Lots of spooky tunes in Philly music this week. Plus, Halsey, Jon Batiste, Tim McGraw, Thundercat, and more

This week in Philly music Jon Batiste, Gov’t Mule, Of Monsters and Men, and John Legend all play the Met. Halsey does two nights at the Fillmore, Thundercat plays Franklin Music Hall, Tim McGraw and John Fogerty headline a big weekend in Atlantic City, and there are a plethora of spooky live music options on Halloween.

Back in June, Halsey headlined the Freedom Mortgage Pavilion in Camden on her “For My Last Trick” tour. Now the art-pop songwriter born Ashley Nicolette Frangipane, who grew up in Middlesex Country in Central Jersey, is back.

She’s playing Wednesday and Thursday nights at the comparatively intimate Fillmore in Fishtown. She is bringing her “Back to Badlands” tour, which will revisit her 2015 breakthrough album, plus include a career-spanning setlist, with the sometimes electronic-leaning singer performing in full-on rock and roll mode.

When Spinal Tap corralled five bass players to perform “Big Bottom” on Jimmy Kimmel Live last month, one had to be Thundercat, who’s become a psychedelic ambassador for his instrument. The funk, soul, rock, and hip-hop virtuoso’s new single, “Children of the Baked Potato,” features Remi Wolf. He plays Franklin Music Hall on Wednesday.

It’s ‘80s night in South Philly on Wednesday, with “Summer of ’69” Canadian rocker Bryan Adams playing Xfinity Mobile Arena on his “Roll With the Punches” tour, with Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Pat Benatar and her husband, Neil Giraldo, opening.

Nashville artist Cam is typically labeled a country singer, but her new album, All Things Light, is a genre-fluid meditative songwriter’s record, informed by becoming a mother during the pandemic. She’s had her songs covered by Miley Cyrus and cowrote five songs on Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter. She’s at Ardmore Music Hall on Wednesday.

With Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere in theaters and the Electric Nebraska sessions out in the world, there’s a synergistic Springsteen celebration at 48 Record Bar on Wednesday.

The Old City listening room’s monthly Folk City series will feature Jon Houlon and Joey Sweeney — the new Saturday morning host of Sleepy Hollow on WXPN-FM (88.5) — chatting up XPN’s Dave’s World host David Dye, who the Boss specifically referred to in the “A DJ Saved My Life” chapter of his 2016 Born to Run memoir.

And in other Philly region Springsteen news, a photo show called “Greetings From Conshohocken, PA,” is on at Coll’s Custom Framing and Gallery. It focuses on the late photographer and Conshie native Phil Ceccola’s 1970s images of the Boss, and runs through Nov. 6.

Jon Batiste is at his crowd-pleasing best on his new album, Big Money, which features guest appearances by Randy Newman and Andra Day. The latter, along with Diana Silvers, opens Batiste’s show at the Met Philly on Thursday.

Colombia-born, Berlin-based experimental electronic musician Lucretia Dalt brings her captivating and strange A Danger to Ourselves to Johnny Brenda’s on Thursday. Vorhees opens.

Kentucky songwriter S.G. Goodman carries on in the tradition of exemplary Southern storytellers, from Flannery O’Conor to Lucinda Williams, on her Planting by the Signs. She’s at World Cafe Live twice: first on Thursday night, and then again at Free at Noon on Friday.

1990s Philly psychedelic rock and hardcore band Ink & Dagger has reunited and is playing three shows at First Unitarian Church. Openers are Paint It Black on Thursday, Deadguy on Friday, and Soulglo on Saturday.

The Divine Hand Ensemble’s Halloween Extravaganza happens at the Fallser Club in East Falls on Thursday. Mano Divina fronts the band on his theremin, while the eight-member ensemble behind him, including a string quartet, plays “everything from Beethoven to Bowie,” including original compositions like “Aria 51.”

Dracula’s Ball, the storied Halloween party first presented by Dancing Ferret promoter Patrick Rodgers in 1998, goes off at Underground Arts on Friday, with IAMX, the solo project of the Sneaker Pimps’ Chris Corner. And Philly darkwave band Korine and others. Plus, free candy!

At Warehouse on Watts, legendary Philly DJ Josh Wink marks a decade of Hallowink celebrations with a costume party at Warehouse on Watts. Rob Paine and Francisco Collazo also play sets at the Ovum Recordings event on Friday.

Irrepressible impresario Dave P. has a Making Time Pure Halloween party planned with Salome, Entrañas, Tornado Wallace, Elena Colombi, Universal Cave, and an electroclash set by Dave P. himself. It’s happening at a “thrilling transcendental secret location,” to be revealed to Making Timers via text message. Tickets are available via Resident Advisor.

On the not-so-scary Halloween night front, there’s a Lilith Faire tribute at Johnny Brenda’s, featuring over 20 Philly artists performing songs by artists who played on Sarah MacLachlan’s female-forward 1990s music festival. The lineup includes Sadie Dupuis, Black Buttafly, Shannen Moser, Augusta Koch, Frances Quinlan, and Eliza Hardy Jones. It benefits the Trevor Project.

A big-name weekend in Atlantic City features Creedence Clearwater Revival founder John Fogerty at Hard Rock Live at Etess Arena on Friday. Tim McGraw is at that same venue Saturday. John Legend celebrates the 20th anniversary of his Get Lifted debut at Ocean Resort on Saturday, then brings that show to the Met Philly on Nov. 5.

Brooklyn songwriter King Princess plays Union Transfer on Saturday. That same night, the Warren Haynes blues-rock Grateful Dead-adjacent band Gov’t Mule is at the Met. And the Icelandic ensemble with a scary name — Of Monsters and Men — brings its “The Mouse Parade” tour to the Broad Street venue on Tuesday.

VinylCon happens Saturday and Sunday at 23rd Street Armory, with dozens of vendors selling LPs and DJs playing both days. The free Saturday night after-party is at the Trestle Inn, with DJs including Zado and Captain Al Hubbard.

Cécile McLorin Salvant is well-established as one of the leading jazz vocalists of her generation. Those checking her out at the Zellerbach Theatre in West Philly on Sunday might be in for a surprise, though. The Miami-raised French Haitian singer’s new album, Oh Snap, marries her dazzling vocal technique to songs that employ computer-generated sounds and digital loops. It’s not a radical reinvention, but a refreshing reboot.

Also Sunday, Little Simz, the British rapper born Simbiatu Abisola Abiola Ajikawo, who has worked with Michael Kiwanuka and Sault, plays the Fillmore behind her new album, Lotus.