The 10 Best Concerts in St. Louis This Weekend: September 22 to 24

Who said summer was the only festival season? This weekend alone offers Funk Fest 12, the 2017 Blues & Brews Festival and the St. Louis Ska Festival just to name a few. In addition, several benefit events have cropped up in response to the recent hurricanes as well as the not guilty verdict of Jason Stockley.

The next three days bring so many reasons to leave the house and hit the streets. Here's a handy guide to help you navigate the sounds of your city.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22

Missy Raines & The New Hip
8 p.m. The Stage at KDHX, 3524 Washington Avenue. $15. 314-925-7543.
Even at 55 years young, Missy Raines might as well receive a lifetime achievement award to go alongside the seven separate occasions that she was named Bass Player of the Year by the IBMA (International Bluegrass Music Awards). Accolades aside, Raines and the New Hip achieve a fleeting kind of harmony between rock and bluegrass, owing its distinctive rip to both world-class musicianship and the drive to push the volume just a notch above contemporary country.

South Broadway Rhythm & Blues, Soul, and Funk Fest w/ Hip Grease, Spaceship, The Provels, Love Jones
8:30 p.m. BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 South Broadway. $12. 314-436-5222.
With a cross-section of bands who work South Broadway and Grove venues such as Atomic Cowboy and the Ready Room, this 12th iteration of the Funk Fest expands to a bar crawl as 24 acts play across three venues on both Friday and Saturday. This show also doubles as a release party for Hip Grease who, along with the Service, will drop a new album produced through Dogtown Records this weekend. Those with gas still in the tank on Saturday can check out shows at BB's, Broadway Oyster Bar and the Beale on Broadway — all for the price of one $12 wristband.

Weyes Blood
8 p.m. Peabody Opera House, 1400 Market Street. $36.50-$42. 314-241-1888.
By Howard Hardee
From Weyes Blood's Grand Chamber Pop Was Inspired by Church, Smurfs and a Breakup:
The 29-year-old songwriter and multi-instrumentalist — better known by her stage name, Weyes Blood — spoke with the Riverfront Times ahead of her September 22 show at the Peabody Opera House with Father John Misty. She explains that her exposure to church music started young. Her parents are hippies who got swept up in the Born Again Christian movement in the 1970s, and her childhood home in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, was loving, cultured and musical. Since she was gifted with an otherworldly, rafter-raising singing voice, her parents encouraged her to join choir.

Yerrty G w/ P.R.E.A.C.H., Yadi, Eric Donté, Teacup Dragun, Hittamane, Mel, Dj Kimmy Nu
8 p.m. The Firebird, 2706 Olive Street. $10. 314-535-0353.
The S.L.U.M. Fest award-winning DJ Kimmy Nu rounds out forceful local hip-hop that skews to the stranger side of the scene. Not that any of these acts are too obscure or obscene, and the quality on-hand is on par with the quantity with a low ticket price of nearly one dollar per performer.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 23

2017 Blues & Brews Festival w/ Jeremiah Johnson, Big George Brock, Soulard Blues Band, Piano Dan and The Soul City Shakers
3 p.m. Liberty Fields, 101-199 E Pacific Street. Pacific, MO. $20-$25. 314-974-7446.
By Roy Kasten
From Jeremiah Johnson Is One of This Year's STL 77:
If Jeremiah Johnson’s music were any greasier he could retire and open a one-stop soul food and oil change joint. The fully electrified blues and Southern rock of last year’s Blues Heart Attack belongs in the collection of any fan of contemporary guitar-slingers, though Johnson also has a killer way with honky-tonk shuffles and boogie woogie grooves, not to mention New Orleans-flavored dance-floor starters like “Everybody Party.” Yet for all the hot guitar work, in-the-pocket rhythms, and slinky organ and horn charts, it’s Johnson’s voice that makes him such a compelling performer and recording artist. His twang is lived, just like his blues, and he never sounds less than convincing.

CaveofswordS w/ Golden Curls, Made Up, Us Today
8 p.m. El Lenador, 3124 Cherokee Street. $7-$10. 314-771-2222.
By Mike Appelstein
From CaveofswordS Is One of This Year's STL 77:
CaveofswordS is a synthesizer-based group with a warm beating heart at its center. Led by vocalist Sunyatta McDermott, the band harkens back to the days when Wasp synths and LinnDrum machines were new, futuristic pleasure items, but it subverts those electronic sounds to its own ends. On Sigils, its most recent album, CaveofswordS alternates between upbeat, dubstep-influenced tracks such as “Aviation Administration” and “Lately,” and the darker, more dystopian approach of “Lately” and “Cruel Harvest.” Combined with McDermott’s floating, double-tracked vocals, the result is a spotless mix of engaging songcraft and atmospheric, retro-futurist production. It also makes for a powerful live set.

Pay Together For The Kids Benefit Show w/ Ben Diesel, The Stars Go Out, LS Xprss, Tracing Wires, The Holy Hand Grenades, Vince Puzzo
8 p.m. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Avenue. $10. 314-352-5226.
Even with Ronald McDonald House Charities as the beneficiary, this south side punk show still sports a set of bands with an incendiary party vibe, ranging from Ben Diesel's pop-leaning riffs to Holy Hand Grenades' heady ska. With Tracing Wires and L.S. Xprss in tow, this is a Heavy Anchor Saturday night times ten with all proceeds going to an objectively good cause.

P.O.S. w/ B L A C K I E, Steddy P & DJ Mahf, IndyGround
9 p.m. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Boulevard. $15-$18. 314-727-4444.
As the founding member of the Doomtree collective, Stefon Alexander (stage name P.O.S.) attacks the mic with a certain kind of a ferocity, and that might be because he cut his teeth fronting punk bands in the late nineties. The Minneapolis native has made major moves with his convention-defying label, which welcomes a set of acts that share one common quality — a distinctive voice. Tourmate B L A C K I E gives fans of the controversial Death Grips something to chew on with guttural rap delivered via bullet train. Expect the IndyGround crew to come out in spades in solidarity with this outsider hip-hop show.

St. Louis Ska Festival 2017 w/ The Skatalites, Murder City Players, DJ Knucksie, Brick City Sound System & The Soul Selector Incarnate
6 p.m. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Avenue. $20-$25. 314-498-6989.
With the grunge and indie rock revivals having made their rounds, the next order of nineties nostalgia is ska, and this show delivers with a few of St. Louis' most stalwart skankers.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 24

Hurricane for Help w/ Eric Donté, Bates, Nikee Turbo, ICE, Hello JiZoo, DJ HoodBunnny, nebulosa, Captured Planet, Angel of Deth
7 p.m. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Avenue. $5. 314-833-3929.
Between the Fadda Vampire himself Eric Donté and the FemFest founder Bates, this show offers a few of St. Louis most subversive yet prolific rappers in solidarity with those recovering from Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. Of special note on this show is nebulosa, the solo endeavor of Julio Prato of defunct garage group Kenshiro's who now makes buoyant and busy synth songs that border on krautrock.