The 13 best concerts in Philly this week

This week’s highlights include retro soul and indie rock in Fishtown, a three night stand at Union Transfer, a brass band party on South Street, holiday music at the Academy of Music, and a Brit-pop double bill on Broad Street.

“Genres keep us in our boxes,” Bartees Strange sings on Live Forever, his boldly ambitious 2020 debut album. On Farm To Table, the wide ranging and superb 2022 album by the UK-born, Oklahoma-raised, Washington, D.C.-based Black indie-rocker, he continues to refuse to be fenced in, mixing emo guitar, trap production and soaring power balladry as he sees fit. $22, 8 p.m., 11/18, Foundry at the Fillmore, 29 E. Allen St., thefillmorephilly.com.

Lee Fields’ 1970s funk records sounded similar enough to the Godfather of Soul that he was often called “Little J.B.” You can still hear the James Brown on the singer’s new Sentimental Fool, which is out on the DapTone label, but it’s just one tool the retro soul man uses in putting across pleading, emotive ballads like “Extraordinary Man.” Nick Egan opens. $25-$30, 8 p.m., 11/18, Brooklyn Bowl Philadelphia, 1009 Canal St., BrooklynBowl.com/philadelphia

Nashville songwriter Rayland Baxter’s If I Were A Butterfly is an impressionistic, psychedelic song cycle about personal transformation and grief, and features the singer’s late father Bucky Baxter, who played with Steve Earle and Bob Dylan. Baxter is doing a Free at Noon at Ardmore Music Hall, and then playing the club again that night with DB Edmunds and Barney Cortez. Free, noon, 11/18, xpn.org, $22, 8 p.m., 11/18, 23 East Lancaster Ave., Ardmore, ardmoremusichall.com

Alex G is playing not one but three shows at Union Transfer. The indie, always slightly askew Havertown-raised songwriter, born Alex Giannascoli, is on the road behind God Save The Animals, perhaps the most confident, direct and approachable of his nine studio albums. He also released his score for the movie We’re All Going to The World’s Fair this year. Hatchie and Aldo Fisk open Friday, Sadurn and Toby Leaman (of Dr. Dog) play Saturday and Binki is on Sunday. Sold out, but tickets are available on secondary sites. 8 p.m., 11/18-11/20, Union Transfer, 1026 Spring Garden St., utphilly.com.

Philly house music heroine Lady Alma’s career stretches back to the 1990s, when she collaborated with dance music makers Masters at Work and 4Hero, as well as DJ-producer King Britt. Her career got an unexpected boost in 2018 when a video of a fan in Johannesburg, South Africa dancing to her track “Let It Fall” got 20 million views on Facebook. Her Gimme That Music show pairs her with jazz-funk band Vertical Current. $22-$34, 8 p.m., 11/19, Music Hall at World Cafe Live, 3025 Walnut St., worldcafelive.com.

North Jersey’s finest 1980s-born jangly and jittery indie rock guitar heroes make their way down the Garden State Parkway for this by-the-boardwalk show in Atlantic City. The band took 20 years off after the 1991 Time For A Feeling, but have carried on in the last decade, with the mellower In Between, that came out in 2017. $22, 8 p.m., Anchor Rock Club, 247 S. New York Aver.,m Atlantic City, anchorrockclub.com.

The brass-heavy Philly party band that got its start busking in Rittenhouse Square still loves the great outdoors, but since the release of their LP Sounds From The Street: Live!, the septet are becoming more of an onstage band. “The Hungriest Band In the Land” are playing with Johnny Showcase and the Mystic Ticket and Thr3zus. $10-$45, 8 p.m., 11/18, Theatre of Living Arts, 332 South St., tlaphilly.com

The New Orleans singer, actor and pianist —who studied under the great James Booker as a child in the Crescent City — is on a holiday music tour, which kicks off in Hershey on Friday before coming to the Academy of Music on Saturday. Connick, who’s released multiple holiday albums, will sing Christmas standards, plus originals like “(It Must Have Been Ol’) Santa Claus” and “When My Heart Finds Christmas.” $69-$159, 8 p.m., 11/19, 240 S. Broad St., kimmelculturalcampus.org.

The 10-piece San Francisco bay area band that’s is stillled by founding members Emilio Castillo and Stephen “Doc” Kopka. The band, who had hits like “So Very Hard To Go” and “What Is Hip?” in the 1970s, can still summon a righteous brass sound in live performance. In 2020, the band released its 22nd album, Step Up. $49-$79, 8 p.m., 11/19, Scottish Rite Auditorium, 315 White Horse Pike, Collingswood, scottishriteauditorium.com.

New York’s Godcaster is headlining this showcase of acts on the Philly indie label Ramp Local. The psychedelic noise rock band, known for the intensity of their live shows, has just released “Diamond’s Shining Face,” an assaultive new single from a due-in-2023 album that singer Judson Kolk says was partly inspired by Western novelist Zane Grey. Tomato Flower, Turbo World, and Kolb are on the bill. $13, 7 p.m., 11/19, Johnny Brenda’s, 1201 N. Frankford Ave., JohnnyBrendas.com

A double bill of Brit-pop acts that were part of the 1990′s Cool Britannia movement. Brett Anderson’s Suede impressed with early glammy albums like Suede and Dog Man Star, and the band was forced to call itself London Suede in the U.S. for legal reasons. The Manics had a deeper connection to punk forebears like The Clash on records like their 1992 debut Generation Terrorists. Both have new music, with the Manics’ 2021 The Ultravivid Lament and Suede’s Autofiction this year. $45-$129, 8 p.m., 11/19, The Met Philly, 858 N. Broad St., themetphilly.com.

“It’s hard to rock soft” is the motto of Mellow Fever, the band of top flight Philly musicians like guitarist Cliff Hillis and drummer Fred Berman fronted by WXPN-FM drive time deejay Dan Reed. They specialize in blissed out sunshiney hits of the 1970s by soft rock heavy hitters like America and Seals & Croft. $10, 6:45 p.m., 11/20, 118 North, 118 North Wayne Ave., Wayne, 118NorthWayne.com

This show featuring three Philly-connected songwriters — and many other guests — is a benefit for longtime Philly music scene fixture Derek Dorsey, who has been diagnosed with a rare neurological disease, and his foundation We Live On, which creates community spaces for people with rare illnesses to interact. $25, 7 p.m., 11/22, Ardmore Music Hall, 23 East Lancaster Ave., Ardmore, ardmoremusichall.com.