, fat synth-bass, sexy horns, finger snaps and creamy Earth Wind & Fire harmonies make for a storming mix on “Swim,” from their Her Tape #2. In this T.O. debut in the midst of a packed week of festival offerings they’re in danger of being overlooked — uh-oh, cue FOMO. (Wednesday, Velvet Underground, doors 8 p.m.) Shabaka and the Ancestors, and Donny McCaslin Group The jazz festival downtown hits mid-week stride here with a saxophonic double bill of note, including well-worked London-based tenor sax Shabaka Hutchings (Sons of Kemet, Melt Yourself Down, Comet is Coming) and this band he has drawn from Johannesburg’s jazz scene. They’re going down a similar adventuresome Afrofuturist path to that of the Sun Ra Arkestra, another outfit with whom he’s been associated. Couple them with the New York outfit fronted by reed man McCaslin, perhaps best known for collaborating with the late David Bowie on his final record Blackstar — their sumptuous cover of “Warszawa,” from Bowie’s Low record, may well end up on the set list at the former Masonic Temple, a much-welcome rebirth. (Wednesday, Concert Hall, 8 p.m.)