Mitski: After opening for Lorde in many other cities earlier this year, Japan-born, New York-based, Internet-buoyed singer/songwriter Mitski Miyawaki is enjoying her own bit of breakout fame around her fourth album, "Be the Cowboy." Songs like the disco-y, piano-bouncy single "Nobody" riff on youthful loneliness and modern feminism via poetic vignettes and artful music-genre mash-ups that suggests she'd actually make the perfect opener for St. Vincent or her pal David Byrne. NYC electro-pop duo Overcoats are her openers. (9 p.m. Fri., First Avenue, 701 1st Av. N., Mpls., sold out.)
Gaelynn Lea: Duluth's beloved singer. violinist, teacher and disabled-persons advocate makes good on the buzz from her 2016 win in NPR's Tiny Desk Contest with an elegant and deeply inspired new album, "Learning How to Stay." MVPs Alan Sparhawk, Al Church, Martin Dosh and more helped flesh out her lush, folky songs like "I See It Too" and her signature "Someday We'll Linger in the Sun." It's not all sunshine, but it's a very very warm record. Mary Bue opens the release party. (10:30 p.m. Fri., Icehouse, Mpls., $10-$15; also 7 p.m. Fri., in-store at Electric Fetus.)
Hailu Mergia: At 71, this jazzy accordion maestro survived civil war in his native Ethiopia to become a touring cultural ambassador. He lands here in partnership with Walker Art Center fresh off releasing an acclaimed, coolly chill and slow-funky new album, "Lala Belu." Local Ethiopian troupe Yonathan's Cultural Show opens. (8 p.m. Fri., Cedar Cultural Center, $20-$25.)
Brothers Osborne: No bro country for these brothers from Maryland. John Osborne has abundant guitar chops, and T.J. Osborne has an authentic voice as evidenced on the Nashville hits "Stay a Little Longer" and "It Ain't My Fault." (8 p.m. Fri. the Palace, sold out)
Lake Monster Bash: St. Paul's adventurous brewery dared to book an outdoor bash this late in the season timed to Halloween, and the lineup probably seems scary-good for many 89.3 the Current listeners. Elegant Americana rockers Field Report headline top it off with another Wisconsin band, acoustic strummers Dead Horses. Local favorites the Pines, Solid Gold and Al Church also perform. (Noon-9 p.m. Sat., Lake Monster Brewery, 550 Vandalia St., $20.)
ELnO: This week's announcement of an Xcel Center date by Jeff Lynne's E.L.O. next summer has added a little strange magic to our local Lynne-loving tribute band's already strangely entertaining annual Halloween bash. (9 p.m. Sat., Lee's Liquor Lounge, $12-$15.)
Elaine Dame: This Chicago jazz vocalist considers the Twin Cities her home away from home because her parents have lived here since 2000. With her alluring voice and wide repertoire, she entertains with joy and authority. She'll be accompanied by Twin Cities keyboardist Adi Yeshaya and bassist Graydon Peterson. (6 p.m. Sat. Dunsmore Room at Crooners, $15.)
Edie Brickell & New Bohemians: While the sunshine-voiced Brickell has issued solo albums and toured with her husband Paul Simon's good pal Steve Martin over the past 25 years, she hasn't been to town with her original Dallas-based band since the mid-1990s. Together, they landed on MTV and modern-rock radio with the hippie-happy hits "What I Am," "Circle" and "Little Miss S." in the late-'80s but then called it quits when things got angsty in the '90s. They're back playing jangly, daydreaming jams on their first album in 12 years, "Rocket," and performing "evening with" shows on tour; no opener. (8:30 p.m. Sat., First Avenue, $30-$35, first-avenue.com.)
Tank & the Bangas, Big Freedia: Proof that New Orleans is still wonderfully weird and wildly inventive, Tarriona "Tank" Ball's kaleidoscopic acid-funk/hip-hop band was an oddball highlight in last year's Minnesota State Fair free-stage lineup, while their hometown bounce queen and reality-TV star Big Freedia has been igniting dance parties here in town for many years. (8 p.m. Sun., First Avenue, $25.)
Loudon Wainwright III: The star of a new Christopher Guest-directed TV special debuting next month on Netflix, the venerable folk hero happens to be coming to town on Halloween this time around. As if he wasn't usually offbeat enough. (7:30 p.m. Wed., Cedar Cultural Center, $25.)
Carl Palmer's ELP Legacy: The only surviving member of prog-rock standard-bearers Emerson, Lake & Palmer, the drummer revisits ELP's material in an instrumental power trio format, with a guitarist instead of a keyboardist. (7 p.m. Tue. Dakota, $40-$50.)
Kamasi Washington: For the moderate to uninitiated jazz fans who were blown away by Kamasi Washington's set this past June at Rock the Garden, the Los Angeles saxophonist and his virtuosic, one-drummer-won't-cut-it band were just getting started. The jazz revivalist and revisionary first came to light on Kendrick Lamar's "To Pimp a Butterfly," then issued his own ultra-ambitious discs, 2015's "The Epic" and the recent "Heaven and Earth." He is bound to play twice the show, and maybe more, as his crew settles into its first local theater gig with young Virginia throwback funk band Butcher Brown opening. (8 p.m. Thu., Palace Theatre, 17 W. 7th Place, St. Paul, $30-$50, eTix.com.)
Mountain Man: After her synth-pop band Sylvan Esso wrapped up its most fruitful touring cycle yet, singer Amelia Meath is back out with the cult-loved folk vocal trio that emerged out of Vermont's Bennington College, also featuring Twin Cities native Alexandra Sauser-Monnig and Molly Sarlé. Their new Nonesuch album, "Magic Ship," picks off where they left off. (7:30 p.m. Thu., Cedar Cultural Center, sold out.)
Tedeschi Trucks Band: After assuming the Allman Brothers' old annual October residency at New York's Beacon Theatre, this husband-and-wife band is hitting the road. Derek Trucks brings sublime and soaring guitars, and Susan Tedeschi delivers potent bluesy vocals and choice guitar passages of her own. Minneapolis-reared vocalist Mike Mattison is also featured on a number or two. With two nights, expect different set lists from this tremendous blues-rock group with its jazzy jam-band sensibilities. (8 p.m. Thu.-next Fri. Orpheum, $39.50-$89.50)
