Music Picks: R. Kelly, Leonard Cohen, Cat Power

fri 11/2

Grace Potter & the Nocturnals

THE WILTERN

If anyone should be a star, it's Grace Potter. Commercial enough to sing duets with Kenny Chesney, she's also freaky enough to trip out occasionally with folks like Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne and Black Keys' Dan Auerbach, who produced parts of her latest album, The Lion The Beast The Beat. Vermont native Potter plays a mean guitar and pumps out vibrant waves of gospel-style organ while wailing over it all with a passionately fiery and notoriously powerful set of pipes. On top of that, the long, tall, blondish brunette (who already has a dark-chocolate candy bar named after her) is drop-dead gorgeous — not that that should really matter. What does matter is that Potter's onstage intensity and pyrotechnics are well matched by founding drummer Matt Burr, guitarist Benny Yurco and intuitively wild lead guitarist Scott Tournet. On the new record, the Nocturnals move further away from the bluesy classic rock of their early releases into a shinier, sleeker and slightly more experimental pop sound. Although the overall songwriting is inconsistent, Potter still exudes considerable soul and charisma on stronger tracks such as "Turntable," "Loneliest Soul" and "Timekeeper." —Falling James

Ryan Darton

HOTEL CAFE

This is not Chris Martin from Coldplay's solo record. It is Ryan Darton from Kid Theodore's solo record — he just happens to sound disturbingly like Martin. The Los Angeles transplant hasn't just changed his location from his hometown of Salt Lake City; he's also changed his musical ethos. His self-produced debut, I Am a Moth, is about using production as a means of sound creation. This is something Darton shares with Coldplay, as well as that group's strong hold on melody and power choruses. Garden-variety as Darton's singer/songwriter-by-numbers music may be, it nevertheless sounds genuine and heartfelt. Darton ups the intimacy on the quiet and moody "Shadows," while bordering on angry on "Uptight." His contradictory sides come together on the album closer, an unexpected cover of Elvis' "Can't Help Falling in Love," by turns tender and snarling. —Lily Moayeri

R. Kelly

NOKIA THEATRE

Just one year after undergoing emergency throat surgery, music megastar R. Kelly is set to appear at the Nokia for the West Coast leg of his Single Ladies tour. One of the most prolific figures in R&B, the South Side Chicago native captured the national pornographic imagination in 1993 with the release of his erotically imbued (now sextuple platinum) solo debut, Twelve Play. Having penned compositions for such icons as Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston and Luther Vandross, the triple Grammy Award winner is recognized by the RIAA as one of the best-selling artists ever in the United States. His 20-year career, sometimes overshadowed by scandal, is detailed in his newly released autobiography, SoulaCoaster: The Diary of Me. —Jacqueline Michael Whatley

LoveyDove

TAIX

This is a night of very high-grade modernist pop from indie hero Azalia Snail and her L.A. psych/pop partner (both in music and in life) Dan West. Snail is the 20-year-plus veteran who has released more than a dozen albums of radiantly unfashionable and often unclassifiable stuff (hazy psych-folk-rock is about the closest we can get), including this year's gorgeous Celestial Respect. West has done countless sessions and has his own supremely melodic and wonderfully harmonized Sidewalk Society, whose recent Venus, Saturn and the Crescent Moon should be sought out without delay. Aside from being a cute couple, Snail and West make fantastic music together as LoveyDove — making them something like Sonny & Cher, except really good. —John Payne

sat 11/3

Luis and the Wildfires

VIVA CANTINA

Luis and the Wildfires have one stand-up bass and four kick-ass dudes doing rock & roll with rare vigor. Hives compatriot Luis Arriaga is the guy up front tearing his heart out while he sings (and using the guitar strapped to his back more as a battle-ax than an instrument). Their most recent album, Heart Shaped Noose — on home label Wild, of course — matched snarling Them, Tom Waits and Joy Division covers with a Spanish-language reincarnation of "Baby, Please Don't Go" with punked-up smashers like "No More Days" and future classic original "I'm a Man," which begins with the most Arriagarific line ever: "Please forgive me, friends/if I seem strange/I'm still in love." Mandatory for anyone seeking rock, roll and reality. —Chris Ziegler

Dayna Stephens Fundraiser

BLUE WHALE

Embraced by the New York jazz scene, doing gigs with Terence Blanchard, Roy Hargrove, Carlos Santana and Stevie Wonder, saxophonist Dayna Stephens appears to lead a charmed life. However, he has a rare kidney disease that affects just 20 people in a million. His medication costs $4,000 monthly, he requires dialysis daily and he urgently needs a new kidney. But while jazz musicians are famously poor, they're talent-rich, offering their musical gifts in support of this beautiful soul. Tonight's bill features bands from the Los Angeles Jazz Collective, the Thelonious Monk Institute, Blue Whale owner and vocalist Joon Lee and, finally, the guest of honor himself, with guitarist Larry Koonse and pianist-organizer Josh Nelson. Bassist Charlie Haden is noted for imploring improvisers to "play as if your life depended on it." Nothing could be truer for this show. —Gary Fukushima