Summer is on its way out, but it\u2019s still pop music high season. <\/p>\n
This week\u2019s Philly concert calendar is busy outdoors and in. Haim, Leon Bridges & Charley Crockett, and Sting & Shaggy<\/a> are all playing the Mann. Rilo Kiley, Al Stewart, Mac DeMarco, the Pogues, Pulp, Sparks, Maxwell, and the Waterboys are among the other enticing stage offerings. <\/p>\n Danielle, Este, and Alana Haim kick off a tour for their fourth album, I quit, at the Mann<\/a> on Thursday, riding high on their snappy single \u201cRelationships.\u201d <\/p>\n The sisters grew up in Los Angeles, but mother Donna was raised in Northeast Philly and Huntington Valley, and the family summered down the Shore in Ventnor, Margate, and Longport. <\/p>\n Last week, the sisters told podcast host Kylie Kelce <\/a>that, thanks to their friend Taylor Swift, they \u201clove all the Kelce teams.\u201d Sadly for them, they won\u2019t get to watch the Eagles, as their show overlaps with Birds\u2019 season opener against the Dallas Cowboys<\/a>. <\/p>\n Thursday is a FOMO night. Along with Haim, Rilo Kiley is playing the Met Philly.<\/a> The Jenny Lewis and Blake Sennett-led California band was an indie rock standout on stellar albums like The Execution Of All Things (2002) and More Adventurous (2004), before Lewis went on to a fruitful solo career. Now the band is back after a 17-year break and arriving here after kicking off a reunion tour in Asbury Park over Labor Day weekend. <\/p>\n Another good reason to record the Eagles game and not watch it live is Mac DeMarco, the bedraggled Canadian indie songwriter who has just followed up his 2023 all-instrumental Five Easy Hot Dogs with the all-grown-up Guitar, his first set of songs with words in seven years. He\u2019s at Franklin Music Hall,<\/a> with Mock Media opening.<\/p>\n Frankie Cosmos \u2014 the stage name of New York indie songwriter Greta Kline \u2014 plays Underground Arts<\/a> on Thursday, with Fantasy of a Broken Heart and Moontype opening. Jade Lilitri\u2019s emo band Oso Oso is at First Unitarian Church<\/a> that night, and sax- and flute- playing bandleader (and Rolling Stones sideman) Karl Denson is at Ardmore Music Hall <\/a>with his band Tiny Universe. And Michael Gira\u2019s experimental rock band Swans is at Union Transfer on Thursday.<\/a><\/p>\n Friday gets going early at Ardmore Music Hall with Paul Muldoon, the Irish poet,<\/a> Princeton professor, and New Yorker poetry editor, who is backed by his band Rogue Oliphant, which features Cait O\u2019Riordan of the Pogues, Warren Zanes of the Del Fuegos, and New Jersey rocker Chris Harford. Should be a cool Free at Noon. <\/a><\/p>\n Sticking to Main Line on Friday, Ron Sexsmith plays Bryn Mawr Twlight Concerts.<\/a> Openers are Philly indie rock chorus the Silver Ages, the Charlie Hall-led troupe of a bunch of dudes, plus Hall\u2019s The War On Drugs bandmate Eliza Hardy Jones. There\u2019s a Hall-Sexsmith connection in that Jason Kelce and Stevie Nicks duetted on Sexsmith\u2019s \u201cMaybe This Christmas\u201d on last year\u2019s Hall-produced<\/a> A Philly Special Christmas Party.<\/p>\n Also in Montgomery County, Al Stewart with celebrate his 80th birthday at the Keswick Theatre<\/a> in Glenside on Friday. The British guitarist whose richly productive folk-rock career stretches all the way back to his 1967 debut, Bedsitter Images, and includes his mid-70s hits \u201cYear of the Cat\u201d and \u201cTime Passages.\u201d This Farewell Tour date with his young band the Empty Pockets will be his last Philly show. Livingston Taylor opens.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Crooner & the Cowboy\u201d is how the tour that pairs retro-leaning R&B singer Leon Bridges and super-prolific country soul singer Charley Crockett is billed. Crockett\u2019s new album Dollar A Day is the second he has released this year. The two Texans will be joined at the Mann<\/a> by Reyna Tropical, the fab Los Angeles duo of Fabi Reyna and Nectali \u201cSumohair\u201d D\u00edaz, who expertly blend Central and South American textures with African rhythm on their 2024 album Malegri.<\/p>\n Also Friday, there\u2019s a terrific double bill at Franklin Music Hall.<\/a> Sierra Ferrell, who won Grammys in all four Americana categories this year with songs from her album American Dreaming, is joined by stylish Nashville songwriter Nikki Lane. <\/p>\n When last seen in Philly, Maxwell was saving the day at the Roots Picnic in June, filling in as a last-minute replacement for D\u2019Angelo<\/a> at the end of a muddy day. He\u2019ll be singing against more comfortable surroundings on Friday at the Borgata Event Center in Atlantic City. <\/a><\/p>\n Saturday is Sting & Shaggy One Fine Day day. The reggae-loving best buddies bring the second iteration of their festival to stages at the Mann<\/a>, with guests O.A.R., Marcia Griffiths, Big Freedia, Chance Emerson, and more.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Sting and Shaggy just need a place to hang out, and here\u2019s why they keep choosing Philly<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n Also Saturday, the Haverford Township Music Festival is headlined by zydeco scion Buckwheat Zydeco Jr. and features Sasha Dobson, folk-rocker Arbouretum, and rockabilly band Dibbs & the Detonators. It\u2019s free<\/a>.<\/p>\n The pile up of cool shows happening at the same time continues early next week. Siblings Ron and Russell Mael of Sparks \u2014 subject of director Edgar Wright\u2019s loving documentary The Sparks Brothers<\/a> \u2014 bring their full-of-surprises art-pop to the Keswick on Monday.<\/a> Their new album is Mad. An EP, appropriately titled Madder, is due in October. <\/p>\n Also Monday, the Pogues are back in action. Shane MacGowan died in 2023, but original members Jams Fearnley, Jem Finer, and Spider Stacy are leading the crew on a tour in which they\u2019ll be joined by guests including Pretenders guitarist James Walbourne, Bad Seeds drummer Jim Sclavunos, and singer Nadine Shah. <\/p>\n It\u2019s a Franklin Music Hall celebration<\/a> of the 40th anniversary of the Elvis Costello-produced classic Rum, Sodomy & the Lash. I would predict Jason Kelce\u2019s showing up to sing \u201cFairytale of Philadelphia,\u201d but he has to work Monday Night Football in Chicago for ESPN that night. <\/p>\n Also on Monday, Omaha, Neb., songwriter Simon Joyner, a big influence on Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes \u2014 plays Kung Fu Necktie in Fishtown.<\/a><\/p>\n And finally, there\u2019s also a Tuesday night quandary. Pulp, the thinking person\u2019s 1990s Brit-pop band fronted by the charismatic Jarvis Cocker, plays the Met Philly<\/a> behind its first album in 24 years, More. <\/p>\n