Calendar of Events | Rickie Lee Jones brings pieces of treasure to Rio

SANTA CRUZ

Rickie Lee Jones brings pieces of treasure to Rio

In her nearly five decades of performing, Rickie Lee Jones has covered nearly every genre there is. Folk, blue-eyed soul, pop, jazz — she has done it all. She also has worked with everyone from Randy Newman to Dr. John to Tori Amos, so she will have a lot of ground to cover when she plays the Rio Theatre Thursday.

Jones immediately made a splash with her 1979 self-titled debut album, which featured the Billboard top 5 single “Chuck E.’s in Love.” A well-publicized relationship with gravelly voiced troubadour Tom Waits also elevated her profile, and she received her first Grammy win for Best New Artist. She achieved that feat again when she won for her collaboration with Dr. John on his cover of “Makin’ Whoopee.” She has continued to put out one acclaimed album after another, culminating in 2023’s “Pieces of Treasure” featuring covers of beloved standards like “On the Sunny Side of the Street” and “Nature Boy.” The album netted Jones her eighth Grammy nomination.

The concert is 8 p.m. Thursday at the Rio, 1205 Soquel Ave. Doors open at 7. Tickets are $38 for general admission and $58 for Gold Circle members. For information, go to RioTheatre.com.

BEAT pays tribute to King Crimson at the Quarry

Any discussion of progressive rock must include King Crimson. The English band’s 1969 debut “In the Court of Crimson King” combined the freeform rock of the ’60s with elements of jazz and symphonic music and laid the groundwork for Yes and Genesis but also played a significant role in the development of heavy metal. Even Ozzy Osbourne had a crack at “21st Century Schizoid Man.”

One way to understand King Crimson’s influence is to see the band BEAT, which includes two former King Crimson members plus two artists who were heavily inspired by them. BEAT will be playing the music of King Crimson at the Quarry Amphitheater at UC Santa Cruz Friday.

This iteration of BEAT consists of Adrian Belew on vocals, Steve Vai on guitar, Tony Levin on bass and Terry Bozzio on drums. Belew and Levin joined King Crimson following the band’s reformation in 1981, with Belew having previously toured as guitarist with Frank Zappa, The Talking Heads and David Bowie, and Levin having worked with Peter Gabriel and John Lennon. Vai, who has worked with everyone from David Lee Roth to Joe Satriani, is considered one of the most virtuosic guitarists of all time. Typically, the band is rounded out by Danny Carey from Tool, but due to his commitments with that band, he will be replaced by Bozzio, who also drummed with Zappa and co-founded the ’80s new wave band Missing Persons. BEAT, formed in 2024, focuses on the albums from King Crimson’s 1981 to 1984 iteration with Belew and Levin, namely “Discipline,” “Beat” and “Three of a Perfect Pair.”

The concert is 8 p.m. Friday at the Quarry Amphitheater, 1156 High St. Doors open at 7. Tickets are $95.18 for general admission and $152.86 for premium viewing. For information, go to QuarryAmphitheater.com.

Take an Acid Bath at the Quarry Amphitheater

Louisiana is well-known for its sludgy bayous, which makes sense that it would be the breeding ground for a genre known as sludge metal. Combining the slow, heavy riffs of metal bands like Black Sabbath with the hardcore punk of bands like Black Flag and Flipper, sludge metal made a big splatter in the early ’90s with bands like Crowbar, Down, Eyehategod and Acid Bath. The latter will be headlining a rather heavy bill at the Quarry Amphitheater at UC Santa Cruz Saturday.

Acid Bath were formed in the city of Houma, south of New Orleans, in 1991 and became a fixture of the burgeoning sludge metal scene, releasing their debut album “When the Kite String Pops” in 1994. This was followed by “Paegan Terrorism Tactics” in 1996, but the death of bassist Audie Pitre in 1997 resulted in the end of the band. The members carried on with other projects, but starting in 2025, three of the original core members — vocalist Dax Riggs and guitarists Sammy Duet and Mike Sanchez — started playing festivals as Acid Bath again, followed by a European tour with Queens of the Stone Age and System of a Down a year later. Shane Wesley, formerly of Crowbar, has taken over as the band’s bassist. Grammy-winning Oakland metal band High on Fire, grunge progenitors The Melvins and Richmond, Virginia, stoner metal band Windhand will open.

The concert is 6:30 p.m. Saturday at the Quarry Amphitheater, 1156 High St. Doors open at 5:30. Tickets range from $95.18 to $164.40. For information, go to QuarryAmphitheater.com.

Bonnie Raitt returns to the Civic

Whenever Bonnie Raitt plays Santa Cruz, it is always something to talk about. The legendary blues guitarist has deep ties to the city, having played the No Nukes benefit concert at San Lorenzo Park in 1995 and returned numerous times over the years, most recently with a 2023 show at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium. She will be returning to the venue Oct. 14, with special guests Jon Cleary & The Absolute Monster Gentlemen.

Since 1971, Raitt has played with legends ranging from John Lee Hooker and B.B. King to John Prine and Jackson Browne. She has also won 13 Grammys, most recently a Song of the Year nod for 2022’s “Just Like That,” and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Guitar Museum in 2017. Joining her Oct. 14 will be New Orleans pianist Cleary and his eight-piece backing band.

The concert is 7:30 p.m. Oct. 14 at the Civic, 307 Church St. For tickets and information, go to TicketMaster.com.

This week’s calendar was compiled by Nick Sestanovich.