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Chaka Khan plays the Koger Center on Friday.
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Bad Suns, Coasts, Maudlin Strangers — Hearkening to postmodern pop-rockers like Phoenix and Franz Ferdinand, Bad Suns’ music is bouncy, danceable and busy — the sound of an excited young band staking out its musical world. Coasts’ “Rush of Blood” directly references Coldplay’s, ahem, Rush of Blood to the Head; to wit, they indulge in starry-eyed, arms-wide-open indie rock that’s not all that far removed from those British stadium conquerors. Maudlin Strangers open. — Corbie Hill
Music Farm Columbia: 9 p.m., $12 ($10 advance); 471-2779, musicfarm.com
Friday 20
Blind Boys of Alabama — Since the mid-’40s, the Blind Boys of Alabama have steadily cranked out soulful gospel tunes that would move even the most ardent atheist. They recently collaborated with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon for their 2013 LP I’ll Find a Way, but they boast a gravitas that transcends any indie rock crossover. They’re a bona fide American cultural institution, and they won’t be around forever. — Allison Hussey
Sumter Opera House: 7:30 p.m., $28-$35; 436-2500, sumtersc.gov/sumter-opera-house.aspx
Beauty Slap — Call it two turntables and a bass trombone: Pittsburgh’s Beauty Slap bridges ivory-tower music school pedagogy and new-school laptop tweaking techniques to create some seriously funky vibes. The C Street Brass quintet — which plays its own free show Tuesday at USC’s Johnson Performance Hall — bays a bold big-band brass sound, which is then mixed and manipulated by Ableton wizard Jake Berntsen into sweltering EDM. — Patrick Wall
Conundrum Music Hall: 10 p.m., $15 ($12 advance); 250-1295, conundrum.us
Chaka Khan — Chaka Khan is the featured artist at this year’s Legends of ... Concert & Silent Auction, a fundraiser for the Auntie Karen Foundation. With 10 Grammys to her name, Khan first became a star in the ’70s with the funky R&B act Rufus. She struck out on her own in the ’80s, delivering enduring hits such as “Ain’t Nobody” and “I Feel For You.” Khan’s first love was jazz, an affection she nurtured as her career matured, alternating between stately dips into the Great American Songbook and her more famous R&B stylings. And recent collaborations with Mary J. Blige and LeCrae show that Khan isn’t resigned to the nostalgia circuit. — Kevin Oliver
Koger Center: 8 p.m., $56-$101; 251-2222; auntiekaren.org
Saturday 21
William Starr Busbee
William Starr Busbee — The opening song on College Rock II — local musician William Starr Busbee’s simultaneous send-up and celebration of the kitschy fare that dominates modern indie pop — is called “Chaos Convention.” Its restless lo-fi pulse, breezy harmonies and oddball guitar scuzz set the table for a collection that jumbles college radio hallmarks with irreverent glee. Its title would also serve as an apt tag for tonight’s release party, hosted at Busbee’s house and featuring him and 11 other acts that attack pop and rock from their own odd angles. Let’s get weird. — Jordan Lawrence
1415 Woodrow Street: 9 p.m., free; forkandspoonrecords.net
Congaree Nomads — What, exactly, is music? One classic definition comes from Edgar Varese, who called it “organized sound.” California composer Michael Pisaro and local experimental percussionist Greg Stuart have tested the limits of this definition for about a decade, fusing disparate sounds — nature noises, rice grains hitting cymbals — into blissfully amorphous compositions. Tonight, view Congaree Nomads, recorded at Congaree National Park by Pisaro, Stuart and digital media artist Nathan Halvorson; the the 72-minute film combines video and field recordings with a large-scale instrumental score. — Dan Cook
Conundrum Music Hall: 8 p.m.; free; 250-1295; conundrum.us
Ghosts of the Kodiak — Ghosts of the Kodiak hearken to A Perfect Circle, but in a good way. The music’s churning and mathematical, like an impatient Red Sparowes, while the insistent, super-serious vocals definitely owe at least a debt to Maynard James Keenan. But where A Perfect Circle was pompous and over-philosophical, Ghosts of the Kodiak seem down-to-earth and human, if a bit somber. Still, they’d appeal nicely to Neurot Records adherents — or those still trying to wean themselves from Tool. Knox Hamilton headlines. — Corbie Hill
New Brookland Tavern: 7 p.m., $10; 791-4413;
courtesy(FREETIMES)
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